(A )
A coal-fire stove(炉灶)provided heating for Zhao Yaoqin's courtyard bungalow in a Beijing hutong all her life.
This winter, however, the stove has disappeared from the 66-year-old's life, and an electric radiator takes its place beside her bed, a product of a government to use clean energy in the national capital.
With the Olympics to be staged in Beijing next August, the city is determined to eliminate the use of coal within the Third Ring Road that circles the city before the Games. The project to replace the stoves with electric radiators has been part of the effort.
When the city's four-month long heating season started on Thursday, coal-fired stoves, known as a big source of pollution in the big city, have disappeared from some 20,000 local households like Zhao's bungalow in the inner city "hutong" -- traditional alleyways(小巷) that date back centuries.
"We used to boil water or bake bread on the stove," said Zhao, sounding sentimental(伤感) to the disappearance of the coal furnace from her life.
Late in the 1990s, Beijing's air quality monitoring office found that the emissions(排放) of sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide from the hutong areas have been higher than the city's average in winter, mainly because of the coal stoves. With the project to switch to clean energy for heating launched in 1999, the emission level of the two poisonous substances decreased by 42 percent and 44 percent, respectively, this year from 2001 levels.
Zhao said the fee for electrical heat for the entire winter was usually around 2,400 yuan (US$323) per household. With the government's subsidy（补贴）, however, she only needed to pay about 500 yuan, nearly the same price as that for coal.
1．Zhao Yaoqin’ example in the passage is to tell us that_______.
A.people in Beijing using electric radiators to welcome the Olympics.
B.people in Beijing are doing something to protect the environment.
C.hutongs in Beijing have a long history.
D.People pay more money to use electric radiators than before.
2. The underlined word eliminate probably means________
A. cut down.
B. increase.
C. get rid of.
D. replace
3. We can infer from the passage that ______
A. Zhao Yaoqin has a strong and deep emotion with the use of coal-fire stove.
B. The government will pay most of the fee.
C. The air of Beijing has been badly polluted since 1990s.
D. The people do not use coal eight months in one year.
4. Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
A. The clean air is important when the Olympics Games is held in Beijing.
B. The success of the Olympics Games depends on the clean air.
C. The government spare no effort to make the environment better.
D. The emission level of poisonous substances will be low in 2008.
