Despite the high technology and investment(投资)in flood defenses by the Environment Agency.(环保局)，there is no way to stop all flooding-sooner or later nature will produce something that will beat even the strongest defenses.
Warning people of this danger is very important if we are to prevent the great loss of life seen fifty-three years ago. Indeed if the Flood Warning system that currently exists had been around on that cold, stormy night in January 1953 ,many lives would have been spared.
The Environment Agency took over the role of flood warning in 1995 from the police who had to go door to door or sound alarms to get the news not. The service is being constantly improved and a combination of better technology and increased investment following the Easter Floods of 1998 has led to the creation of Floodline and an automatic (自动)messaging system that can warn thousands of people in very little time.
The Flood Warning team in Kent has also sent letters to the people living close to the rivers or the sea and invited them to join the AVM (automated voice messaging) system. Anyone choosing to take up this free service will receive a recorded message directly to their home, business or pager telling them of the level of warming, giving them as much time as possible to carry out their flood plan and save items that cannot be replaced if lost or daraged, such as photographs or children’s favorite toys.
1.Choose the correct statements from the following according to the passage.
a. Many people lost their lives in the flood in 1953.
b. The Flood Warning system was already in use in 1953.
c. Flood defenses can stop all flooding.
d. The Environment Agency began to warn people of flood in 1995.
e. Floodline was created after the Easter Floods of 1998.
A. a, b, c B. b, c, d C. a, c, c D. a, d, e
2.What does the underlined word “pager” mean in the passage?
A. A boy employed to carry luggage in hotels.
B. A piece of equipment designed to receive and show messages.
C. A page of papers written to offer messages.
D. A person invited to write pages of messages.
3. People can easily get information and advice about flood any time of the day from______.
A. automatic messaging system B. Floodline 0845 988 1188
C. the Flood Warning team in Kent D. automated voice messaging system
4.The best title for this passage may probably be_______.
A. Environment Agency B. Technology In Flood Defenses
C. Flood Warning System D. Easter Floods
Members of the working class have blue-collar jobs. They are construction workers, truck drivers, mechanics, steel workers, electricians, and the like. What makes this class differ from the lower class is, first, longer periods of employment--and therefore, more fixed incomes—and, second, employment in skilled or semiskilled (半熟练的 ) occupations, not unskilled ones. Although unemployment hits all levels of the American economy, including those of skilled and semi-skilled workers, it is most common at the bottom of the class structure and increasingly less common at each level upward. They consider themselves to be respectable and hard working and they look down upon members of the "lower" class, whom they often consider to be lazy, dishonest, and too ready to exploit public assistance.
Most people in the working class have at least high school education. Many have some experience of college ( especially community college), though few are college graduates. Unionization has helped the working class, but a rapidly changing economy and frequent periods of high unemployment make it difficult for most of its members to be able to increase their savings greatly. Purchasing a house for people in this class is extremely difficult, although a certain percentage may receive houses from their parents.(Home-owning rises with social class.)
A greater number of the members of the working class take relatively little satisfaction in their jobs, because much of their work is ordinary and boring. As a result, many seek their main satisfaction in recreational ( 娱乐的) activities. Many members of this class would like to earn enough money to leave their jobs and start their own businesses, though few make it. Many place their expectations on their children, hoping that they at least will rise in the ladder of success, American style.
5. Which of the following is true about the working class.?
A. They are often employed as skilled and semi-skilled workers.
B. They are often offered jobs with high incomes.
C. They are often considered lazy and dishonest.
D. They are often exploited by the public.
6. The underlined word “hit” (paragraph 1 ) roughly means .
A. strike with a blow
B. have bad effects on
C. break up
7. Most people in the working class .
A. have difficulty increasing their savings greatly
B. have at least some experience of college
C. receive houses from their parents
D. buy houses by themselves
8. Many members from the working class are not satisfied with their jobs because .
A. they could not rise in the ladder of success
B. they are not interested in their jobs
C. they could not earn much money
D. they are not their own bosses
How many people have I met who have told me about the book they have been planning to write but have never yet found the time7 Far too many.
This is Life, all right, but we do treat it like a rehearsal (排演) and, unhappily, we do miss so many of its best moments.
We take jobs to stay alive and provide homes for our families always making ourselves believe that this style of life is merely a temporary state of affairs along the road to what we really want to do. Then, at 60 or 65, we are suddenly presented with a clock and several grandchildren and we look back and realize that all those years waiting for Real Life to come along were in fact real life.
In America they have a saying much laughed at by the English：“Have a nice day” they speak slowly and seriously in their shops, hotels and sandwich bars. I think it is a wonderful phrase, reminding us, in effect, to enjoy the moment: to value this very day.
How often do we say to ourselves, "I'll take up horse-riding (or golf, or sailing) as soon as I get a higher position," only to do none of those things when I do get the higher position.
When I first became a reporter I knew a man who gave up a very well paid respectable job at the Daily Telegraph to go and edit a small weekly newspaper. At the time I was astonished by what appeared to me to be his completely abnormal (反常的) mental state. How could anyone turn his back on Fleet Street in central London for a small local area?I wanted to know.
Now I am a little older and possibly wiser, I see the sense in it. In Fleet Street the man was under continual pressure. He lived in an unattractive London suburb and he spent much of his life sitting on Southern Region trains.
9. The first paragraph of the passage tells us that .
A. we always try to find some time to write a book
B. we always make plans but seldom fulfil them
C. we always enjoy many of life's best moments
D. we always do what we really want to do
10. The underlined phrase "turn his back on" (paragraph 6) most probably means .
A. leave for
B. return to
C. give up
D. rely on
11. The man ( paragraph 6) left his first job partly because he was .
A. in an abnormal mental state
B. under too much pressure
C. not well paid
D. not respected
12. What is probably the best title for the passage?
A. Provide Homes For Our Family
B. Take Up Horse-riding
C. Value This Very Day
D. Stay Alive
答案
1-4 D .B .B .C
5-8 A .B .A .B
9-12 B .C .B .C