According to the World Wildlife Fund, people are currently using resources 25 percent faster than they can be replaced. If we continue down this course, we will need a second planet by the year 2050. Sustainable communities attempt to change that course by drastically altering how citizens interact with the environment. Alternatively known as green communities or ecovillages (生态村), sustainable communities vary in their approaches to sustainable living, or a way of life that meets the population’s basic needs in ways that can be continued indefinitely for future generations. Some communities focus solely on enriching the environment, while others also aim to improve social and economic conditions as well. Sustainable communities generally strive to minimize waste, reduce consumption and preserve open space. Ideally, they don’t use resources faster than they can be replenished, and they don’t produce waste faster than it can be assimilated back into the environment. Granted, some communities are more radical than others--living entirely off the grid and eschewing the use of government:--printed money--but the basic principles are similar. Designing the neighborhood to encourage walking or bicycling is one way sustainable communities put these first two principles into practice. Less driving means less gas and emissions. Many ecovillages also incorporate work space into homes or encourage telecommuting. They also might zone part of the development for commercial use, essentially making the community a serf-contained environment where residents don’t even have to leave for shopping or entertainment. This design sometimes is called a live- work-play lifestyle. Using green building techniques is another staple of sustainable communities. Here are a few examples: ・ Architects design buildings to take advantage of the sun’s lighting and heating capabilities. ・ They install energy-efficient appliances. ・ They try to use local sources of materials as much as possible to cut back on the environmental costs of transport. ・ They build with durable, non-toxic materials that have either been recycled or sustainably harvested. You might see straw bale (草捆) houses, which essentially use bales of straw as the structural building blocks; cob houses, which are a mix of straw, clay and sand or earthbag homes, which are exactly what they sound like, homes made out of bags of dirt. Along with green building techniques, sustainable communities rely on green gardening methods. They landscape with native, drought-tolerant plants and raise them organically to reduce water and keep pesticides and herbicides out of the environment. Many communities also set aside a significant portion of their land as open space. Serenbe, for example, reserves 80 percent of its 900 acres for green space, that is, 720 acres of rolling hills, woods and streams free of development, quite a contrast to the concrete-laden urban sprawl of Atlanta just 32 miles away. Another way sustainable communities reduce their ecological footprint is by capturing and recycling their wastes, often creating their own contained natural cycles. Instead of treating normally perceived waste products such as rainwater and sewage as pollution to be gotten rid of, residents mm them into resources. Sewage, for example, is turned into compost that fertilizes plants and increases soil productivity, while captured rainwater is cleansed through innovative filtering systems and reused for watering plants. More than 400 ecovillages exist in the world, according to the Global Ecovillage Network database. The following examples outline life in just two of these communities. Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, Missouri. Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage is a developing 280-acre community in northeastern Missouri with far-reaching goals. It aims to be an entirely self-reliant town that practices "radical environmental sustainability’, according to the community’s website. The town’s founders hope to attract between 500 and 1 000 residents to create a diverse community more capable of providing for all of its own needs. Dancing Rabbit even has its own local currency to encourage local trading and sourcing of jobs. The ecovillage has established a set of six guidelines that may seem extreme to the lazy environ- mentalists among us, but should set the town well on its way towards achieving sustainability. 1. No vehicles are to be used or stored in the village. 2. Fossil fuels for cars, refrigeration, heating and cooling homes, as well heating domestic water aren’t allowed. 3. All gardening must be organic. 4. All power must come from renewable resources. 5. No lumber from outside the local area is allowed unless it is recycled or salvaged. 6. Organic waste and recyclable materials are to be reincorporated into usable products through composting methods. Long term, Dancing Rabbit citizens are trying to achieve negative population growth. If they want the current 50 or so residents to become 500 or I 000, they may want to rethink that last guideline. Los Angeles Ecovillage, California. You might think sustainable communities have to be set in the country, but that’s not true. Located just three miles west of downtown Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Ecovillage (LAEV) is a community of 500 residents seeking to have minimal impact on the environment while also providing a fulfilling way of life. The urban location near public transit, schools, churches, commercial services and industry helps residents drive less, while the dozens of gardens and fruit trees provide a local source of food. LAEV takes a whole-systems approach to sustainability, meaning that residents strive to balance’ the social, economic and environmental needs of the community. Here, clean water and air rank up there with close-knit relationships, ethnic diversity and affordable housing. Citizens have saved 20 tons of brick from the landfill to use in construction projects, composted over 100 cubic yards of yard waste and held countless weekly potluck dinners to establish and strengthen relationships. Who knew that sustainability could be possible even in one of the largest, most polluted cities in the United States Residents of the two sustainable communities we just discussed deliberately placed sustainability at the top of their agenda. But communities spring up for lots of reasons not related to the environment, and sometimes the Earth benefits. Before "green" was the new buzzword and sustainability was cool, Old Order Amish communities were quietly co-existing with the planet since the early 18th century. While members of this religious group didn’t consciously develop their way of life to help the environment, their simple farm-based living doesn’t hurt it. The Amish use horses to power their farm equipment and to get around. Their homes have no electricity; instead, they use lanterns (灯笼) for light. In stark contrast to the rampant consumerism visible in many countries, the Amish do not own things they don’t need. They wear simple clothes, and their houses are sparsely furnished. Amish communities didn’t have to "return to the earth" to achieve their brand of sustainability. They were there all along. Cohousing developments offer another example of a living arrangement that unwittingly(未觉察地) practices sustainability. These developments typically are designed to encourage and strengthen social relationships, rather than to tread lightly on the environment, but, as it turns out, the two often go hand in hand. Although residents in a cohousing development enjoy the privacy of their own homes, they share a common building and other resources. Sharing major appliances like washing machines, power tools and heavy exercise equipment forces you to interact with your neighbors while reducing resource use. In addition, it allows individual houses to be smaller, which, along with the clustered arrangement of homes, preserves land. People who own cars (some people share cars) park them on the sides of the neighborhood to create a pedestrian friendly environment safe for children. Several times a week, residents may also eat a shared meal in the common building to strengthen ties. Cooking for many on one stove is much more energy efficient than cooking for 20 on separate stoves.How many residents are living in Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage now A．About half a hundred.B．About one hundred.C．About five hundred.D．About one thousand.

