A few years ago, Ann and Walter Taylor thought it might be time to move out of their New York City apartment to the suburbs. They had one young son and another child on the way. But after months of looking, they became discouraged and decided to buy an old townhouse right in the middle of Brooklyn, which is a part of New York City. To their delight, they discovered that they weren't the only young couple to have made such a decision. In fact, the entire area in Brooklyn had been settled by young families. And as a result, the neighborhood, which had been declining for years, was now being restored.
Brooklyn isn't the only city in the United States to experience this kind of renewal. So are Philadelphia and St. Louis. And Charleston, South Carolina, has so successfully rebuilt its old central area that it now ranks as one of America's most charming cities. The restoration of the old port city of Savannah, Georgia, is also living proof that downtown areas do not need to die. But encouraging as these developments may be, they are among the few bright spots in a mass of difficulties that today's cities face. Indeed, their woes are so many that it is fair to ask whether or not the inner city, the core of most urban areas will manage to survive at all.
In the 1940a, urban Americans began a mass move to the suburbs in search of fresh air, elbowroom, an d privacy. Suburbs began to sprawl out across the countryside. Since most of those making the move were middle-class, they took with them the tax money the cities needed to maintain the neighborhoods in which they had lived. The people left in the cities were often those who were too old or too poor to move. Thus, many cities began to fall into disrepair. Crime began to soar, and public transportation was neglected. (In the past sixty years San Francisco is the only city in the United States to have completed a new mass transit system.) Meanwhile, housing construction costs continued to rise higher and higher. Middle-class housing was allowed to decay, and little new housing was constructed.
Eventually, many downtown areas existed for business only. During the day they would be filled with people working in offices, and at night they would be deserted. Given these circumstances, some business executives began asking, "Why bother with going downtown at all? Why not move the offices to the suburbs so that we can live and work in the same area?" Gradually, some of the larger companies began moving out of the cites, with the result that urban centers declined even further and the suburbs expanded still more. This movement of businesses to the suburbs is not confined to the United States. Businesses have also been moving to the suburbs in Stockholm, Sweden, in Bonn, Germany, and in Brussels, Belgium, as well.
But it may well be that this movement to the suburbs has reached its peak. Some people may be tired of spending long hours commuting, and they may have begun to miss the advantages of culture and companionship provided by city life. Perhaps the decision made by the Taylors is a sign that people will return to the cities and begin to restore them. h begins to look as if suburban sprawl may not have been the answer to man's need to create an ideal environment in which to live and work.
The author of the passage suggests that ______.
A．moving to suburbs is not the answer to an ideal environment
B．cities are likely to be replaced by the suburbs
C．downtown areas are too crowded to live
D．American people moves lot in history
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Most parties offer finger ford, but ______.
A．only Americans love it.
B．it is impolite to eat with your hands at parties
C．there are some exceptions
D．you can't always get refills
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仔细阅读:Interactive television advertising, which allows viewers to use their remote controls to click on
Passage One 2016年6月英语六级卷一试题
Interactive television advertising, which allows viewers to use their remote controls to click on advertisements, has been pushed for years. Nearly a decade ago it was predicted that viewers of "Friends", a popular situation comedy, would soon be able to purchase a sweater like Jennifer Aniston's with a few taps on their remote control. "it's been the year of interactive television advertising for the last ten or twelve years," says Collin Dixon of a digital-media consultancy.
So the news that Cablevision, an American cable company, was rolling out interactive advertisements to all its customers on October 6th was greeted with some skepticism. During commercials, an overlay will appear at the bottom of the screen, prompting viewers to press a button to request a free sample or order a catalogue. Cablevision hopes to allow customers to buy things with their remote controls early next year.
Television advertising could do with a boost. Spending fell by 10% in the first half of the year. The popularization of digital video recorders has caused advertisers to worry that their commercials will be skipped. Some are turning to the Internet, which is cheaper and offers concrete measurements like click-through rates-especially important at a time when marketing budgets are tight. With the launch of interactive advertising, "many of the dollars that went to the Internet will come back to the TV," says David Kline of Cablevision. Or so the industry hopes.
In theory, interactive advertising can engage viewers in a way that 30-second spot or not. Unilever recently ran an interactive campaign for its Axe deodorant(除臭剂), which kept viewers engaged for more than three minutes on average.
The amount spent on interactive advertising on television is still small. Magna, an advertising agency, reckons it will be worth about $138 million this year. That falls far short of the billions of dollars people once expected it to generate. But DirecTV, Comcast and Time Warner Cable have all invested in it. A new effort led by Canoe Ventures, a coalition of leading cable providers, aims to make interactive advertising available across America later this year. BrightLine iTV, which designs and sells interactive ads, says interest has argued: it expects its revenues almost to triple this year. BSkyB, Britain's biggest satellite-television service, already provides 9 million customers with interactive ads.
Yet there are doubts whether people watching television, a "lean back" medium, crave interaction. Click-through rates have been high so far (around3-4%, compared with less than 0.3% online), but that may be a result of the novelty. Interactive ads and viewers might not go well together.
47.What does Colin Dixon mean by saying "It's been the year of interactive television advertising for the last ten or twelve years" (Line 4-5, Para.1)?
A.Interactive television advertising will become popular in 10-12 years.
B.Interactive television advertising has been under debate for the last decade or so.
C.Interactive television advertising is successful when incorporated into situation comedies.
D.Interactive television advertising has not achieved the anticipated results.
48.What is the public's response to Cablevision's planned interactive TV advertising program?
A.Pretty positive.
B.Totally indifferent.
C.Somewhat doubtful.
D.Rather critical.
49.What is the impact of the wide use of digital video recorders on TV advertising?
A.It has made TV advertising easily accessible to viewers.
B.It helps advertisers to measure the click-through rates.
C.It has placed TV advertising at a great disadvantage.
D.It enables viewers to check the sales items with ease.
50.What do we learn about Unilever's in
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The wings of the bird still ________ after it had been shot down.
A) slapped
B) scratched
C) flapped
D) fluctuated
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听力原文：M: What's Mr. Peterson going to do with his old house on London Road, rent it or sell it?
W: I heard he is thinking of turning it into a restaurant, which isn't a bad idea, because it's still a solid building.
Q: What will Mr. Peterson do with his old house?
(19)
A．He may convert it and use it as a restaurant.
B．He may pull it down and build a new restaurant.
C．He may rent it out for use as a restaurant.
D．He may sell it to the owner of a restaurant.
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A．In the Qing Dynasty.
B．In the 19th Century.
C．In the Song Dynasty.
D．In the 16th Century.