Suddenly another thought went through Kate’s mind like an electric shock. An express train was due to go past about thirty minutes later. If it were not stopped, that long train, full of passengers, would fall into the stream. “Someone must go to the station and warn the station-master，” Kate thought. But who was to go? She would have to go herself. There was no one else.

In wind and rain she started on her difficult way. Soon she was at the bridge that crossed the Des Moines River, a bridge also built of wood, just like the bridge across Honey Creek. The storm had not washed this away, but there was no footpath across it She would have to cross it by stepping from sleeper （枕木）to sleeper. With great care she began the dangerous crossing, sometimes on her hands and knees, hardly daring to look down between the sleepers into the wild flood waters below. If she should slip, she would fall between the sleepers, into the rapidly flowing stream.

At last - she never knew how long it had taken her - she felt solid ground under her feet. But there was no time to rest. She still had to run more than half a mile and had only a few minutes left. Unless she reached the station before the express did, many, many lives would be lost.

She did reach the station just as the train came into sight. Fortunately the station-master was standing outside. “The bridge is down! Stop the train! Oh, please stop it!” Kate shouted breathlessly.

The station-master went pale. He rushed into the station building and came back with a signal light. He waved the red light as the train came into the station. It was not a second too early.

21. What did Kate decide to do?

A. Stop the express train, B. Check the signal light.

C. Meet the passengers. D. Visit the station-master

22. Which of the following words best describes Kate’s journey?

A. Fruitless. B. Boring. C. Well-planned. D. Risky.

23. Why did the station-master turn pale?

A. He suddenly fell ill. B. He realized the danger.

C- He discovered his mistake. D. He became over-excited.

The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Copenhagen is offering a free meal to any guest who is able to produce electricity for the hotel on an exercise bike linked to a generator (发电机)，The idea is to get people fit and reduce their carbon footprint. Guests will have to produce at least 10 watt hours of electricity - roughly 15 minutes of cycling for someone of average

B. To make the city known to the world.

C. To attract people to the hotel restaurant.

D. To get guests to stay longer at the hotel.

25. How can a participant get a free meal?

A. By becoming a professional cyclist. B. By cycling to produce some electricity.

C. By linking a smart phone to a bicycle. D, By monitoring his or her carbon footprint.

26. Who are most likely to enter for the programme?

A. The poor local people.

B. The environment activists.

C. Health-conscious hotel guests.

D. Visitors fond of Copenhagen food.

27. According to paragraph 3, Copenhagen has one of the world's _.

A. best chain hotels     B. greenest natural environments

C. longest bike paths    D, highest rales of people cycling to work

Digital technology - email and smart phones especially - have vastly improved workers' ability to be productive outside of a traditional office. Even so, most white-collar work still happens in an office. One reason is that, according to findings of a new survey (调查) of office workers conducted by Wakefield Research for the IT company Citrix, most bosses are doubtful about remote working. Half of the workers say their boss doesn't accept it? and only 35 percent say it’s tolerated.

Skeptical bosses will likely have their doubts reinforced (加深)by the same survey, which shows that 43 percent of workers say they’ve watched TV or a movie while “working” remotely, while 35 percent have done housework，and 28 percent have cooked dinner.

It is true, however，that working at home makes people much more efficient (高效的)， because it allows workers to take care of annoying housework while still getting their jobs done. It’s much faster, for example, to shop for groceries at a quarter to three than to stand in line during the after-work rush.

The fact that such practices remain officially unaccepted reflects how far we haven't come as a society from the days when we expected every full-time worker to be supported by a full-time homemaker.

More broadly the Wakefield survey suggests that employers may be missing a low-cost way to give workers something of value. Sixty-four percent of those survey participants who havens worked remotely would rather give up some bonus in order to get even one day a week working from home. Under查看解析   详情