17．Boiler rooms are often dirty and steamy，but this one is clean and cool．Fox Point is a very new 47-unit living building in South Bronx，one of the city's poorest areas．Two-thirds of the people living there are formerly homeless people，whose rent is paid by the government．The rest are low-income families．The boiler room has special equipment，which produces energy for electricity and heat．It reuses heat that would otherwise be lost to the air，reducing carbon emissions while also cutting costs．
Fox Point is operated by Palladia，a group that specializes in providing housing and services to needy people．Palladia received support from Enterprise Community Partners （ECP），which helps build affordable housing by providing support to housing developers．
ECP has created national standards for healthy，environmentally clever and affordable homes which are called the Green Communities Standards．These standards include water keeping，energy saving and the use of environmentally friendly building materials．Meeting the standards increases housing construction costs by 2%，which is rapidly paid back by lower running costs．Even the positioning of a window to get most daylight can help save energy．
Michael Bloomberg，New York's mayor，plans to create 165，000affordable housing units for 500，000New Yorkers．Almost 80% of New York City's greenhouse-gas emissions come from buildings，and 40% of those are caused by housing．So he recently announced that the city's Department of Housing and Preservation and Development （DHPD），whose duty is to develop and keep the city's supply of affordable housing，will require all its new projects to follow ECP's green standards．
Similar measures have been taken by other cities，such as Cleveland and Denver，but New York's DHPD is the largest city developer of affordable housing in the country．
56．What is the purpose of describing the boiler room in the first paragraph？C
A．To explain the measures the city takes to care for poor people．
B．To suggest that affordable housing is possible in all areas．
C．To show how the environment-friendly building works．
D．To compare old and new boiler rooms．
57．What is an advantage of the buildings meeting the Green Communities Standards？A
A．Lower running costs．
B．Costing less in construction．
C．Less air to be lost in hot days．
D．Better prices for homeless people．
58．It can be learned from the text thatB．
A．New York City is seriously polluted
B．people's daily life causes many carbon emissions in New York City
C．a(chǎn) great number of people in New York City don't have houses to live in
D．some other cities have developed more affordable housing than New York City
59．What is the main purpose of this text？D
A．To call on people to pay more attention to housing problems．
B．To prove that some standards are needed for affordable housing．
C．To ask society to help homeless people and low-income families．
D．To introduce healthy，environmentally clever and affordable housing．
分析 本文是一篇廣告布告類閱讀，文章主要介紹了美國綠色環(huán)保的"經(jīng)濟(jì)適用房"．ECP向住房開發(fā)商提供支持以幫助建造"經(jīng)濟(jì)房"．ECP制訂了一套"綠色社區(qū)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)"，包括節(jié)水、節(jié)能以及環(huán)保建筑材料的使用．全美最大的"經(jīng)濟(jì)房"開發(fā)商------紐約的DHPD將遵循這套標(biāo)準(zhǔn)．
解答 56-59 CABD
56．C推理判斷題．第一段指出新boiler room的優(yōu)點(diǎn)：重復(fù)使用熱能，以免熱能流失，從而減少排放、減低成本，從而引出本文的主要話題，即環(huán)保型建筑；根據(jù)第一段最后兩句，作者描述開水房僅是從一個側(cè)面展示整個建筑群的節(jié)能，環(huán)保．因而本段應(yīng)是點(diǎn)明該建筑的工作原理，故選C．
57．A細(xì)節(jié)理解題．根據(jù)第三段Meeting the standards increases housing construction costs by 2%，which is rapidly paid back by lower running costs．可知達(dá)到這一標(biāo)準(zhǔn)會將建筑成本提高2%，但很快會被它的低成本運(yùn)行成本補(bǔ)回．故選A．
58．B推理判斷題．由第四段可知，紐約市80%的溫室氣體排放是來自各種建筑物，而這其中40%是由于住房造成的．故可推斷出B項(xiàng)"在紐約市，人們的日常生活導(dǎo)致了許多溫室氣體的排放"．故選B．
59．D主旨大意題．全文介紹了一些環(huán)保經(jīng)濟(jì)房的功能、環(huán)保經(jīng)濟(jì)房必須達(dá)到的建筑標(biāo)準(zhǔn)及其實(shí)際執(zhí)行情況．所以文章討論的是技術(shù)問題，而非社會問題，排除A，B，C三項(xiàng)．故選D．
點(diǎn)評 閱讀這類文章時，也應(yīng)該在整體把握文章結(jié)構(gòu)的前提下，主要注意細(xì)節(jié)信息．細(xì)節(jié)題題干都是相應(yīng)原文的變形（如同義改寫、詞性轉(zhuǎn)換等），因此要找到答案一定要找到題干在原文中的出處，再把原文和選項(xiàng)相比較．做題時，根據(jù)所提問題用尋讀、跳讀的方法可達(dá)到事半功倍的效果．