Which feature belongs to the computer as an ideal companion machineA. Cheap in price.B. Enjoyable in performance.C. Subtle in personality.D. Unpredictable in behaviour.

Directions: Fill in the blanks using some of the words or phrases given below. Change the form where necessary. paralyze bold facility absorb modestly assume invariably virtue summon haste falter blank strain rid sb./sth. of sth. in the hope that 1) I made a mistake and I will responsibility for it. 2) She is only 4 years old but she can play the piano with . 3) My mind was a(n) and I could not remember her name. 4) Wilson was so in reading that he kept reading without his dinner. 5) The economy is showing signs of during the period of economic crisis. 6) Too heavy a load will the rope to its breaking point. 7) The electricity failure the water supply the day before yesterday. 8) The wine made him enough to approach her and introduce himself. 9) They left in , without even saying goodbye. 10) We will keep searching for survivors of the earthquake a miracle might happen.assume facility blank absorbed faltering strain paralyzed bold haste in the hope that

and the new aye Fook surprses and fun.(full)-|||-3 Sentence rns-|||-Complete each of the following sentences in English according to the Chinese given. Use a sentence-|||-pattern from one of the boxes below. 一 一-|||-Do...and sb/sth.will...(=If you do...sb/sth.will... (As)+adj.aa+as...(=Although...-|||-e.g.Just give me some money, and I`ll get you the e.g.As remarkable as that revelation is,-|||-magazine. (= If you just give me some money,I`ll get you,. more remarkable is the story that-|||-(Para.10) accompanies it.(=Although that-|||-Read the story,and you will find how idiotic the Nazi raclal revelation is remarkable,more remarkable-|||-theory was. is...()(Para.4)-|||-1 只要相信你自己,你就会赢得演讲比赛。-|||-you`ll win the speech contest.-|||-如果您留下地址,下星期我们就把镀好镜框的照片送上-|||-we`ll deliver the framed picture to you next week.-|||-只要听她讲二讲,你会惊叹她在学习英语方面所取得的了不起的进步。-|||-__ the remarkable progress she has made in learning English.-|||-尽管他天资聪颖,终其一生却几乎没什么成就。-|||-he achieved little throughout his life-|||-虽然我们想尽办法跟他取得联系并邀请他,但他就是没露脸-|||-he did not show u

As he left that house, he not only started to feel stronger physically, but also had a stronger faith in the human race.A. 正如他离开那座房子时一样,身体变强壮了,也对人类有了更坚定的信念。B. 由于离开了那户人家,他只感觉更有力气了,但是对人类失去了信心。C. 离开这户人家时,他不仅开始觉得有了力气,而且对人也更有信心了。

