题目内容

True, my heat pump runs on electricity -- an expensive commodity where I live. But most of its energy comes from the earth, a propylene-glycol solution circulates through 1,200 feet of two-inch-diameter plastic pipe buried three feet deep in a field next to my house. As it travels, the solution absorbs heat from the surrounding soil, even when soil temperature drops below freezing.
My ground-source heat pump also offers important benefits that have nothing to do with economics.
-- Minimal fire hazard -- no chimney, firebox, or heating elements -- only pumps, fans, and a compressor.
-- Cleanliness -- no combustion products, thus no chance of my heating system polluting the indoor air, leaving scummy deposits on walls and furniture.
-- Reliability -- solid-state electronic controls and sealed bearings almost eliminate breakdowns.
-- No maintenance -- no wood to cut, ashes to haul, or chimney to clean.
-- Convenience -- The system runs automatically, even switching from heating to air conditioning as needed. I can simply lock the door and go away for a day, week or month.
Not only did I expect to start saving on energy costs immediately, but I also expected those savings to grow over the years as oil prices continued to soar. Since I was wrong about oil prices, the big dollar savings I'd hoped for haven't materialized. Nevertheless, I am satisfied, all things considered.
The passage suggests that the author's heat-pump system absorbs heat from ______

A. soil in a nearby field
B. sun panels at ground level
C. a pipe buried next to the walls
D. a tank of propylene-glycol

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Naturally the young are more inclined to novelty than their elders and it is in their speech, as it always was, that most of the verbal changes originate. But listening critically to their talk I hear hardly any new words. It is all a matter of using old words in a new way and then copying each other, for much as they wish to speak differently from their parents, they want even more to speak like people of their own age. A new usage once took time to spread, but now a pop star can falsify it across the world in hours.
Of course it is not only the young who like to use the latest in-words. While they are describing their idols as smashing, great or cosmic, their parents and the more discriminating of the younger set are also groping for words of praise that are at once apt and fashionable. However, their choice of splendid, brilliant, fantastic and so on will in turn be slightly dimmed by over-use and need replacement.
Magic is a theme that has regularly supplied words of praise (and the choice must betray something in our nature). Charming, entrancing and enchanting are all based on it. So is marvelous, which has been used so much that some of its magic has faded while among teenagers wizard had a great run. Another of this group, though you might not think it, is glamorous, which was all the rage in the great days of Hollywood. Glamour was a Scottish dialect form. of "grammar" or "grammarye", which itself was an old word for enchantment. (Gram*mar means the study of words, and words have always been at the heart of magic. ) The change from "r" to "1" may have come about through the association with words like gleaming and glittering.
On the whole, when a new word takes over, the old ones remain,-weakened but still in use, so that the total stock increases all the time. But some that start only as slang and never rise above the class can disappear completely. "Did you really say ripping when you were young?" my granddaughter asked me, rather like asking if I ever wore a suit of armor. Of course I did and it was no sillier than smashing, which some of her contemporaries are still saying.
Which of the following is NOT true about young people in their speech?

A. They use words invented by pop stars.
B. They copy the speech of their contemporaries.
C. They give words new meanings.
D. They invent words that older people cannot understand.

【C7】

A. involve
B. be involved
C. involved
D. involving

【C11】

A. In addition
B. In fact
Consequently
D. As a result

【C17】

A. cut down on
B. cut in
C. cut off
D. cut up

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