A small but shining silver lining: The corona-virus has quickened the shift to pedal power in Europe. The German Cycling Association (ADFC) reports that Germans across the country are spending twice as much time biking as they were before the COVID-19. There is growing demand for bikes and shared-bike subscriptions, and now even shortages throughout bicycle supply chain. For bike shops it's an unexpected boom. So much so that it requires cities to improve their biking facilities.
In unimagined numbers, bikes are starting to take the place of cars in our cities. It has increased 930 miles of new bike lanes (车道) in Europe, “muscling aside cars on Europe’s city streets,” according to European Cyclists Federation. Belgium, Denmark, and the Netherlands are pioneering fast lanes for riders. “Pop-up lanes” are being used for bikes in Berlin and Paris; Rome has painted new bike lanes, in each case taking away lanes from cars.
Women riders are reportedly another big factor in the biking transformation. E-bikes are, too. E-bikes use an onboard battery to boost power when the rider is going up a hill, or just needs a rest. E-bikes have removed “the sweat factor”. Who wants to show up to work or a party sweaty?
The European Cyclists’ Federation states that bikes are also strongly supported by European governments to cut carbon and increase the quality of their cities. European countries provide direct financial stimulation for cyclists.
At the end of April, France announced a 20 million Euro plan to promote cycling after the end of the lockdown. The plan includes 50 Euro vouchers (代金券) for the repair of a bike. Italy worked on a regulation for Covid recovery, by means of which 120 million Euro was set aside to cover 70% and up to 500 Euro of the price of conventional, muscle-powered and electric bikes.
1. What is the passage mainly about?| A．The impact of the pandemic on people's life. |
| B．The bicycle industry booms in Europe. |
| C．The preference for bicycles globally. |
| D．The shift in choice on public transportation. |
| A．Two. | B．Three. | C．Four. | D．Five. |
| A．Measures have been taken to encourage Europeans to use bikes. |
| B．E-bikes become popular with Europeans because they are lazy. |
| C．More women in Europe choose to go to work by bike than men. |
| D．Financial support is the main reason why Europeans choose bikes. |
| A．A guidebook. | B．A business plan. |
| C．A science report. | D．A newspaper. |
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【推荐1】In the United States, a company is working on a project that could change the way we think about public transportation. Its planned system would move people around in steel tubes. Those passengers would be traveling at speeds of up to 1,200 kilometers per hour.
The futuristic transportation system is called Hyperloop. Workers plan to test the system next year in a specially built community called Quay valley. The town will be powered entirely by energy from the sun.
The Hyperloop transport system is the idea of businessman Elon Musk. Dirk Ahlborn is head of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies. He says his company has taken Mr. Musk's idea and is developing a system that will be safe, environmentally friendly and fast.
It’s 100 percent solar-powered... we’re not going to get up to 760 miles per hour, but we believe we can actually break the records that are exiting right now.”
This means that a four-hour drive from Los Angeles, California to Las Vegas, Nevada, could someday take only 30 minutes by Hyperloop.
The system involves a series of capsules that float inside a long tube. These containers wouldn’t need to travel along a pathway or track. The system has been designed to operate above or below ground.
Inside the tube there is a low-pressure environment very similar to an airplane that’s at high altitudes. So now the capsule travelling inside the tube doesn’t meet with as much resistance, and therefore can travel really fast with very little energy.
Dick Ahlborn and his company will use an eight-kilometer track in Quay Valley to find the best way to set up passenger traffic and repair capsules. A larger system will cost an estimated 6 — 10 billion dollars to build.
If Mr. Ahlborn and his company succeed, we may one day see these very fast Hyperloop capsules speeding through tubes around the world.
1. What do we know about the Hyperloop transport system?| A．It travels along a pathway or track. | B．It was already tested in a community. |
| C．It was developed by a businessman. | D．It is environmentally friendly. |
| A．They are solar-powered. | B．They travel at high altitudes. |
| C．There is less resistance inside the tube. | D．There is a powerful engine to drive them. |
| A．Objective. | B．Doubtful. | C．Subjective. | D．Dissatisfied. |
| A．Steel Tubs | B．A Creative Businessman |
| C．Hyperloop Transport System | D．Quay Valley |
【推荐2】Rush hour traffic is a problem in many big cities around the world. Commuters (上下班者) rush to and from their jobs in cars, buses, subways, trains, and even on bicycles. Large cities in the United States have two rush hours –– one in the morning and one in the evening. But in cities in other parts of the world, there are four rush hours. In Athens and Rome, for example, many workers go home for lunch and a nap. After this midday break, they rush back to their jobs and work for a few more hours.
