Question

Boiler rooms are often dirty and steamy, but this one is clean and cool. Fox Point is a very new 47-unit living building in South Bronx, one of the city’s poorest areas. Two-thirds of the people living there are formerly homeless people, whose rent is paid by the government. The rest are low-income families. The boiler room has special equipment, which produces energy for electricity and heat. It reuses heat that would otherwise be lost to the air, reducing carbon emissions while also cutting costs.

 Fox Point is operated by Palladia, a group that specializes in providing housing and services to needy people. Palladia received support from Enterprise Community Partners (ECP), which helps build affordable housing by providing support to housing developers.

ECP has created national standards for healthy, environmentally clever and affordable homes which are called the Green Communities Standards. These standards include water keeping, energy saving and the use of environmentally friendly building materials. Meeting the standards increases housing construction costs by 2%, which is rapidly paid back by lower running costs. Even the positioning of a window to get most daylight can help save energy.

Michael Bloomberg, New York’s mayor, plans to create 165,000 affordable housing units for 500,000 New Yorkers. Almost 80% of New York City’s greenhouse-gas emissions come from buildings, and 40% of those are caused by housing. So he recently announced that the city’s Department of Housing and Preservation and Development (DHPD) , whose duty is to develop and keep the city’s supply of affordable housing, will require all its new projects to follow ECP’s green standards.

Similar measures have been taken by other cities, such as Cleveland and Denver, but New York’s DHPD is the largest city developer of affordable housing in the country.

1.What is the purpose of describing the boiler room in the first paragraph?

A. To explain the measures the city takes to care for poor people. 

B. To suggest that affordable housing is possible in all areas.

C. To show how the environment-friendly building works.

D. To compare old and new boiler rooms.

2.What is an advantage of the buildings meeting the Green Communities Standards? 5

A. Lower running costs.    

B. Costing less in construction.   

C. Less air to be lost in hot days.

D. Better prices for homeless people.

3.It can be learned from the text that        .

A. New York City is seriously polluted

B. people’s daily life causes many carbon emissions in New York City

C. a great number of people in New York City don’t have houses to live in

D. some other cities have developed more affordable housing than New York City

4.What is the main purpose of this text?

A. To call on people to pay more attention to housing problems.

B. To prove that some standards are needed for affordable housing.

C. To ask society to help homeless people and low-income families.

D. To introduce healthy, environmentally clever and affordable housing.

Answer

1.C

2.A

3.B

4.D

【解析】

试题分析：

本文介绍了美国绿色环保的“经济适用房”。ECP向住房开发商提供支持以帮助建造“经济房”。ECP制订了一套“绿色社区标准”，包括节水、节能以及环保建筑材料的使用。全美最大的“经济房”开发商------纽约的DHPD将遵循这套标准。

1.新的boiler room由于装备了为发电和供暖提供能源的特殊设备而一改以往“dirty and steamy”的形象。作者提及boiler room 旨在说明新型建筑的功能：新的boiler room重复使用热能，以免热能流失，从而减少排放、减低成本。为引起下文服务。故选择C项。

2.由文章第三段Meeting the standards increases housing construction costs by 2%, which is rapidly paid back by lower running costs.一句可知，要合乎ECP“绿色社区标准”，建筑成本将会增加2%，但是会很快从房屋运营成本的降低中得到补偿。B项明显与文章不符；C项指的是锅炉房（boiler room）的情况；另从第一段可知，无家可归者住房由政府支付房租，排除D项。故A项正确。

3.从文章第四段Almost 80% of New York City’s greenhouse-gas emissions come from buildings, and 40% of those are caused by housing.一句可知，建筑排放的温室气体的40%来自居家（housing）。A,C,D三项文中没有依据。故B项正确。

4.主旨大意题。全文介绍了一些环保经济房的功能、环保经济房必须达到的建筑标准及其实际执行情况。所以文章讨论的是技术问题，而非社会问题，排除A,B,C三项。故选择D项。

考点：说明文。