Using less energy around the home is easier than you might think, saving your money while creating a healthier, more comfortable living space for you and your family. Changing a few old habits can make an impact on your energy bill, your comfort and the environment. Here are some handy tips to make your house more energy-efficient.
Lower the heat If your home has adjustable central heating, lowering the room temperature even slightly can make a difference. You may not feel it, but your wallet will. It is even more advisable to control temperatures at different times of the day.
Hang clothes out to dry If the weather allows it, head outside and dry your laundry on a clothesline. The sunlight will help eliminate bacteria and dust. While clothes dryers get the job done faster,they also use up energy.By hanging your clothes out you' ll be cutting greenhouse gases by about three kilograms per load.
Take advantage of natural light Installing large windows on the northern side of your house can help you make use of sunlight' s natural warmth. To stay cool indoors on hot summer days, install blinds (百叶窗) to block the heavy sun. Put your desk near the window ,then you don't need a lamp in the daytime.Wrap (裹) your pipes
Be sure your hot-water pipes are properly wrapped. In an average home, heating water accounts for more than one-quarter of the energy bill. Why let warmth go to waste before it reaches you?
Choose the right size for appliances (家用电器) When the time comes to replace appliances, select those that are both energy-efficient and of the appropriate size for your needs. Don' t buy bigger ones just because you can. 44.What benefit may using less energy at home bring about?
A. Enlarging your living space. B. Keeping old habits unchanged.
C. Having a healthier living environment. D. Improving your work efficiency. 答案:C
45. Which of the following is one of the advantages of hanging clothes out to dry?
A. It gets clothes dry much faster than clothes dryers. B. It uses half the energy that clothes dryers do. C. It may help to build a greenhouse. D. It helps remove bacteria in clothes. 答案:D
46. What can be installed on the northern side of your house to make better use of natural light?
A. Shades. B. Windows. C. Blinds. D. Curtains. 答案:B
47. Besides energy-efficiency ,what else should be considered when replacing appliances?
A. Proper size. B. Good quality. C. Replacing time. D. Reasonable price. 答案:A
As we recently discovered，there is a Stepmother’s Day，though it is not on any official holiday calendar.So，it would be safe to assume that there is a similar day for stepdads，too.
Right? Well，it depends on what you read.A Google search brought up posts that say，for example，“It’s on father’s day--father’s day is for fathers，step—fathers and people who are like fathers to you-it’s a day for making father figures feel special.”Further searching found a Stepfather’s Day Facebook page that says，“The unofficial Stepfather’s Day is the fourth Sunday of June.”
Unfortunately，as of the publishing of this article，only 30 people have “liked” the page.Considering that studies show 3.3 million men，or 11.1%of U.S.fathers，live with at least one stepchild，that’s only a drop in the ocean.
It’s interesting to note that there is a National Grandparents’ Day.President Jimmy Carter signed it into law in 1978.Law! While grandparents are undoubtedly special people in our children’s lives，they are often seen as the most loving family members.But what about the stepparents? The stepparents are the ones who are often the outsiders，the ones who have to endure the hurtful “You’re not my dad!” or “You’re not my mom!” And yet they never give up.
They do their best to overcome the inherent challenges of stepparents and be role models for their stepchildren.These unsung(未被颂扬的)family heroes deserve “official” days of honor.Perhaps if we are loud enough，President Obama，who had a stepfather himself，will sign into law National Stepmother’s Day and National Stepfather’s Day.
Are you with me? Follow me and get your voice heard.How cool it would be if we could make this happen!
52. What does the underlined word“that’’in Paragraph 1 refer to? A.Father figures who are equally honored in the U.S.
B.30 people who support Stepfather’s Day on the Facebook page. C.3.3 million men who live with at least one stepchild in the world. D.11.1%of U.S.fathers who live with at least one stepchild in the U.S. 参考答案：B
53. What did President Jimmy Carter sign into law in 1978 ?
A.The National Grandparents’Day. B.The National Grandchildren’s Day. C.The National Stepparents’Day. D.The National Stepchildren’s Day. 参考答案：A
54. Which of the following is closest in meaning to the word“inherent”in paragraph 2 ?. A.Unbelievable. B.Tough C.Lasting. D.Inevitable. 参考答案：D
55. What is the reason for setting an official holiday for stepparents? A.Because they love their role as stepparents.
B.Because they are often treated as heroes in the family.
C.Because they deserve respect and honor as family members.
D.Because they are often seen as the most loving family members。
参考答案：C
As my train wasn’t due to leave for another hour, I had plenty of time to spare. After buying some newspapers to read on the journey, I made my way to the luggage office to collect the heavy suitcase I had left there three days before.
There were only a few people waiting, and I took out my wallet to find the find the receipt for my case. The receipt didn’t seem to be where I had left it. I emptied the contents of the wallet, and railway-tickets, money, scraps of paper, and photographs fell out of it; but no matter how hard I searched, the receipt was nowhere to be found.When my turn came, I explained the situation sorrowfully to the assistant.
The man looked at me suspiciouslyas if to say that he had heard this type of story many times and asked me to describe the case. I could see on the shelves. The assistant then gave me a form and told me to make a list of the chief contents of the case. If they were correct, he said, I could take the case away.