In Tokyo, there’s a big rush hour underground. Most of the people in Tokyo take the subways. The trains are very crowded. Subway employees called packers wear white gloves and help pack the commuters into the trains when the doors close. They make sure that all purses, briefcases, clothes, and hands are inside the trains.
In Seoul, many commuters prefer to take taxis to get to work. To hail a cab, many people stand at crossroads and raise two fingers. This means they’ll pay the cab driver double the usual fare. Some people even raise three fingers! They’ll pay three times the normal rate.
Streets in Rome are very crowded with automobiles and mopeds (摩托自行车) during rush hours. The city can’t make its streets wider, and it can’t build new highways, because it doesn’t want to disturb the many historic sites in the city, such as the Forum and the Coliseum. It took the city fifteen years to construct a new subway system. Construction had to stop every time workers found old artifacts and discovered places of interest to archaeologists (考古学家).
In many big cities, there are special lanes on highways for carpools. These are groups of three or more people who drive to and from work together. They share the costs of gas and parking and take turns driving into the city.
1. Big cities have traffic problems during rush hours because there are_______.| A．special lanes on highways | B．many commuters |
| C．four rush hours | D．many cars on the street |
| A．take subway trains to work | B．are packers |
| C．take taxis to work | D．carry briefcases to work |
| A．pay double the normal fare | B．try to get a cab |
| C．prefer to take taxis | D．to stand at crossroads |
| A．live in the city | B．take the subway to work |
| C．save money on gas and parking fee | D．have special license plates (牌照) |
【推荐3】Self-driving cars have been backed by the hope that they will save lives by getting involved in fewer crashes with fewer injuries and deaths than human-driven cars. But so far, most comparisons between human drivers and automated vehicles have been unfair. Crash statistics for human-driven cars are gathered from all sorts of driving situations. and all types of roads. However, most of the data on self-driving cars' safety have been recorded often in good weather and on highways, where the most important tasks are staying in the car's own lane and not getting too close to the vehicle-ahead. Automated cars are good at those tasks, but so are humans.
It is true that self-driving cars don't get tired, angry, frustrated or drunk .But neither can they yet react to uncertain situations with the same skill or anticipation of an attentive Unban driver. Nor do they possess the foresight to avoid potential dangers. They largely drive from moment to moment, rather than think ahead to possible events literally down the road.
To a self-driving car, a bus full of people might appear quite similar to an uninhabited field. Indeed, deciding what action to take in an emergency is difficult for humans, but drivers have sacrificed themselves for the greater good of others. An automated system's limited understanding of the world means it will almost never evaluate （评估）a Situation the same way a human would. And machines can't be programmed in advance to handle every imaginable set of events.
Some people may argue that the promise of simply reducing the number of injuries and deaths is enough to support driverless cars. But experience from aviation（航空）shows that as new automated systems are introduced, there is often an increase in the rate of disasters.
Therefore, comparisons between humans and automated vehicles have to be performed carefully. To fairly evaluate driverless cars on how well they fulfill their promise of improved safety, it's important to ensure the data being presented actually provide a true comparison. After all, choosing to replace humans with automation has more effects than simply a one-for-one exchange.
1. What makes the comparison between self-driving cars and human-driven cars unfair?| A．Self-driving cars never get tired. | B．Machines can make decisions faster. |
| C．Self-driving cars know the world better. | D．Statistics are collected differently. |
| A．Climbing steep slopes. | B．Driving steadily. |
| C．Evaluating the cost of loss. | D．Making complex decisions. |
| A．To support human-driven cars. |
| B．To show his doubt about self-driving cars. |
| C．To call for exact evaluation of self-driving cars. |
| D．To stress the importance of reducing car accidents. |
| A．A narrative | B．A description |
| C．An argument | D．An exposition |
【推荐1】Fitness junkies (上瘾者) locked out of gyms, commuters (上班族) fearful of public transport, and families going crazy inside their homes during the coronavirus pandemic (冠状病毒大流行) have created a boom (繁荣) in bicycle sales unseen in decades.
Bicycle sales over the past two months saw their biggest spike in the U.S. since the oil crisis of the 1970s, said Jay Townley, who analyzes cycling industry trends at Human Powered Solutions. “People quite frankly have panicked, and they’re buying bikes like toilet paper,” Townley said, referring to the rush to buy essentials like toilet paper and hand sanitizer (杀菌剂) that stores saw at the beginning of the pandemic.