Expressions.in use-|||-6 Fill in the blanks with the expressions given-|||-the form where necessary.-|||-Each expression can be used only once.-|||-as well as at first keep on lie down-|||-lift . out of name ..after-|||-speak for itself talk of-|||-turn one`s attention to work on-|||-1 Last year the city __ the high school-|||-__ the hero who sacrificed his life to-|||-save other people.-|||-2 __ I thought he was joking,-|||-but then I realized that he was very serious.-|||-3 Young people play an essential part in-|||-the worldwide effort to __ people-|||-__ poverty for good.-|||-4 The professor has been __ an-|||-article about how to learn a foreign language-|||-more effectively.-|||-5 We should move away from traditional energy-|||-sources, and begin to __-|||-cleaner forms of energy.-|||-6 It was the first time she __-|||-how she became an architect rather than a-|||-lawyer in front of so many people.-|||-7 John is very talented.He is a famous-|||-musician __ a productive-|||-writer.-|||-8 If you like table tennis and __-|||-practicing it,you will become very good at it.-|||-9 Richard was very tired,so he __-|||-on his bed and fell asleep immediately.-|||-10 I don`t need to say more about how effective-|||-this new method can be.The results

The College Essay:Why Those 500 Words Drive us Crazy Meg is a lawyer-morn in suburban Washington,D.C., where lawyer-morns are thick on the ground. She’s asked us not to use her last name to prevent mortification (难堪) to her son Doug. He is quite mortified enough already. Doug is one of several hundred thousand high-school seniors who had a painful fall. The deadline for applying to his favorite college was Nov.1, and by early October he had yet to fill out the application. More to the point, he had yet to settle on a subject for the personal essay accompanying the application. According to a college legend, a well-turned essay has the power to convince an admissions committee. "He wanted to do one thing at a time," Meg says, explaining her son’s delay. "But really, my son is a huge procrastinator (拖延者). The essay is the hardest thing to do,so he’s put it off the longest." Friends and other veterans of the process have warned Meg that the back and forth between editing parent and writing student can be extremely unpleasant. "But I tell them, you can’t scare me," she says. "I’m already there. I mean, I was an English major, I’m a lawyer, I write for a living! And I’m panicking already." The panic is arriving early this year. Back in the good old days--say, two years ago, when the last of my children suffered the ordeal--a high-school student applying to college could postpone all the way to New Year’s of senior year, assuming he or she could withstand the parental bothering. But things change fast in the upsetting world of college admissions. The recent trend toward early decision and early action among selective colleges and universities has pushed the traditional deadline of January up to Nov. 1 or early December for many students. If the time for heel-dragging has been shortened, the true source of the anxiety and panic remains what it has always been. And it’s not the application itself. A college application is a relatively straightforward questionnaire asking for the basics:name,address,family history, employment history. It would all be innocent enough--20 minutes of busy work-- except it comes attached to an incendiary (纵火的) device: the personal essay. "There are good reasons it causes such anxiety," says Lisa Sohmer, director of college counseling at the Garden School in Jackson Heights, N. Y. "It’s not just the actual writing. By now everything else is already set. Your course load is set, your grades are set, your test scores are set. All that’s done. But the essay is something you can still control, and it’s open-ended. So the temptation is to write and rewrite and rewrite." Or stall (拖延) and stall and stall. The application essay,along with its mythical importance, is a recent invention. In the 1930s, when only one in 10 Americans had a degree from a four-year college, an admissions committee was content to ask for a sample of applicants’ school papers to assess their writing ability. By the 1950s, most schools required a brief personal statement of why the student had chosen to apply to one school over another. Today nearly 70 percent of graduating seniors go off to college, including two-year and four-year institutions. Those schools usually require essays of their own, but the longest essay, 500 words maximum, is generally attached to the Common App. Students choose one of six questions. Applicants are asked to describe an ethical dilemma they’ve faced and its impact on them, or discuss a public issue of special concern to them, or tell of a fictional character or creative work that has profoundly influenced them. Another question invites them to write about the importance (to them, again) of diversity--a word that has assumed magic power in American higher education. The most popular option:write on a topic of your choice. "Boys in particular look at the other questions and say, ’Oh, that’s too much work, ’" says John Boshoven, a counselor in the Ann Arbor,Mich. ,public schools. "They think if they do a topic of their choice, ’ I’ll just go get that history paper I did last year on the Roman Empire and turn it into a first-person application essay! ’ And they end up producing something utterly ridiculous." Talking to admissions professionals like Boshoven, you realize that the list of "don’ts" in essay writing is much longer than the "dos." "No book reports, no history papers, no character studies," says Sohmer. "It drives you crazy, how easily kids slip into repetitive and boring topics," says Boshoven. "They don’t realize how typical their experiences are. ’I scored the winning goal in soccer against our arch-rival. ’ ’My grandfather served in World War Ⅱ, and I hope to be just like him someday. ’ That may mean a lot to that particular kid. But in the world of the application essay,it’s nothing. You’ll lose the reader in the first paragraph." "The greatest strength you bring to this essay," says the College Board’s how-to book, "is 17 years or so of familiarity with the topic=YOU. The form and style are very familiar, and best of all, you are the world-class expert on the subject of YOU... It has been the subject of your close scrutiny (仔细检查) every morning since you were tall enough to see into the bathroom mirror." The key word in the Common App prompts is "you." "For all the anxiety the essay causes," says Bill McClintick of Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania,"it’s a very small piece of the puzzle. I was in college admissions for 10 years. I saw kids and parents beat themselves up over this. And at the vast majority of places, it is simply not a big variable in the college’s decision-making process." Still, at the most selective schools, where thousands of candidates may submit identically super high grades and test: scores, a marginal item like the essay may serve as a tiebreaker between two equally qualified candidates. The thought is certainly enough to keep the pot boiling under parents like Meg, the lawyer-mom, as she tries to help her son choose an essay topic. For a moment the other day,she thought she might have hit on a good one. "His father’s from France," she says. "I said maybe you could write about that, as something that makes you different. You know. half French, half American. I said, ’You could write about your identity issues. ’He said, ’ I don’t have any identity issues! ’" "And he’s right. He’s a well-adjusted, normal kid. But that doesn’t make for a good essay, does itIn the 1930s,school papers were required______. A. to assess the applicants’ writing ability B. to see why students chose one school over anotherC. to divide students into different classes D. as a very important method to give scholarships

