Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension （Skimming and Scanning)Directions: In this part you will have
Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning)
Directions: In this part you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer the questions on Answer Sheet 1. For questions 1-7, choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). For questions 8-10, complete the sentences with the information given in the passage.
Sustainable Communities
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.
Characteristics of Sustainable Living Communities
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 th
A．We can have another planet called the Earth.
B．We will use up resources on Earth.
C．We will work out replaceable resources.
D．We will migrate to another planet to live.
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