The trend is mirrored around the globe, as cities like Manila and Rome, set up bike lanes (车道) to accommodate growing interest in cycling while public transport remains reduced. In London, authorities plan to go further by banning cars from some central highways.
There are multiple reasons for the pandemic bicycle boom. Around the world, many workers were looking for an alternative to buses and subways. People unable to go to their gyms looked for another way to exercise. And shut-in families tried to find a way to keep kids active during stay-at-home orders.
The pandemic is also driving a boom in electric-assist bikes, called e-bikes, which were a minor part of the overall market until now. Sales at Cowboy, a Belgian e-bike maker, tripled (三倍增长) in the January-April period from last year. Notably, they spiked in Britain and France at around the same time in May that those countries started easing lockdown restrictions, said Chief Marketing Officer Benoit Simeray.
Joe Minutolo, co-owner of Bar Harbor Bicycle Shop, said he hopes the sales growth translates into long-term change. “People are having a chance to rethink things,” he said. “Maybe we'll all learn something out of this, and something really good will happen.”
1. What does the underlined word “spike” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Decline. | B．Restriction. |
| C．Increase. | D．Disappearance. |
| A．Bike Lanes are set up for cyclists. |
| B．Locals still rush to buy toilet paper. |
| C．Cars are banned from some main roads. |
| D．E-bikes sell much better than other categories. |
| A．The appearance of e-bikes. |
| B．The reasons for the bicycle boom. |
| C．The daily activities of shut-in families. |
| D．The traffic conditions around the world. |
| A．To encourage readers to buy bicycles. |
| B．To inform readers of the bicycle boom. |
| C．To present attitudes towards the bicycle boom. |
| D．To introduce the new development of bicycles. |
【推荐2】It was the final climb on his search to reach the highest top on all seven continents. When Christopher Kulish finally reached Mount Everest’s 29,035-foot peak, he joined an elite group known as the “Seven Summits Club”(七峰俱乐部). But the 62-year-old Colorado attorney died suddenly Monday after returning to the first camp below the mountain’s summit. He’s the second American to die in the past week after reaching Everest’s highest point. His family believes the cause was a heart attack, according to theDenver Post. “He saw his last sunrise from the highest peak on Earth,” his brother, Mark Kulish, said in a statement to the Denver Post. “We are heartbroken at this news.”
Last week, 55-year-old Donald Lynn Cash of Utah collapsed and died just after reaching the Everest peak. He too had reached the highest point on all seven continents. Including Christopher and Cash, at least 11 people have died on Mount Everest this year.
The deaths come among reports of overcrowding on the popular mountain. The Nepali government granted a total of 381 permits to climb Everest this year, a number that doesn’t include guides who are on the mountain as well. For some climbers, that traffic has meant longer wait times — some told the Himalayan Times the wait has been over two hours between the last camp and the peak. Mountaineer Vanessa O’Brien, who has also climbed the seven summits, said when there’s a crowd, being a more experienced climber won’t help you. “It doesn’t matter if you’re the best racecar driver in the world. If you’re stuck in traffic, you’re stuck in traffic,” she said in an interview.
And when a climber is stuck in that traffic, “their body is starting to deteriorate（恶化）.” O’Brien, who set a record as the fastest woman to reach the highest peak on every continent, also said the descent(下降) is often harder than the climb.
Climbing expert Alan Arnette said there’s no simple explanation for the string of deaths. He said weather that has led to a shorter climbing season is one factor causing overcrowding. He also said the cost to climb Mount Everest has decreased, which means more people are making the journey. He urged the governments in charge of granting(同意）permits to limit how many people can be on the mountain at once.
Still, Christopher was no beginner. His family said he’d been mountain climbing for five decades. He arrived at the base camp nearly two months before his climb so he could give himself time to adapt to the conditions. When he made his journey, his family said he was climbing with a small group in almost ideal conditions after some of the overcrowding had cleared.
His brother described being a lawyer as a “day job” for Christopher. Climbing was his love. “He was an inveterate climber of peaks in Colorado, the West and the world over,” Mark Kulish said. “He passed away doing what he loved.”
1. What made longer wait times on Mount Everest?| A．Lacking guides. | B．Overcrowding. |
| C．Bad weather. | D．Getting government’s permission. |
a. The less cost attracting more climbers.
b. The more climbers worsening the environment.
c. More permits granted by the government.
d. The governments limiting the climber’s number.
e. The weather leading to a shorter climbing season.
| A．a, b, d. | B．a, c, e. |
| C．b, c, d. | D．b, d, e. |
| A．To wait for his friends. | B．To learn about the mountain. |
| C．To clear the traffic jam. | D．To adapt to conditions earlier. |
| A．Experienced. | B．Famous. |
| C．Excellent. | D．Addictive. |
【推荐3】Black students reported facing barriers that prevent them from completing their undergraduate studies in six years or less, regardless of the type of certificate or degree program, according to research published Thursday by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation. The most significant factors contributing to the lower rates among Black students, the study found, were experiencing acts of discrimination and managing multiple priorities that can interfere with completing coursework.
