Academic and GeneralReadingWord下载.docx

1、s independent mobility. Children have lost much of their freedom to explore their own neighbourhood or city without adult supervision. In recent surveys, when parents in some cities were asked about their own childhood experiences, the majority remembered having more, or far more, opportunities for

2、going out on their own, compared with their own children today. They had more freedom to explore their own environment. 2. Childrens independent access to their local streets may be important for their own personal, mental and psychological development. Allowing them to get to know their own neighbo

3、urhood and community gives them a sense of place. This depends on active exploration, which is not provided for when children are passengers in cars. （Such children may see more, but they learn less.） Not only is it important that children be able to get to local play areas by themselves, but walkin

4、g and cycling journeys to school and to other destinations provide genuine play activities in themselves. 3. There are very significant time and money costs for parents associated with transporting their children to school, sport and to other locations. Research in the United Kingdom estimated that

5、this cost, in 1990, was between 10 billion and 20 billion pounds. 4. The reduction in childrens freedom may also contribute to a weakening of the sense of local community. As fewer children and adults use the streets as pedestrians, these streets become less sociable places. There is less opportunit

6、y for children and adults to have the spontaneous of community. This in itself may exacerbate fears associated with assault and molestation of children, because there are fewer adults available who know their neighbours children, and who can look out for their safety. 5. The extra traffic involved i

7、n transporting children results in increased traffic congestion, pollution and accident risk. As our roads become more dangerous, more parents drive their children to more places, thus contributing to increased levels of danger for the remaining pedestrians. Anyone who has experienced either the red

8、uced volume of traffic in peak hour during school holidays, or the traffic jams near schools at the end of a school day, will not need convincing about these points. Thus, there are also important environmental implications of childrens loss of freedom. 6. As individuals, parents strive to provide t

9、he best upbringing they can for their children. However, in doing so, （e.g. by driving their children to sport, school or recreation） parents may be contributing to a more dangerous environment for children generally. The idea that streets are for cars and back yards and playgrounds are for children

10、 is a strongly held belief, and parents have little choice as individuals but to keep their children off the streets if they want to protect their safety. 7. In many parts of Dutch cities, and some traffic calmed precincts in Germany, residential streets are now places where cars must give way to pe

11、destrians. In these areas, residents are accepting the view that the function of streets is not solely to provide mobility for cars. Streets may also be for social interaction, walking, cycling and playing. One of the most important aspects of these European cities, in terms of giving cities back to

12、 children, has been a range of traffic calming initiatives, aimed at reducing the volume and speed of traffic. These initiatives have had complex interactive effects, leading to a sense that children have been able to recapture their local neighbourhood, and more importantly, that they have been abl

13、e to do this in safety. Recent research has demonstrated that children in many German cities have significantly higher levels of freedom to travel to places in their own neighbourhood or city than children in other cities in the world. 8. Modifying cities in order to enhance childrens freedom will n

14、ot only benefit children. Such cities will become more environmentally sustainable, as well as more sociable and more livable for all city residents. Perhaps it will be our concern for our childrens welfare that convinces us that we need to challenge the dominance of the car in our cities. Questions

15、 1-5 Read statements 1-5 which relate to Paragraphs 1,2, and 3 of the reading passage. Answer if the statement is true, F if the statement is false, or NI if there is no information given in the passage. Write your answers in the spaces numbered 1-5 on the answer sheet. One has been done for you as

16、an example. Example: The private car has made people more mobile. Answer: 1. The private car has helped children have more opportunities to learn. 2. Children are more independent today than they used to be. 3. Walking and cycling to school allows children to learn more. 4. Children usually walk or

17、cycle to school. 5. Parents save time and money by driving children to school. Questions 6-9 In Paragraphs 4 and 5, there are FOUR problems stated. These problems, numbered as questions 6-9, are listed below. Each of these problems has a cause, listed A-G. Find the correct cause for each of the prob

18、lems and write the corresponding letter A-G, in the spaces numbered 6-9 on the answer sheet. One has been done for you as an example. There are more causes than problems so you will not use all of them and you may use any cause more than once. Problems low sense of community feeling 6. streets becom

19、e less sociable7. fewer chances for meeting friends 8. fears of danger for children 9. higher accident riskCauses Answer: F A few adults know local children fewer people use the streets increased pollution D streets are less friendly E less traffic in school holidays F reduced freedom for children G

20、 more children driven to schoolQuestions 10-14Questions 10-14 are statement beginnings which represent information given in Paragraphs 6, 7 and 8. In the box below, there are some statement endings numbered i-x. Choose the correct ending for each statement. Write your answers i-x, in the spaces numb

21、ered 10-14 on the answer sheet. One has been done for you as an example. There are more statement endings than you will need. By driving their children to school, parents help create Answer: i 10. Children should play . 11. In some German towns, pedestrians have right of way 12. Streets should also

22、be used for . 13. Reducing the amount of traffic and the speed is . 14. All people who live in the city will benefit if cities are . List of statement endings i . a dangerous environment. ii . modified. iii . on residential streets. iv . modifying cities. v . neighbourhoods. vi . socialising. vii .

23、in backyards. viii . for cars. ix . traffic calming. x . residentialQuestions 15-28 READING PASSAGE 2 RISING SEAParagraph 1. INCREASED TEMPERATURES The average air temperature at the surface of the earth has risen this century, as has the temperature of ocean surface waters. Because water expands as

24、 it heats, a warmer ocean means higher sea levels. We cannot say definitely that the temperature rises are due to the greenhouse effect; the heating may be part of a natural variability over a long time-scale that we have not yet recognized in our short 100 years of recording. However, assuming the

25、build up of greenhouse gases is responsible, and that the warming will continue, scientists and inhabitants of low-lying coastal areas would like to know the extent of future sea level rises. Paragraph 2. Calculating this is not easy. Models used for the purpose have treated the ocean as passive, st

26、ationary and one-dimensional. Scientists have assumed that heat simply diffused into the sea from the atmosphere. Using basic physical laws, they then predict how much a known volume of water would expand for a given increase in temperature. But the oceans are not one-dimensional, and recent work by

27、 oceanographers, using a new model which takes into account a number of subtle facets of the sea including vast and complex ocean currents suggests that the rise in sea level may be less than some earlier estimates had predicted. Paragraph 3. An international forum on climate change, in 1986, produc

28、ed figures for likely sea-level rises of 20 cms and 1.4 m, corresponding to atmospheric temperature increases of 1.5 and 4.5C respectively. Some scientists estimate that the ocean warming resulting from those temperature increases by the year 2050 would raise the sea level by between 10 cms and 40 c

29、ms. This model only takes into account the temperature effect on the oceans; it does not consider changes in sea level brought about by the melting of ice sheets and glaciers, and changes in groundwater storage. When we add on estimates of these, we arrive at figures for total sea-level rises of 15

30、cm and 70 cm respectively. Paragraph 4. Its not easy trying to model accurately the enormous complexities of the ever-changing oceans, with their great volume, massive currents and sensitively to the influence of land masses and the atmosphere. For example, consider how heat enters the ocean. Does it just diffuse from the warmer air vertically into the water, and heat only the surface layer of the sea? （Warm water is less dense than cold, so it would not spread downwards）. Conventional models of sea-level rise have consider