单选题 A pioneering study by Donald Appleyard made the surprising discovery that a sudden increase in the volume of traffic through an area affects people in the way that a sudden increase in crime does. Appleyard observed this by finding three blocks of houses in San Francisco that looked much alike and had the same kind of middle-class and working-class residents, with approximately the same ethic mix. The difference was that only 2000 cars a day ran down Octavia Street (LIGHT street in Appleyard's terminology) while Gough Street (MEDIUM street) had 8 000 cars a day and Franklin Street (HEAVY street) had around 16 000 cars a day.
Franklin Street often had as many cars in an hour as Octavia Street had in a day. Heavy traffic brought with it danger, noise, fumes, and soot, directly, and trash secondarily. That is, the cars didn't bring in much trash, but when trash accumulated, residents seldom picked it up. The cars, Appleyard determined, reduced the amount of territory residents felt responsible for. Noise was a constant intrusion into their homes. Many Franklin Street residents covered their doors and windows and spent most of their time in the rear of their houses. Most families with children had already left.
Conditions on Octavia Street were much different. Residents picked up trash. They sat on their front steps and chatted with neighbors. They had three times as many friends and twice as many acquaintances as the people on Franklin.
On Cough Street, residents said that the old feeling of community was disappearing as traffic increased. People were becoming more and more preoccupied with their own lives. A number of families had recently moved. And more were considering it. Those who were staying expressed deep regret at the destruction of their community.

单选题 Appleyard's study focuses on the influence of ______.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】主旨大意题。通读短文后我们不难发现，短文第一句话不但介绍了Appleyard这个人物所作研究的结论，也是短文的主旨句。而由常识可知，对于研究来说，得出的结论或者发现即是该研究的关注点和重点，因此考生只要抓住该句中discovery(发现)一词后用于说明其内容的同位语从句就不难得出答案。这个同位语从句中的affect一词实际上相当于题目中的influence一词。此外，短文后面三段分别对三条交通流量不同的街道的情况进行了说明，分析的就是交通状况对不同街区居民的影响，由此即可验证[A]项“交通量对居民(的影响)”是正确答案。其余三项中，[B]项指“犯罪率对邻里关系(的影响)”，属于抓住短文主旨句中用作类比的crime一词进行的发挥；[C]项指“社会阶层对交通(的影响)”，属于抓住短文第一段第二句中的class一词进行的随意发挥；[D]项指“污染程度对环境(的影响)”也明显偏离了短文原意。

单选题 Appleyard discovered that increase in the volume of traffic ______.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】细节题。本题实际上考虑的是对短文第一段第一句中…in the way that a sudden increase in crime does一处表达的理解。in the way that...是个常用表达，指“用…的方式”，它相当于选项[D]中的the same…as…。作者在此是将犯罪率增加和交通流量增加两者进行类比，认为它们对居民的影响作用是相同的。其余三项都不对，[A]中的more(更加)、[B]中的lead to(导致)和[C]中的accompanied by(共存，伴随)都属于曲解原文意思。

单选题 The author's main purpose in the second paragraph is to ______.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】主旨大意题。本题属于段落主旨题。短文第二段承接第一段最后一句指出的三种交通流量不同的街区情况而来，首先介绍Franklin Street(HEAVY street)的状况，指出heavy traffic带来的问题如danger、noise、fumes等，然后说明了该街区居民是如何应对这种状况的(也就是繁重的交通流量对他们的影响)，因此作者的目的无疑是指出交通拥挤对居民们的不利之处(disadvantages)，故答案是[C]。其余三项都偏离了文意：[A]项指“讨论垃圾处理问题”，[B]项指“提出解决交通问题的方法”，[D]项指“提出另一种可选择的交通系统”。

单选题 People on Gough Street ______.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】细节题。由题干中的Gough street可迅速将研读重点定位到最后一段。该段最后一句指出: ...regret at the destruction of their community(为社区的破坏而感到遗憾)，其中的destruction就是选项[C]中的was gone(消失)。相当一部分考生误选了[A]项。该项中，虽然felt sorry相当于原文中的regret，但pull down这个短语动词用在此处并不合适。pull down虽然也有“摧毁”的意思，但指的是具体的动作，其宾语一般是house、building等，如果用block(街区)，它指的则是抽象的“贬低，打倒”了，显然不合文意。还有部分考生误选了[D]项“主要考虑的是自己”，误选的依据是最后一段第二句：People were…preoccupied with their own lives，但由文意可知，居民们这样做属于不得已而为之，该项的表述显然有失公允。[B]项指“对于人们搬走漠不关心”。

单选题 What can we learn about Franklin Street?

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】分析推理题。由题干中的Franklin Street．回到短文第二段，发现其中最后一句指出：Most families with children had already left(大多数有孩子的家庭都搬走了)，由此即可合理推知该街区不适合孩子生活与成长，否则就没有必要搬走了。选项中只有[A]符合这一意思。其余三项都属于抓住原文中的词句进行的曲解和发挥。