The report compiled data in fall 2022 from 6, 008 college students across different certification and degree programs, including 1, 106 Black students.
21% of Black respondents said they felt discriminated against frequently or occasionally compared to 15% of other students. Black students were also more likely to have shared that they felt disrespected or psychologically unsafe at an institution while learning. 28% of Black students who attended an institution with little diversity felt physically unsafe, while 26% felt disrespected and 27% felt psychologically unsafe.
Managing multiple priorities was another factor interfering with Black students’ education goals. The report found that 22% of Black students overall have caregiving responsibilities, compared to 11% of students in other racial groups, and 20% of Black students overall have full-time jobs, compared to 11% of other racial groups.
Aside from discrimination and the task of managing responsibilities, the data also acknowledged other barriers making it difficult for Black students to complete their education, including the high costs of attending school. An April 2022 report by The Education Trust found that because Black women fall within two marginalized groups, they make less money and often have to takeout more loans to cover the cost of attending college.
1. Which factor can’t lead to the lower rate of completing education among black students directly?| A．Management of multiple priorities. | B．Experiences of discrimination. |
| C．The types of certificate or degree programs. | D．High costs of attending school. |
| A．By referring to previous studies. |
| B．By making some comparisons. |
| C．By explaining causes and effects. |
| D．By analyzing respondents’ psychology. |
| A．About 21% of Black students feel discriminated against frequently. |
| B．Black students feel discriminated mainly due to physical in security. |
| C．Black students have to take full-time jobs for lack of access to loans. |
| D．The black female students may be in the most disadvantaged position. |
| A．Objective. | B．Favorable. | C．Critical. | D．Concerned. |
【推荐1】Jingdezhen is famous as China’s porcelain (瓷器) capital. It was one of thestops of a group of international youths as they visited Jiangxi Province.
The group’s visit to Jingdezhen was organised by the 2022 Global Young Leaders Dialogue (GYLD) China Tours program. The program offers young people around the world a chance to experience Chinese culture, learn about the life of the nation’s people, and appreciate China’s beautiful scenery through interesting visits and exchanges that take them all over the country.
In Jingdezhen, they visited Imperial Kiln (御窑) Museum. “Before I came to the Imperial Kiln Museum, I had no idea it would take such a complicated (复杂的) process to restore (修复) a piece of porcelain left over from ancient times,” American TV host Steven Weathers said. “Even with the help of high technology, it is hard to imagine how many modern means have played a part in the process of cultural relic protection,” he added.
Daria Lisaia, a researcher from Vanke Urban Research in Shenzhen, shared Weathers’ opinion. Some porcelain musical instruments have been produced with these imperial kilns from ancient days and traditional tools for making porcelain, so we can “hear the music” from hundreds of years ago, she said. “It’s like ancient culture is reborn,” she explained.
In addition to exploring the porcelain art, the group also came to Huangling Village in Wuyuan County, an ancient village around 80 km east of Jingdezhen. Huangling was once packed with run-down houses and buildings. Changes began to take place in 2009, with over 80 percent of the old houses restored. Today, many people come here to enjoy its historic scenes and natural beauty. In early autumn, large bamboo baskets filled with crops, such as chilies, pumpkins and chrysanthemum flowers, are placed in front of the local houses. Locals dry and preserve their crops for winter. Today, the longstanding practice has become a symbol of local culture and an important part of tourism.
1. What is the purpose of the 2022 GYLD China Tours program?| A．To protect traditional Chinese culture. |
| B．To let people know more about China. |
| C．To attract more people to Jingdezhen. |
| D．To learn ancient skills from local people. |
| A．It is not an easy job. |
| B．It is very easy to learn. |
| C．Traditional ways are better. |
| D．New technologies speed the process. |
| A．To create new instruments. |
| B．To keep up with the times. |
| C．To bring back ancient music. |
| D．To show good porcelain skills. |
| A．It is losing its traditions. |
| B．It is now a tourist attraction. |
| C．It should speed up its progress. |
| D．It should develop a new industry. |
【推荐2】Jennifer Destefano answered a call from a number she did not recognize. “Mom, I messed up,” her daughter’s voice told her, crying. “These bad men have me.” A man proceeded to demand money, or he would drug her daughter and leave her in Mexico. But while she kept him on the phone, friends managed to reach her daughter, only to discover that she was, in fact, free and well on a skiing trip in Arizona. The voice used on the phone was a fake.
