Zurich of Switzerland is the city with the highest quality of life in 2006, while Baghdad, for the third year running, has the lowest, a survey published by human resource company Mercer on Monday shows.

Zurich, Geneva and Vancouver made the top three in the list while Bangui in the Central African Republic and Brazzaville, the capital of Congo Republic, joined Baghdad in the bottom three.

The top three cities in the list are all unchanged from last year.

Almost half the top 30 scoring cities are in Western Europe. In this region, Vienna follows Zurich and Geneva in 4th position. Other highly-rated cities include Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich in positions 6, 7 and 8 respectively. Athens remains the lowest scoring city in Western Europe, standing at position 79.

Chicago is one of the biggest climbers in the rankings since 2005, rising to 41st from 52nd due to reduced crime rates, while Cairo is one of the biggest fallers, sliding nine places to 131st out of 215 cities.

“This was due to political conflicts and terrorist attacks in the city and surrounding area,” Mercer said.

Asia-Pacific Auckland and Wellington have both moved up the rankings from 8th to 5th and 14th to 12th places respectively, while Sydney remains at position 9.

In Asia, Singapore ranks 34th followed by Tokyo, Japan’s highest scoring city, at position 35. Hong Kong’s modern and efficient infrastructure, including its airport which is considered one of best in the world, has pushed it up from 70th to 68th position.

The top-ranking city in China’s mainland is Shanghai in 103rd place.

“Beijing and Shanghai are on the rise and should experience rapid improvements in quality of living in the coming years. This is mainly due to greater international investment driven by the availability and lower cost of labor and manufacturing skills,” explained Mr. Slagin Parakatil, Senior Researcher at Mercer.

Mercer bases its annual survey on 39 quality-of-life factors, from political stability to schools, bars, restaurants and the environment.

The top ten cities in the list:

Zurich, Switzerland

Geneva, Switzerland

Vancouver, Canada

Vienna, Austria

Auckland, New Zealand

Dusseldorf, Germany

Munich, Germany

Sydney, Australia

Berne, Switzerland

 

57. From the first three paragraphs, we can NOT learn _____.

A. since 2004, Baghdad has been the city with the lowest quality of life

B. since 2004, Zurich has been the city with the highest quality of life

C. since 2004, Bangui, Brazzaville and Baghdad have been the bottom three

D. since 2004, Zurich Geneva and Vancouver have been the top three

58. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A. Athens is the lowest scoring city in the world

B. Cairo was the 122nd last year

C. In Asia, Tokyo is the best place to live

D. Due to modern infrastructure, Hong Kong has pushed it up by 3 places

59. By mentioning what Mr. Slagin Parakatil said, the author wants to show _____.

A. Beijing and Shanghai are less developed now

B. greater international investment will lead to the improvement in quality of life in Beijing and Shanghai

C. Mr. Slagin Parakatil expects little of Beijing and Shanghai

D. Beijng and Shanghai will improve rapidly in quality of life in the next few years

60. The purpose of writing the passage is to tell us _____.

A. the results of a survey

B. Zurich is the best place to live

C. the best and worst places to live

D. the rankings of the cities on quality of life in 2006

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San Francisco, a leader in urban recycling, is preparing to turn dog waste into energy.
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【小題1】San Francisco will plan to use dog waste for making __________.

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【小題2】What does the underlined word “ contamination” mean?
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【小題3】What can we infer from the passage?
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San Francisco, a leader in urban recycling, is preparing to turn dog waste into energy.

Norcal Waste System Inc., the city’s largest garbage company, plans to test collection carts(回收車(chē))and collection bags in a city-center park which is popular with dog walkers.

A city study found that almost 4 percent of all the garbage picked up at San Francisco homes was from animal waste, Norcal Waste spokesman Robert Reid said. San Francisco has about 120,000 dogs.

“The city asked us to start a program to recycle dog waste in order to cut back adding more waste in landfills(廢渣埋填池) “,Reid said.

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San Francisco runs a great program to recycle bottles, cars, paper and other rubbish and now two-thirds of its garbage needn’t be carried to landfills .The city’s goal is a 75 percent drop by 2010 and zero new waste in landfills by 2020.

1.San Francisco will plan to use dog waste for making __________.

A．fertilizer

B．gas

C．electricity

D．methane

2.What does the underlined word “ contamination” mean?

A．Increase

B．Reduction

C．Flow

D．Pollution

3.What can we infer from the passage?

A．San Francisco is short of electricity

B．San Francisco has done a lot of in rubbish recycling.

C．Fewer people will keep dogs as pets in San Francisco

D．There will be no rubbish by 2010 in San Francisco

4.The passage is mainly about_______.

A．San Francisco ‘s new policy for pet keepers

B．San Francisco ‘s new plan for recycling

C．how to keep a city clean

D．how to deal with rubbish

 

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