摘要： What is the woman worried about?A. The price of getting a puppy.
B. The work to take care of a puppy.
C. The noise a puppy would make.
C
Jonathan Chapman, a senior lecturer at the University of Brighton, UK, is one of a new type of "sustainable designers". Like many of us, they are concerned about the huge waste associated with Western consumer culture and the damage this does to the environment. Some, like Chapman, aim to create objects we will want to keep rather than throw away. Others are working to create more efficient or durable （耐用的）consumer goods, or goods designed with recycling in mind. The waste caused in our fleeting relationships with consumer durables is big.
Domestic（家庭的）power tools, such as electric drills, are a typical example of such waste. However much DIY the purchaser plans to do, the truth is that these things are thrown away having been used, on average, for just ten minutes. Most will serve “conscience time" gathering dust on a shelf in the garage； people are unwilling to admit that they have wasted their money.
To understand why we have become so wasteful, we should look to the underlying motivation of consumers. “People own things to give expression to who they are, and to show what group of people they feel they belong to," Chapman says. In a world of mass production, however, that symbolism has lost much of its power. For most of human history, people had a close relationship with objects they used or treasured. Often they made the objects themselves, or family members passed them on. For more specialist objects, people relied on manufacturers living close by, whom they probably knew personally. Chapman points out that all these factors gave objects a history and an emotional connection that today's mass-produced goods can not match. Without these personal connections, consumerist culture instead idolizes（(崇拜）)） novelty（新颖）.People know that they can't buy happiness, but the chance to remake themselves with box- fresh products seems irresistible. When the novelty fades, they simply renew the excitement by buying more.
28. “Sustainable designers" are most likely to create .
A. user-friendly goods B. long-lasting goods
C. culture-oriented goods D. consumer-preferred goods
29. Some domestic power tools serve "conscience time" because the owners .
A. wish they had not bought the power tool
B. want to make sure the tool is stored safely
C. feel that the tool will increase in value in the future
D. would feel guilty if they threw the tool away immediately
30. What do we know from Paragraph 3?
A. People won't be happy unless buying enough goods.
B. Mass-produced goods help people show their social status.
C. Lack of personal connection to goods makes people buy more.
D. Mass-produced goods are attractive because of their lower prices.
31. What does the writer probably talk about in the following paragraph?
A. The types of the waste. B. The achievements of the designers.
C. The cure for the waste. D. The history of the consumer culture.
第二节 （共5小题;每小题2分，满分10分）
根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项 为多余选项。
To an outsider, any culture can seem confusing. And the U. K.'s got a thing or two that raises a few eyebrows. 32 Here are the reasons for three of Britain's more puzzling practices.
In a world where 61% of nations drive on the right, Brits drive on the left. Why? Most people think it goes back to the Medieval period, maybe even Roman times. 33 when you remember that right-handed people wear a sword on their left hip. Traveling on the left allowed you to keep your weapon arm toward your opponent, who would be on your right. This practice continued until the 18th century when a law was passed requiring all traffic crossing London Bridge to keep to the left.
Visitors to the U. K. that have just washed their hands in an old-fashioned sink might be wondering why one tap is only for hot water, the other cold. 34 So, why this oddity（古怪）？ It relates to a time when hot and cold water were kept separate to prevent pollution. Drinkable cold water came from a main supply, but hot water came from attic tanks and was not considered suitable for consumption. So they were kept apart.
Millions of people drink tea worldwide, but the odd Brits put milk in theirs. Why? This mysterious practice relates to the quality of china cups used in the 18th century when tea was first imported. For the majority of Brits, the cups available couldn't stand the heat of the boiling water and would break, so milk was added first. 35 . And this practical tweak（微调）soon became a national habit.
36 As you can see, these odd Brits have perfectly clear reasons for left-hand driving, two-tap sinks and tea with milk. Even if they still seem strange, at least now you're in the know.
A. This makes it difficult to improve
B. There is always an explanation to the madness
C. This unusual behavior makes sense
D. You can know the origins of the practices
E. Either can make washing very uncomfortable
F. This cooled the cup enough to resist the boiling water
G. However, understand the whys and things might be less puzzling
