Chokwe Selassie is on a mission to help drivers avoid potholes(路面坑洼).The eighth-grader was inspired to kick off his mission on a recent morning, when his mother was driving him to school. Their car was damaged as it went over a huge pothole in the middle of the street in their hometown of Jackson, Mississippi. "I decided I was going to do something about the pothole problem in my city," Chokwe says. His solution: an app that warns drivers when there is a pothole ahead.

　　Chokwe developed the app with his friends Rodriguez Ratliff and Emmanuel Brooks. "When the app detects a pothole, it is highlighted(突出顯示)in red," Chokwe says. "And if you get close to the pothole, your phone will warn you." Drivers can also use the app to report any potholes they encounter, and to look for other routes they can take to avoid roads that have them.

　　The app relies on current available information about the streets of Jackson. "It works by using the city's 311 call system, soit uses information already stored in a database," Chokwe says.Throughthe call system, citizens dial 3-1-1 to report non-emergency problems—which include potholes. Chokwe and his friends determined that focusing on the 10 busiest streets in Jackson would give them a large enough sample size to test the prototype(原型).

　　Although the app isn't yet available for sale,Chokwe is already looking for ways to improve it. The prototype remains limited to 10 streets in Jackson, but he hopes to add more, so that it includes every street in the city. And then he wants to go even farther. “I want to keep working on the app until it's nationwide,” Chokwe says.

　　21. Which of the following is the best title for the passage?

　　A. A Solution to Traffic Jams

　　B. An App to Detect Potholes

　　C. Pothole Problems in Big Cities

　　D. Poor Road Conditions

　　答案：B

　　22. The phrase kick off inParagraph 1 is closest in meaning to___.

　　A. leave B. invent C. begin D. shift

　　答案：C

　　23. People use the 311 call system to report____.

　　A. emergencies B. terrorist attacks

　　C. non-emergencies D. child abuse

　　答案：C

　　24. The prototype focuses on____streets in Jackson.

　　A. 10 B. 15 C. 20 D. 25

　　答案：A

　　25. According to the passage,which of the following statements is TRUE?

　　A. Chokwe developed the app all by himself.

　　B. People can buy this app from the online store.

　　C. His mother's car was once damaged over a pothole.

　　D. The app works by using thecity's 911 call system.

　　答案：C

　　As you are students of English, it's very possible that you'll be interested in England. That's where the language was first spoken. But England is often called by other names. This often confuses people and I wonder if you know what these names mean. So, now I would like to tell you about this matter of names. I believe that you have heard people use the names—England, Britain or Great Britain. Let's see what each of these names means.

　　If you look at a map of Europe, you'll see a group of islands—one larger island off the northwest coast, one smaller and many tiny ones. These make up what is called the British Isles. The largest island of the British Isles is Britain. It is also called Great Britain. The smaller island is Ireland.

　　Britain is divided into three parts: Scotland, Wales and England. But sometimes the word "England" is used instead of "Britain". Why so?

　　In ancient times, what is Britain now used to be three different countries. People in these different countries spoke different languages. Over many years the three countries became one. England is the largest and richest of the three and it has the most people. So the English people take it for granted that their own name stands for the whole island.

　　There's another thing that confuses people: sometimes you may hear people say "the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". That is the official name of the country. Northern Ireland is only one sixth of the island or Ireland. The rest of the island is an independent state, called the Republic of Ireland. So we have the names of "England", "Britain", "Great Britain", and "the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". Now do you know what each of them means?

　　26. English was first spoken in ______.

　　A. Britain B. England C. Great Britain D. Ireland

　　答案：B

　　27. Britain is divided into ______.

　　A. England, Britain, and Wales

　　B. England, Scotland, and Wales

　　C. Wales, Scotland, and Great Britain

　　D. Great Britain, Wales, and Scotland

　　答案：B

　　28. According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?

　　A. Wales is the richest of the three.

　　B. Scotland is the largest of the three.

　　C. Sometimes England is used instead of Britain.

　　D. Britain is the only name of the largest island of British Isles.

　　答案：C

　　29. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is ______.

　　A. part of Britain

　　B. part of British Isles

　　C. the official name of the whole country England

　　D. the largest country of all mentioned in the passage

　　答案：C

　　30. Which of the following is an independent country?

　　A. Wales B. Scotland

　　C. Northern Ireland D. The Republic of Ireland

　　答案：D