London taxis, with their friendly drivers who actually know where they are going, are ranked best in the world, according to an annual taxi survey.
The survey by travel website hotels.com found London taxis, despite being the most expensive, beat rivals (对手) across the globe to head the list for the third consecutive (连续的) years, scoring a total of 59 percent in votes on several categories by travelers.
London taxi drivers were voted both friendliest and most knowledgeable. Drivers in the English capital must pass a rigorous examination called The Knowledge to earn their taxi license.
New York's yellow taxis came second in the list, scoring 27 percent which was up 10 percentage points from last year even though Manhattan's cab drivers tied (打成平局) with Parisian taxi drivers as the rudest.
Travelers said New York had the most convenient taxis.
Taxi drivers in Rome were voted the worst drivers in the world with almost one in ten travelers thinking the Italian capital had the world's worst taxi drivers when it came to the quality of driving.
“Traveling by taxi is one of the first experiences that many travellers have upon arrival in a new city. In fact, the research found that cabs are by far the most popular method of traveling from the airport to their hotel,” a spokesman for hotels.com said in a statement.
The global survey scored city based taxis for their levels of cleanliness, value, quality of driving, knowledge of the area, friendliness, safety and convenience.
Rounding out the top five were Tokyo with a total score of 26 percent, Berlin with 17 percent, and Bangkok famed for its tuktuks scoring 14 percent.
The survey for hotels.com, part of the Expedia group, was conducted among over 1,900 travellers between May 1128 this year.
1.Which of the following about London's taxi drivers is wrong?
A. They are the friendliest.
B. They are the most knowledgeable.
C. They charge the most money.
D. They drive fastest.
2.What does the underlined word “rigorous” mean in the third paragraph?
A. strict B. important
C. official D. lawful
3.Rome's taxi drivers are lack of ________.
A. good manners
B. driving skills
C. the sense of cleanliness
D. the sense of safety
The behaviour of a building's users may be at least as important as its design when it comes to energy use, according to new research from the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC). The UK promises to reduce its carbon emissions (排放)by 80 percent by 2050, part of which will be achieved by all new homes being zero carbon by 2016. But this report shows that sustainable building design on its own—though extremely important—is not enough to achieve such reductions: the behaviour of the people using the building has to change too.
The study suggests that the ways that people use and live in their homes have been largely ignored by existing efforts to improve energy efficiency (效率)，which instead focus on architectural and technological developments.
“Technology is going to assist but it is not going to do everything，”explains Katy Janda, a UKERC senior researcher，“consumption patterns of building users can defeat the most careful design.” In other words，old habits die hard, even in the best designed eco home.
Another part of the problem is information. Households and bill payers don't have the knowledge they need to change their energy use habits. Without specific information，it's hard to estimate the costs and benefits of making different choices. Feedback (反馈) facilities, like smart meters and energy monitors，could help bridge this information gap by helping people see how changing their behaviour directly affects their energy use; some studies have shown that households can achieve up to 15 percent energy savings using smart meters.
Social science research has added a further dimension (方面)，suggesting that individuals' behaviour in the home can be personal and cannot be predicted—whether people throw open their windows rather than turn down the thermostat (恒温器) , for example.
Janda argues that education is the key. She calls for a focused programme to teach people about buildings and their own behaviour in them.
1.As to energy use, the new research from UKERC stresses the importance of ________.
A. zero carbon homes
B. the behaviour of building users
C. sustainable building design
D. the reduction of carbon emissions
2.The underlined word “which” in Paragraph 2 refers to“________”．
A. the ways B. their homes
C. developments D. existing efforts
3.What are Katy Janda's words mainly about?
A. The importance of changing building users' habits.
B. The necessity of making a careful building design.
C. The variety of consumption patterns of building users.
D. The role of technology in improving energy efficiency.
4.The information gap in energy use________.
A. can be bridged by feedback facilities
B. affects the study on energy monitors
C. brings about problems for smart meters
D. will be caused by building users' old habits
Tayka Hotel de Sal
Where：Tahua, Bolivia
How much：about $95 a night
Why it's cool：You've stayed at hotels made of brick or wood, but salt? That's something few can claim. Tayka Hotel de Sal is made totally of salt—including the beds (though you'll sleep on regular mattresses and blankets). The hotel sits on the Salar de Uyuni, a prehistoric driedup lake that's the world's biggest salt flat. Builders use the salt from the 4,633squaremile flat to make the bricks, and glue them together with a paste of wet salt that hardens when it dries. When rain starts to dissolve the hotel, the owners just mix up more salt paste to strengthen the bricks.
Green Magic Nature Resort
Where: Vythiri, India
How much: about $240 a night
Why it's cool: Riding a pulleyoperated(滑轮操控的) lift 86 feet to your treetop room is just the start of your adventure. As you look out of your open window—there is no glass—you watch monkeys and birds in the rain forest canopy. Later you might test your fear of heights by crossing the handmade rope bridge to the main part of the hotel. You don't even have to come down for breakfast—the hotel will send it up on the pulleydrawn “elevator”．
Dog Bark Park Inn B&B
Where: Cottonwood, Idaho
How much: $92 a night
Why it's cool: This doghouse isn't just for the family pet. Sweet Willy is a 30foottall dog with guest rooms in his belly. Climb the wooden stairs beside his hind leg to enter the door in his side. You can relax in the main bedroom, go up a few steps to the loft in Willy's head, or hang out inside his nose.
