The author mentioned Stanford in order to ______.
A. tell people floods hit Stanford in 1998
B. show how common the natural disasters were
C. illustrate the loss of books caused by natural disasters
D. remind people of the natural disasters
听力原文: A $150 million project to replace all of the vertical suspension cables on the 100-year-old Manhattan Bridge will cause occasional weekend disruptions in subway service and require closings of the bikeway and some traffic lanes for parts of the next four years, city transportation officials said this week.
(29) The city's Department of Transportation is preparing to award a contract for the repair work to Skanska, a Swedish company whose American headquarters are in New York. The department notified Skanska last week that its bid, which was just shy of $150 million, was lower than the other four received.
(30) The contract is one of 14 that make up the final phase of a three-decade effort to rebuild the bridge, which connects Lower Manhattan to Downtown Brooklyn. All told, about $ 830 million has been spent repairing the bridge, which suffered from neglect during the city's financial crisis in the 1970s, said Brian Gill, the chief engineer of Manhattan Bridge reconstruction for the Transportation Department.
(31) Skanska has said that it will complete the work, which includes replacing the necklaces of lights that illuminate the bridge's outer cables, in three and a half, years. Mr. Gill said the city could penalize the company if it did not complete the work on schedule.
During that period, subway service across the bridge on the B, D, N and Q lines will be suspended on as many as eight weekends, Mr. Gill said. The schedule for those suspensions has not yet been determined, said Seth Solomonow, the department's spokesman.
29. To which company will the contract be awarded?
30.How many contracts make up the final phase of a three-decade effort to rebuild the bridge?
31.How many years will Skanska complete the work?
(30)
A Swedish company.
B. A Russian company.
C. An American company.
D. A Chinese company.
Section B
Directions: In this section, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A, B, C and D.
听力原文: Many young people in the United States never finish high school. Exactly how many drop out is another issue. Recent studies of dropout rates have conflicting results. For one thing, schools define and measure their dropout rates differently. Some researchers say about fifteen to twenty percent of public school students do not complete their education. But many other experts and policymakers believe that for the past twenty years, the dropout rate has been around thirty percent.
(26) For Latino and black students, the numbers are even higher. Researchers say almost half of them leave school. (27) At the same time, almost half the states let students leave school before the age of eighteen without informing their parents. Finding a good job without a high school education is more and more difficult. A Northeastern University study in 2002 found that almost half of all dropouts from sixteen to twenty-four did not have a job. The lack of a high school education can also lead to other problems. An estimated two-thirds of prisoners in the United States dropped out of high school.
Recent studies have shown that the majority of students who drop out do not do it because they are failing. (28) Many are bored with their classes or feel disconnected from their school and teachers. Some students feel that educators place low expectations on them. Teenager pregnancies also aggravate the dropout problem.
Questions:26. What kind of students have higher dropout rates by the researchers?
27.How many states let students leave school before the age of eighteen without informing their parents?
28.Which of the following is not the factor causing the dropout?
(27)
A. The Latino and black students.
B. The black and poor students.
C. The black and Asian students.
D. Many who are bored with their classes.
听力原文:W: Weren't you going to confirm your booking at the hotel?
M: You're right. I'd better call them. They always get quite busy this time of the year.
Q: What will the man probably do?
(16)
A. Get the books she needs.
B. Make sure the hotel is expecting him.
C. Make sure the time of the party is confirmed.
D. Call and ask about hotel rooms.