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Suddenly, the economics of American suburban life are under assault as skyrocketing energy prices inflate the costs of reaching, heating and cooling homes on the distant edges of metropolitan areas. Just off Singing Hills Road, in one of hundreds of two-story homes dotting a former cattle ranch beyond the southern fringes of Denver, Phil Boyle and his family openly wonder if they will have to move close to town to get some relief. They still revel in the space and quiet that has drawn a steady exodus from American cities toward places like this for more than half a century. But life on the edges of suburbia is beginning to feel untenable. Mr. Boyle and his wife must drive nearly an hour to their jobs in the high-tech corridor of southern Denver. With gasoline at more than $ 4 a gallon, Mr. Boyle recently paid $121 to fill his pickup truck with diesel fuel. In March, the last time he filled his propane tank to heat his spacious house, he paid $ 566, more than twice the price of 5 years ago. Though Mr. Boyle finds city life unappealing, it is now up for reconsideration. "Living closer in, in a smaller space, where you don’t have that commute," he said, "It’s definitely something we talk about. Before it was’we spend too much time driving.’ Now, it’s ’we spend too much time and money driving.’ " Across the nation, the realization is taking hold that rising energy prices are less a momentary blip than a change with lasting consequences. The shift to costlier fuel is threatening to slow the decades-old migration away from cities, while exacerbating the ’housing downturn by diminishing the appeal of larger homes set far from urban jobs. In Atlanta, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Minneapolis, homes beyond the urban core have been falling in value faster than those within, according to an analysis by Moody’s Economy. com. In Denver, housing prices in the urban core rose steadily from 2003 until late last year compared with previous years, before dipping nearly 5 percent in the last three months of last year, according to Economy. com. But house prices in the suburbs began falling earlier, in the middle of 2006, and then accelerated, dropping by 7 percent during the last three months of the year from a year earlier. Many factors have propelled the unraveling of American real estate, from the mortgage crisis to a staggering excess of home construction. But economists and real estate agents are growing convinced that the rising cost of energy is now a primary factor pushing home prices down in the suburbs. More than three-fourths of prospective home buyers are now more inclined to live in an urban area because of fuel prices, according to a recent survey of 903 real estate agents with Coldwell Banker, the national brokerage firm. According to the text, which of the following statements is true
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One day Tom bought, for two dollars, a large number of used books. He put them in a (36) and pulled them to the (37) . He was to (38) at work until three in the morning. At three, he (39) to walk home. The streets were dark. Tom could (40) wait to arrive home and began to read his new books." (41) !" a voice shouted. But Tom was too (42) to hear the shout well.A moment later, a gunshot (43) his ear. He heard the shot. Tom turned to see what was (44) . An angry policeman ran toward him. The policeman thought that the bag did not (45) Tom. He shouted at Tom, "Drop it !"" (46) !" the policeman ordered.Tom opened it and the old books (47) out of it."Why not stop (48) when I shouted" the policeman asked, "If I had shot (49) , you would have been dead." "I didn’t (50) you," Tom said, "I am almost deaf."The policeman told Tom he was (51) for having shot at him." (52) would be better for you not to walk on the (53) at night." he said.Tom smiled, and told the policeman that his job (54) a telegrapher was a night job. The policeman could think of (55) to answer this. 52（）
For years, smokers have been exhorted to take the initiative and quit: use a nicotine patch, chew nicotine gum, take a prescription medication that can help, call a help line, just say no. But a new study finds that stopping is seldom an individual decision. Smokers tend to quit in groups, the study finds, which means smoking cessation programs should work best if they focus on groups rather than individuals. It also means that people may help many more than just themselves by quitting: quitting can have a ripple effect prompting an entire social network to break the habit. The study, by Dr. Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School and James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego, followed thousands of smokers and nonsmokers for 32 years, from 1971 until 2003, studying them as part of a large network of relatives, co-workers, neighbors, friends and friends of friends. It was a time when the percentage of adult smokers in the United States fell to 21 percent from 45 percent. As the investigators watched the smokers and their social networks, they saw what they said was a striking effect—smokers had formed little social clusters and, as the years went by, entire clusters of smokers were stopping en masse. So were clusters of clusters that were only loosely connected. Dr. Christakis described watching the vanishing clusters as like lying on your back in a field, looking up at stars that were burning out. "It’s not like one little star turning off at a time," he said,"Whole constellations are blinking off at once. " As cluster after cluster of smokers disappeared, those that remained were pushed to the margins of society, isolated, with fewer friends, fewer social connections. "Smokers used to be the center of the party," Dr. Fowler said, "but now they’ve become wallflowers." "We’ve known smoking was bad for your physical health," he said,"But this shows it also is bad for your social health. Smokers are likely to drive friends away. " "There is an essential public health message," said Richard Suzman, director of the office of behavioral and social research at the National Institute on Aging, which financed the study. "Obviously, people have to take responsibility for their behavior," Mr. Suzman said. "But a social environment," he added, "can just overpower free will. " With smoking, that can be a good thing, researchers noted. But there also is a sad side. As Dr. Steven Sehroeder of the University of California, San Francisco, pointed out in an editorial accompanying the paper, "a risk of the marginalization of smoking is that it further isolates the group of people with the highest rate of smoking—persons with mental illness, problems with substance abuse, or both. \ By saying "but now they’ ve become wallflowers" (Line 3, Paragraph 4), Dr. Fowler intends to show that______.
W: You got a big fish last weekendM: You’re right. That fish was so huge that it was enough for all of us. What does the man mean（）
American doctors say mothers who smoke cigarettes may slow the growth of their children’ s lungs (肺). They said reduced lung growth could cause the children to suffer breathing problems and lung diseases (疾病) later in life. Doctors studied more than 1 100 children between the ages of five and nine. The mothers of some of the children smoked; the other mothers did not. Doctors tested the children once a year for five years to see how fast their lungs were growing. The test measured the amount of air the children could blow out of their lungs in one second. Children should be able to blow out more air each year because their lung-power increases as their lungs develop. But the doctors found that the lungs of the children whose mothers smoked had not developed as fast as they should. Doctors are not sure when the mothers’ smoking affected (影响) the children’s lungs. They say it could have happened before birth because the mothers smoked during pregnancy (怀孕) or it could have happened later when the children breathed smoke-filled air at home. Doctors also are not sure if reduced lung growth will affect the children’ s health when they have grown up. But they do know that children whose mothers smoked developed 20% more colds, flu (流感) and other breathing diseases than other children. So doctors feel there is a greater danger that such children will develop serious lung and breathing diseases later in life. Another recent study found that smokers have a greater chance of developing lung cancer (癌症，肿瘤) if their mothers smoked. That study found that the danger of lung cancer increased only for sons and .not for daughters. And it found that father’s smoking did not affect a person’s chances of developing lung cancer. Doctors found that the lungs of the children whose mothers smoked（）
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