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Cities of Tomorrow

Middle school students combine science and imagination as they celebrate National Engineers

Week in a Future City Competition．

In the African city of Mwinda，floating farms are quite common．The city’s residents zip around in hydrogen-powered hover（盘旋的）vehicles，and renewable energy resources provide the city’s power．That’s how Jake Bowers，12，Emily Ponti，14，and Krisha Sherburne，12，imagined their future city．

The students，who attend St．Thomas More School in Baton Rouge，Louisiana，took first place

for their design last week in the 2007 National Engineer Week Future City Competition held in

Washington，D．C．The students won a trip to the U．S Space Camp in Huntsville，Alabam．

Kids from 35 middle schools across the country made it to Washington．They had teamed up

with teachers and volunteer engineer mentors（顾问，导师）to develop cities．Each team began by

creating a fictional city on SimCity 3000，a computer game that allows players to construct towns．

The students then built a tabletop model of the city，wrote an essay and presented their creation to a

panel（专门小组） of judges．This year’s theme asked students to design fuel cell powered

communities．Fuel cell technology works by using hydrogen and oxygen to produce power．The

process is environmentally friendly．

Organizers hope the competition provides a fun and educational way to spark young people’s

interest in engineering．“As the number of graduates in engineering（decreases），it’s ever more

important to encourage students to build these skills at an early age，”says John Hofmeister，

President of Shell Oill Company．Shell is a sponsor of the annual Future City contest．Judging by

this year’s competition，plenty of kids are getting the message．Some 30，000 students from more

than 1，000 schools participated in the 2006 －2007 Future City Competition．

64．What is not imagined in the three teenagers’ mind for their future city？

A．Hydrogen-powered hover vehicles．

B．The city’s power provided by renewable energy resources．

C．Floating farms．

D．Oxygen-powered floating factories．

65．Which statement is True according to the passage？

A．St．Thomas More School in Baton Rouge is in Alabama．

B．The 2007 National Engineer Week Future City Competition was held in Lounisiana．

C．The students who took first place for their design won a trip to U．S．Space Camp in

Huntsville．

D．The U．S Space Camp lies in Washington，D，C．．

66．Kids from 35 middle schools_________．

A．could use computers to help them construct their future cities

B．created a real city on Simcity 3000

C．teamed up on their own to develop cities

D．built a tabletop model of the city and presented it to their teachers for judgment

67．It can be inferred that the 2006 －07 Future City Competition_________．

A．will spark young people’s interest in living in Space Camp

B．will decrease the number of graduates in engineering

C．will encourage college students to build engineering skills after their graduation

D．was participated in by 30 students on average in each school