Gamirasu Cave Hotel
Where: Ayvali, Turkey
How much: between $130 and $475 a night
Why it's cool: Experience what it was like 5,000 years ago, when people lived in these mountain caves formed by volcanic ash. But your stay will be much more modern. Bathrooms and electricity provide what you expect from a modern hotel, and the white volcanic ash, called tufa, keeps the rooms cool, about 65℉in summer.
1.Which of the following about Tayka Hotel de Sal is TRUE?
A. The hotel is the cheapest among the four hotels.
B. Everything in the hotel is made of salt.
C. Rain has no effect on the hotel.
D. It is located on an old lake.
2.What is the similarity of the four hotels?
A. Being old. B. Being unique.
C. Being natural. D. Being beautiful.
3.It can be inferred that ________.
A. it is the same man who designed the four hotels
B. Green Magic Nature Resort is the dearest in India
C. the building of Dog Bark Park Inn B&B is like a dog
D. Gamirasu Cave Hotel is the oldest among the four ones
4.What's the writer's purpose in writing the passage?
A. To show his wide knowledge.
B. To develop business in tourism.
C. To attract attention from readers.
D. To introduce some interesting hotels.
Just 10 years ago, I sat across the desk from a doctor. “Yes,” he said, “there is something wrong with the left, upper lobe(肺叶). You have a moderately advanced case... You'll have to give up work at once and go to bed. Later on, we'll see.”
Feeling like a man who is in midcareer has suddenly been placed under sentence of death, I left the doctor's office, walked over to the park, and sat down on a bench. I needed to think. In the next 3 days, I cleared up my affairs, then I went home, got into bed, and set my watch to tick off not the minutes, but the months. Two years later, I left my bed and began the long climb back. It was another year before I made it.
I speak of this experience because these years that passed so slowly taught me what to value and what to believe. I realise now that this world I'm living in is not my oyster(牡蛎) to be opened but my opportunity to be grasped. Each day, to me, is a precious thing. The sun comes up and presents me with 24 brandnew, wonderful hours—not to pass, but to fill.
I've learned to appreciate those little, allimportant things I never thought I had the time to notice before：the play of light on running water, the music of the wind in my favourite pine tree. I seem now to see and hear and feel with some of the recovered freshness of childhood. How well, for instance, I recall the touch of the springy earth under my feet the day I first stepped upon it after the years in bed.
Frequently, I sit back and say to myself, “Let me make note of this moment I'm living right now, because in it I'm well, happy and hard at work doing what I like best to do. It won't always be like this, so while it is, I'll make the most of it—and afterwards, I remember—and be grateful. All this, I owe to that long time spent on the sidelines of life.”
1.Which word can best describe the author's feeling after visiting the doctor?
A. Hopeless. B. Curious.
C. Confused. D. Energetic.
2.How long did it take the author to recover from his disease?
A. Two years and a half. B. Three years.
C. Three years and a half. D. Four years.
3.The underlined words “these years” in Paragraph 3 refer to the years when the author ________.
A. was ill
B. started his career
C. cleared up his affairs
D. struggled to go back to his work
4.By fighting with his disease, the author realised ________.
A. patients should know how to get on with doctors
B. doctors should treat patients more carefully
C. we should pay enough attention to diets
D. we should value and appreciate life
单句改错
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文中的句子。每句中只有1处语言错误每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏子符号（∧）并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
1.One day, little Tony went to a shopping center with his parent.
parents
2.He liked it so very much that he quickly walked into the shop.
3. Five minutes later. Tony saw∧ parents.
1.I am not interested in pop music and so are my classmates.
2.We will go shopping if it won’t rain tomorrow.
3.We visited the factory where we had once worked in for three years.
4.The missing boy was last seen play near the river.
5.Prices of daily goods buying through a computer can be lower than store prices.
6.They have got married since for 1999.
7.As we climbed the mountain, we fed monkeys, visiting temples and told stories.
8.This is one of the most attractive places that I traveled to.
9.It’s the first global meeting since the war began 14 years before.
10.Shanghai is bigger than any city in China.
完成句子
1.实验之后，这棵植物的高度是原来的四倍。
After the experiment, the plant is four times the _________ __________ what it was before.
2.感谢你帮我走出了困境。
I __________ you _________ me out of the whole trouble.
3.看他生气的脸，我们保证绝不再提及那件事了。
Seeing his angry face, we promised never to ______ ______ the matter again.
4.虽然物理永远不会是我最喜欢的课，但我认为有陈老师教，我会考的很好。
Physics will never be my favourite lesson, but I think that I’ll do well in the exam _________ Mrs Chen __________ me.
5.住在这儿我感到很幸运。
I feel very ____________ ______________ here.
