【推荐1】Of the top 10 most expensive rail construction projects starting in 2022, five are located in Asia. Here are 4 expensive railways in China.

Nantong-Ningbo High-Speed Railway: CNY108.9bn

The project aims to reduce the travel time between the cities of Nantong and Ningbo. It involves the construction of a 309. 8 km railway line with a design speed of 350km/h with 10 railway stations. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2027.

Xiong’an-Xinzhou High-Speed Railway: CNY57.2bn

The project aims to build a high-speed railway to provide smooth and faster traffic, cutting travel time between the two cities. It involves the construction of a 342 km high-speed railway line with a design speed of 350km/h with 13 stations. The project will be developed in two sections. Construction work is expected to be completed by March 2027, after breaking ground in October 2022.

Shanghai-Nanjing-Hefei High-Speed Railway:CNY157.9bn

It is a high-speed rail line from Shanghai to Nanjing and Hefei in China. The project aims to expand the railway network and reduce traffic, travel time and distance in the region. The project involves the construction of a 553. 76 km high-speed rail line with a design speed of 350km/h with16 stations. It is scheduled to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2028.

Beijing-Xiong’an-Shangqiu High-Speed Railway: CNY101bn

It is a high-speed railway line from Fengtai in Beijing to Xiong’an in Hebei to Shangqiu in Henan. The project’s aim is to reduce travel time and distance between Fengtai in Beijing, Xiong’an in Hebei, and Shangqiu in Henan. The project involves the construction of a 638 km high-speed railway line with a design speed of 350km/h with 16 stations. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2027.

1. Which is the shortest railway to be constructed of the four?

A．Nantong-Ningbo High-Speed Railway.

B．Xiong’an-Xinzhou High-Speed Railway.

C．Shanghai-Nanjing Hefei High-Speed Railway.

D．Beijing-Xiong’an-Shangqiu High-Speed Railway.

2. What is special about Xiong’an-Xinzhou High-Speed Railway?

A．It has the highest design speed.

B．It demands the least investment.

C．It aims to reduce the travel time.

D．It goes past Chongqing and Shangqiu.

3. What do the last two railways have in common?

A．They both have 16 stations.

B．They both construct in two sections.

C．They both include underground lines.

D．They are expected to be completed by 2027.

【推荐2】The Grand Canal (京杭大运河) is a man-made waterway that runs north and south in eastern China. It is the longest man-made waterway in the world. Below is some historical and factual information about the Grand Canal.

How Long Is It?

The canal stretches over 1,100 miles from the city of Beijing to the city of Hangzhou. It is sometimes called the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal. In addition to connecting these two big cities, the canal also connects China’s two most important rivers: the Yellow River and the Yangtze River.

Why Was the Grand Canal Built?

It was not until 603 AD that Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty issued an order to connect the existing canals and expand them to reach all the way from Beijing to Hangzhou, in order to meet the political, economic (经济的) and military (军事的) needs of the time, particularly to ship food from the rich farmland in southern China to the capital city, Beijing, and to help feed the soldiers guarding the northern borders. The canal was also used as a passage way to transport important government messages.

Building the Grand Canal

Building the canal was a huge project. It took over six years of hard work by millions of labourers. When the canal was finally completed in 610 AD, China had a new waterway that would enrich the country for hundreds of years to come.

Later Improvements

The Ming Dynasty rebuilt much of the canal in the early 1400s. They made the canal deeper, built new canal locks, and constructed reservoirs to control the water in the canal. It is estimated that it took over 45,000 full-time laborers to maintain the canal during the Ming Dynasty.

1. What is NOT the purpose of building the Grand Canal?

A．Emperor Yang wanted an effective way of transporting food to Beijing.

B．Emperor Yang wanted to build the longest waterway in the world.

C．Emperor Yang needed to provide food to his armies guarding the border.

D．Emperor Yang needed a way to carry government messages.

2. Which of the following is true about the building of the Grand Canal?

A．A totally new canal going through from Beijing to Hangzhou was built.

