In the last paragraph, the term "safe parking" means ______
A. not parking under street lights
B. not parking in front of a theatre or cinema
C. avoiding traps set by a possible car thief
D. parking where a lot of people pass by
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The best way for a driver to avoid car theft is ______
A. leaving documents showing one's home address in the car
B. locking one's car in a parking lot at any time
C. not leaving the car unattended for longer than necessary
D. not leaving a sunroof or window partially open
With nearly a third of the country already covered by water and half of its land mass below sea level and constantly under threat from rising waters, the authorities believe that floating communities may well be the future.
Six prototype wooden and aluminum floating houses are already attached to something off Amsterdam, and at least a further 100 are planned on the same estate, called Ijburg
"Everybody asks why didn't we do this kind of thing before," said Gijsbert Van der Woerdt, director of the firm responsible for promoting the concept. "After Bangladesh we're the most densely populated country in the world. Building space is scarce and government studies show that we'll need to double the space available to us in the coming years to meet all our needs."
Before being placed on the water and moved into position by tugboats (拖船), the houses are built on land atop concrete flat-bottomed boats, which encase giant lumps of polystyrene (聚苯乙烯) reinforced with steel. The flat-bottomed boats are said to be unsinkable and are anchored by underwater cables. The floating roads apply the same technology.
The concept is proving popular with the Dutch. "The waiting list for such homes, which will cost between euros 200,000-500,000 to buy, runs to 5,000 names," claims Van der Woerdt.
With much of the country given over to market gardening and the intensive cultivation of flowers, planners have also come up with designs for floating greenhouses designed so that the water beneath them irrigates the plants and controls the temperature inside.
A pilot project, covering 50 hectares of flooded land near Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, is planned for 2005.
The opportunities for innovative developers look promising. "We have 10 projects in the pipeline- floating villages and cities complete with offices, shops and restaurants," Van der Woerdt said.
The Netherlands plans to start building floating communities on water because ______
A. most parts of the country are covered by water
B. the country is constantly threatened by floods
C. it will promote the cultivation of flowers
D. people think it better to live on water
The next day I sat down, with almost a hundred other candidates, for the intelligence test, I must have done all right because after half an hour's wait I was sent into another room for a psychological test. This time there were only about fifty candidates. The examiner sat at a desk. You were signaled forward to occupy the seat opposite him when the previous occupant had been dismissed, after a greater or shorter time. Obviously the long interviews were the more successful ones. Some of the interviews were as short as five minutes. Mine was the only one that lasted a minute and a half.
I can remember the questions now: "Why did you leave your last job?" "Why did you leave your job before that?" "And the one before that?" I can't recall my answers, except that they were short at first and grew progressively shorter. His closing statement, I thought, revealed a lack of sensitivity which helped to explain why as a psychologist, he had risen no higher than the underground railway. "You have failed the psychological test and we are unable to offer you a position."
Failing to get that job was my low point. Or so I thought, believing that work was easy. Actually, such jobs--being a postman is another one I still desire--demand exactly the sort of elementary yet responsible awareness that the habitual dreamer is least qualified to give. But I was still far short of full self-understanding. I was also short of cash.
The writer applied for the job because ______
A. he could no longer afford to live without one
B. he wanted to work in the centre of London
C. he had received suitable training
D. he was not interested in any other available job
Andrea had never seen an old lady hitchhiking (搭车) before. However, the weather and the coming darkness made her feel sorry for the lady. The old lady had some difficulty climbing in through the ear door, and pushed her big brown canvas shopping bag down onto the floor under her feet. She said to Andrea, in a voice that was almost a whisper, "Thank you dearie --I'm just going to Brkcdburne."
Something in the way the lady spoke, and the way she never turned her head, made Andrea uneasy about this strange hitchhiker. She didn't know why, but she felt instinctively that there was something wrong, something odd, and something dangerous. But how could an old lady be dangerous? It was absurd.
Careful not to turn her head, Andrea looked sideways at her passenger. She studied the hat, the dirty collar of the dress, the shapeless body, the arms with their thick black hairs...
Thick black hairs?
Hairy arms? Andrea's blood froze.
This wasn't a woman. It was a man.
At first, she didn't know what to do. Then suddenly, an idea came into her racing, terrified brain. Swinging the wheel suddenly, she threw the car into a skid (刹车), and brought it to a halt.
"My God!" she shouted. "A child! Did you see the child? I think I hit her!"
The "old lady" was clearly shaken by the sudden skid, "I didn't see anything dearie," she said. "I don't think you hit anything."
"I'm sure it was a child!" insisted Andrea. "Could you just get out and have a look? Just see if there's anything on the road?" She held her breath. Would her plan work?
It did. The passenger slowly climbed out to investigate. As soon as she was out of the vehicle, Andrea gunned the engine and accelerated madly away, and soon she had put a good three miles between herself and the awful hitchhiker.
It was only then that she thought about the bag lying on the floor in front of her. Maybe the bag would provide some information about the real identity about the man. Pulling into the side of the road, Andrea opened the heavy bag curiously.
It contained only one item--a small hand axe, with a razor-sharp blade. The axe and the inside of the bag were covered with the dark red stains of dried blood.
Andrea began to scream.
Andrea allowed the hitchhiker to take a ride in her car, mainly because ______
A. the hitchhiker was an old woman
B. she was curious about the old lady
C. the lady had a heavy bag
D. she knew the old lady