Voice cloning’s influences will be huge. For several years, customers have been able to identify themselves over the phone to their bank and other companies using their voice. Not even a gifted mimic(巧于模仿的人) could fool the detection system. But the arrival of cloning will force adaptation in order to prevent cheating.
Creative industries could face the impact too. Voice actors’ skills, trained over a lifetime, can be copied in a matter of seconds. But some actors may, in fact. find cloning congenial. Val Kilmer, who has lost much of his voice to throat cancer, was delighted to have his voice restored for “Top Gun: Maverick”.
Another industry that will have to come to cope with the rise of clones is journalism. Now who will trust a story based on an audio clip(片段)? Slightly easier to manage might be the false positives: recordings claiming to be someone but which are fakes. The opposite problem—the false negatives—will arise when public figures deny authentic recordings. Proving that a clip is genuine is bard, perhaps even impossible. Journalists will need to show how they obtained and stored audio files.
The term “fake news” had existed long before voice cloning. Now, ever more people caught in a crime are likely to defend themselves. “It wasn’t me. ” And many people will have even more reason to believe them.
1. What does Jennifer Destefano’s experience indicate?| A．The high frequency of fake news. | B．The rising crime rate in Mexico. |
| C．The danger of voice-cloning technology. | D．The value of bravery in an emergency. |
| A．Illegal. | B．Ridiculous. | C．Horrible. | D．Agreeable. |
| A．Late Beetles’ songs have been restored by voice cloning. |
| B．A pop star declares an authentic recording untrue. |
| C．Journalists prove their reports with audio clips. |
| D．The police identify a criminal through voice. |
| A．Voice cloning is increasingly used in journalism |
| B．Voice cloning is challenging our traditional ideas |
| C．Voice cloning is impacting different aspects of our life |
| D．Voice cloning is re-establishing life styles for the better |
【推荐3】Over five decades after being captured, Lolita, the star orca (虎鲸) in Miami Seaquarium, will finally be able to bid adieu to her tiny tank in Florida and return to her home waters of the Pacific Northwest to live out the rest of her days.
Lolita, also known as Tokitae or Toki, is a 57-year-old female orca from the now-endangered southern resident orcas that live in the North Pacific Ocean and Washington State’s Puget Sound. Lolita has lived at Miami Seaquarium since 1970, after she was captured from the waters of Puget Sound at 4 years old. Since then, Lolita has performed tricks in the aquarium pool until March 2022, when she was retired from public shows. She is currently the second oldest orca in captivity behind Corky, a 58-year-old male who lives at SeaWorld San Diego.
The aquarium announced it will begin the process of returning the orca to her natural habitat in the next two years. But Lolita’s age and the fact that she’s lived in captivity for decades and is unable to find food on her own could complicate her release back into the wild. “In a plan set to take up to two years, she will be first transported by plane to an ocean conservation area in the waters between Washington State and Canada, where trainers will teach her how to catch fish inside a large net,” said Mr. Colby, an environmental historian. “She will also have to build up her muscles, as orcas typically swim about 160 kilometers per day.”
One of the organizations campaigning for her release is PETA. “If Lolita is finally returned to her home waters, there will be cheers from around the world,” the group said in a statement sent to Newsweek. “It’ll offer her long-awaited relief after five miserable decades in a narrow tank and send a clear signal to other parks that the days of confining highly intelligent, far-ranging sea animals to prisons are ended.”
1. What do the underlined words “bid adieu to” in paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Burst on to. | B．Give way to. |
| C．Say goodbye to. | D．Breath through. |
| A．She was retired due to aging problems. |
| B．She is the world’s oldest female orca in captivity. |
| C．She enjoys performing tricks in the aquarium pool. |
| D．She has lived at SeaWorld San Diego for over 50 years. |
| A．Lolita will be merely trained to live in the ocean. |
| B．Lolita’s condition has made her release into the wild tricky. |
| C．It is complicated to find a suitable natural habitat for Lolita. |
| D．Lolita will spend the rest of her life in the ocean conservation area. |
| A．The Challenges of Saving Lolita |
| B．The Victory of Lolita’s Retirement |
| C．Lolita: Set to Be Freed to Home Waters |
| D．Lolita: The Most Intelligent Orca in the World |
