银行考试题库：英语阅读理解练习及答案（十）

阅读理解

Here amid the steel ａｎｄ concrete canyons,green grass grows. A hawthorn tree stands in new soil, ａｎｄ freshly dug plantsbend in the wind.

But Chicago City Hall here seems an unlikelyspot fｏｒa garden of any variety — especially 20,000 square feet of gardens —on its roof.

As one of a handful of similar projectsaround the country, the garden is part of a $1.5 million demonstrationprojected by the city to reduce its "urban heat islands", saidWilliam Abolt, the commissioner of the Department of Environment.

Heat islands-dark surfaces in the city, likerooftops-soak up heat. The retention can bake a building, making it stubborn tocooling.

The roof of City Hall, a 90-year-old graystone landmark on LaSalle Street in the heart of downtown, has been known toreach temperature substantially hotter than the actual temperature on thestreet below.

The garden will provide greenery ａｎｄ shade."ａｎｄ that," said the city officials, "will save the city dollarson those blistering summer days." The project savings from cooling isabout $4,000 a year on a new roof whose life span is about 50 percent longerthan that of a traditional roof.

The sprawling open-air rooftop garden isbeing carefully built on a multi-tiered bed of special soil, polystyrene,egg-carton-shaped cones ａｎｄ "waterproof membrane" mall to keep theroof from leaking, ｏｒcaving under the normal combined weight of soil, rain andplant life.

The design calls fｏｒsoil depths of 4 inchesto 18 inches. When the last plants ａｎｄ seedlings are buried ａｎｄ the last bit ofcompost is laid, the garden will have circular brick stepping-stones winding upto hills.

"The primary focus of what we want to dowas to establish this laboratory on the top of City Hall to get people involvedａｎｄ understanding their impact on the environment ａｎｄ how the little things canmake an impact on the quality of life", Mr. Abolt said, adding that theplants also help to clear the air.

Rooftop gardens, in places where concretejungles have erased plants ａｎｄ trees, are not new, not even in Chicago. Arms ofgreenery dangling over terraces ｏｒsprouting from rooftops, common in Europe,are becoming more so in the United States as people become increasinglyconscious about the environment.

Richard M. Daley, who urged the environmentaldepartment to look into the project after noticing rooftop gardens in Hamburg,Germany a few years ago, has praised the garden as the first of its kind on apublic building in the country.

It will hold thousands of plants in more than150 species-wild onion ａｎｄ butterfly weed, sky-blue aster ａｎｄ buffalo grass —to provide data on what species adapt best. Small plants requiring shallow soildepths were chiefly ｓｅｌｅｃｔed.

1. The rooftop garden project ______.

A. is common ａｎｄ popular in the country

B. is a demonstration project ａｎｄ costs thecity government 1.5 million dollars

C. will make the ordinary cooling down of thecity in summer unnecessary

D. aims at getting people involved andunderstanding their impact on the environment

2. What can we learn about the City Hall?

A. It was built ninety years ago ａｎｄ is themost outstanding feature in the center of the city.

B. It is originally proper to build a gardenon the top of the City Hall.

C. The temperature on its top is a little bitlower than that on the street below.

D. It is the first building in America tohave a garden on it.

3. Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A. Every year, Chicago spends about $ 4,000on cooling the city.

B. The design of the garden on the City Hallspecially takes into consideration the weight the roof can stand.

C. The Mayｏｒurged the environmentaldepartment to look into rooftop gardens in Hamburg ａｎｄ build similar ones inAmerica.

D. Heat islands mainly refer to thosedark-colored rooftops which receive ａｎｄ retain heat ａｎｄ will not easily releasethe heat.

4. Why should the rooftop garden be built onthe top of City Hall other than on any other buildings?

A. Because the City Hall is large.

B. Because the mayｏｒhad urged theenvironmental department to do so.

C. Because it can make people understandtheir impact on environment better through a public building.

D. Because the experts just want to make theCity Hall a convenient laboratory.

5. The word "substantially" (Line2, Para. 5) most likely means ______.

A. a little bit B. in fact C. materially D.considerably

参考答案

1.【答案】D。解析：细节题。文章第三段第一句指出，该工程是全国为数不多的类似工程之一，所以排除A；还说它是政府投资l50万美元的示范工程的一部分，而不是全部，故排除B。文章第四段提到屋顶花园可以降温，但并没有否定传统降温方式的必要性，故排除C。由文章第九段阿伯特先生所说的话可知，D正确。

2.【答案】A。解析：细节题。由文章第五段可知，市政厅的屋顶有90年的历史，即市政厅建于90年前，且是市中心最著名的建筑，所以A正确。第二段第一句中的an unlikely spot否定了B项中的originally proper。根据第五段可排除C，根据第十段not new可排除D。

3.【答案】B。解析：推断题。由文章第七段可知，市政厅屋顶花园是精心建造而成的，可以避免屋顶渗漏，或是在土、雨和植物相混合的重量之下坍塌，由此可知，屋顶花园的设计充分考虑到了屋顶能承受的重量，所以B正确。

4.【答案】C。解析：细节题。由文章第九段可知，在市政厅大楼上修建屋顶花园主要是为了让人们了解自己对环境的影响，所以C正确。虽然该段也提到了laboratory，但指的是让人们了解自己对环境的影响的"实验室"，而并不是真正做实验的实验室，故排除D。

5.【答案】D。解析：词义猜测题。被考查词在句中用于修饰比较级hotter，分析句意可知，此处应表示强调，突出屋顶的温度要比街上的温度高出很多，选项中只有D.相当大地，最符合。A. 一点；B. 实际上；C. 本质上地；三项均应排除。