I tried to remember all the articles I had hurriedly packed and wrote them down as they came to me.After I had done this, I went to look among the shelves. There were hundreds of cases there and for one dreadful moment, it occurredto me that if someone had picked the receipt up, he could have easily claimed the case already. This hadn’t happened fortunately, for after a time I found the case lying on its side high up in a corner. After examining the articles inside, the assistant was soon satisfied that it was mine and told me I could take the case away.
Again I took out my wallet: this time to pay. I pulled out ten-shilling note and the “lost” receipt slipped out with it. I couldn’t help blushing and looked up at the assistant. He was nodding his head knowingly, as if to say that he had often seen this happen before too!
36. The writer had plenty of time to spare as his train _____
A.was leaving later than scheduled B.was not leaving for another hour C.was not scheduled to leave D.was delayed for some reason 答案：B
37. When the writer explained his situation, the assistant_____
A.responded quickly saying it was a lie B.believed him
C.gave a suspicious look as much as to say he had heard such stories before D. just took his story as a joke 答案：C
38. What dreadful idea occurred to the writer?
A. The receipt had been stolen by someone B. Someone had taken away the case.
C. He could not claim his case without the receipt. D. He had left his receipt at home. 答案：B
39.The case______.
A. lay right on oneside of a shelf B. was right behind as old brown-looking case
C. was between two high shelves D. was among the hundreds of cases 答案：D
After ten years of being a housewife and a mother, Carol could not stand it any longer. Then, one morning,just after her two. daughters had gone to school, she saw an advertisement(广告) in the pa-per. She phoned,and was asked to come to an interview(面谈) that very afternoon.
Mr. Hollins,who interviewed her, was a young man about 24 in a blue suit. There was a hard look in his eye and he talked very fast. He told her she would be required to stop men between the ages of 21 and 50 and ask them several questions designed to determine what men think of deodor-ants( 除臭剂). The information was to be recorded and she would be paid according to the number of complete interviews she had.
When Carol asked which factory the research was for, she was told that was not important. Last of all, before she began she would have to attend a one-day training. Carol accepted. After the train-ing, which was only about how to write down the answers correctly in a form and how to put the ques-tions, Carol found herself in the center of town at 9:30 in the morning. She soon found out that get-ting the information was really not all that easy.
First, she stopped a man who refused to answer any questions because he had no time. Next, a man told her it was none of her business whether he used deodorants or not. Then she interviewed a man who was hard of hearing and, instead of answering her questions, began asking her all sorts of his own. Finally, Carol found a young man with a pleasant smile on his face. He was coming towards her slowly and seemed ready to talk. He looked surprised when she put her first question. \doing a research,too. It's about soap powders,\
36. Mr. Hollins told Carol that she was required__________. A. to record what she heard in the streets B. to collect men's opinions on a product C. to pay visits to men aged 21 through 50
D. to stop people who were using the product 答案：B
37. Before Carol started to work,she learned how to__________. A. fill her personal information in a form
B. receive training that might help her do her job C. put the information collected in the form provided
D. ask interesting questions in the training course 答案：C
38. What can we know about the third man Carol stopped in the town center? A. He was impatient to listen to Carol.
B. He was ready to answer Carol's questions. C. He found it hard to believe what Carol said.
D. He had trouble getting what Carol was saying. 答案：D
One of the greatest killers in the Western world is heart disease. The death rate (率) from the disease has been increasing at an alarming speed for the past thirty years. Medical experts know that people can reduce their chances of getting heart disease by exercising regularly, by not smoking, by changing their diets ,and by paying more attention to reducing stress( 压力)in their work.
However, Western health-care systems are still not paying enough attention to the prevention of the disease. There is a need for more programs to educate the public about the causes and prevention of heart disease. Instead of supporting such programs, however,the U. S. health-care system is spend-ing large sums of money on the surgical( 外科的)treatment of the disease after it develops. This em-phasis(强调) on treatment clearly has something to do with the technological advances that have taken in the past ten to fifteen years. In this time, modern technology has enabled doctors to develop new surgical techniques. Many operation that were considered impossible or too risky (有风险的) a few years ago are now performed every day in U. S. hospitals. The result has been a huge increase in heart surgery.
Although there is no doubt that heart surgery can help a large number of people, some people point out that the emphasis on the surgical treatment of the disease has three clear disadvantages.
First, it attracts interest and money away from the question of prevention. Second, it causes the costs of general hospital care to rise. After hospitals buy the expensive equipment that is necessary for modern heart surgery, they must try to recover the money they have spent. To do this, they raise costs for all their patients, not just those patients whose treatment requires the equipment. The third disad-vantage is that doctors are encouraged to perform surgery--even on patients for whom an operation is unnecessary--because the equipment and expert skills are there. A govermnent official recently stated that major heart surgery was often performed even though its chances of success were low. In one type of heart surgery, for example, only 15 percent of patients improved their conditions after the surgery. However,more than 100,000 of these operations are performed in the United States every year.
39. What effect has modern technology had on medicine? A. It has reduced the costs of medical treatment. B. It has helped save the lives of most patients.
C. It has encouraged doctors to do more heart surgeries.
D. It have helped educate people about the prevention of heart disease. 答案：C
40. \ A. to help patients recover
B. to increase the number of heart surgeries
C. to get back the money spent on the equipment
D. to buy new equipment for the treatment of heart disease
成人高考英语专升本阅读理解40篇及答案