9.The way on which he looks at problems is much too ideal.-|||-A B C D

[题目]英语短文选词填空,急需。。在线求助,-|||-哪位英语高手,急求答案-|||-exist tend score mean predict concern trans fer-|||-enormous enhancing prospe adapting frequ-|||-ent preparing fluent making-|||-I get the sense that students confuse success-|||-in school with success in life.Students learn-|||-how to study and how to get better grades in-|||-classes or 36.better on tests.And so they d-|||-o. Unfortunately, and disturbingly,they 37.t-|||-o mistake a false target for a truer one.It is-|||-not better grades that students should be putti-|||-ng 38. effort into.Neither should they 39.-|||-themselves with the numerous tests that they-|||-take. For these tests 40. only to help them le-|||-arn course material.And this material exists-|||-only to help them learn things that will be us-|||-eful in life outside of the university. So then-|||-while in the university,students shoul be 41.-|||-themselves for a prosperous future, instea o-|||-f working to improve classroom performance. I-|||-nstead of 42.good grades your goal,try to-|||-__-|||-learn skills that will help you later on.Becom-|||-e 43. __ in a foreign language or two.Yo-|||-u could also learn mechanics or navigation, an-|||-ything that will 44. __ to the workplace.It i-|||-s impossible for me to predict with certainty-|||-whether concentrating on 45. __ your abilitie-|||-s rather than focusing on your school grades-|||-will lead to a more productive and enjoyable f-|||-uture.However, in the instances in which I a-|||-m familiar, people who focused on abilities ra-|||-ther than grades were infinitely more successf-|||-ul.急需。。在线求助,哪位英语高手,急求答案

Complete the passage with the appropriate words or expressions in the box . Change the form when necessary. opponent intellectual artificial put...to the test tackle construct crack adjust tournament accelerate breakthrough get the better of Those who champion ( 为...而奋斗 ) the cause of 1_ i ntelligence are celebrating a(n) 2_ . For computer sci entists have managed to 3_ the problem of how to 4_ a computer that can play the ancient game of Go better than humans . In 5_ with grand master the computer has 6_ them , defeating one 7_ after another . Some welcome the greater power of computers , arguing they will be willing slaves in helping us 8_ our problems . Others , like the great scientist Stephen Hawking , fear computers may eventually become independent of us and bring the reign of human beings to an end.