B．It was built with the efforts of millions of people in more than six years.

C．Its canal locks were built by the Ming Dynasty in the early 1400s.

D．It was built by over 45,000 people working all day long in the Ming Dynasty.

3. What would be the best title for this passage?

A．The World’s Longest Waterway

B．Emperor Yang Guang’s Ambition

C．About the Grand Canal

D．Improving the Grand Canal

【推荐3】New York is among the slowest cities during rush hour in the world, according to a report published in January. Crossing midtown by car is soul-destroying. The average speed is 4.7 miles per hour, not much quicker than a quick walk. But relief is in sight. On April 1st, state lawmakers agreed to introduce road charges, making New York the first big American city to do so. By next year vehicles will have to pay to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street.

The details of the new rule, including how much drivers will have to pay, how they will pay and how often they will pay, have yet to be decided. A “traffic mobility review board" will be set up to work all this out. New Yorkers living in the fee zone who make less than $60,000 a year will be exempt (获豁免) . Other drivers, including motorcyclists, the city' s civil servants, disabled drivers and the trucking industry, all want discounts or exemptions, which might not be a good sign.

If done right, road pricing could be expanded beyond Manhattan. New York can learn from other cities. Singapore, for instance, which has had pricing for decades, adjusts prices regularly. It can also learn from mistakes. London, which rolled out its pricing in 2003, is only starting to charge on-demand car hires like Uber. Stockholm exempted too many vehicles, which caused a drop in revenues (收入) .

Other cities considering road charges, including Los Angeles, Philadelphia Portland, San Francisco and Seattle, are watching New York. "We really have t1o make a good example," says Nicole Gelinas of the Manhattan Institute, a New York think tank.

1. What does the report find?

A．New York has terrible road traffic.

B．New York often introduces new laws.

C．New Yorkers prefer walking to driving.

D．New Yorkers face an increased cost of living.

2. What can be inferred about the new rule from paragraph 2?

A．It faces some potential problems.

B．It has clear and detailed fee standards.

C．It favors New Yorkers living in the fee zone.

D．It fails to win a traffic mobility review board s approval.

3. What do London and Stockholm have in common?

A．They learn a lot from Singapore.

B．They have greatly increased revenues.

C．They charge on-demand car hires heavily.

D．They are bad examples of placing road charges.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．How much does it cost to drive into Manhattan?

B．New York approves road pricing for Manhattan

C．Drivers fear crossing Manhattan south of 60th Street

D．Who will be exempt from road charges in Manhattan?

【推荐1】On Tuesday, NASA sent up a test satellite from New Zealand as part of its experiment with a new orbit around the moon that it hopes to use in the coming years to land astronauts on the lunar surface. If the rest of the mission is successful. the satellite will be the first to take the new path around the moon and will send back vital information for at least six months. However, getting the 25-kilogram satellite into orbit will take more than four months and be done in three stages.

First, the small Electron rocket was launched from New Zealand Just nine minutes later, the second stage rocket called Photon separated and went into orbit around the earth

Over the next live days. Photon`s engines are scheduled to fire on a regular basis to raise its orbit further and further from the earth. Six days alter the launch. Photon’s engines ail fire a final time, allowing it to escape the earth’s orbit and head for the moon.

Finally, Photon will release the satellite, which has its own small engine that won’t much energy as it travels toward the moon over four months, with a few planned course corrections along the way.

“The new orbit seems like a stretched-out egg with one end passing close to the moon and the other lar from it.” NASA wrote on its website. “Thus path-finding satellite will be put in a sweet spot in space — where the pull of gravity from the earth and the moon interacts to allow for a stable orbit.”

NASA spokesperson Morgan Bailey said that eventually. NASA plans to put a space station called Gateway into the orbital path, from which astronauts can travel to the mon’s surface as part of its Artemis program.

“One of the advantages of the orbit is that a space station should be able to stay in continuous communication with the earth,” said Morgan Bailey. “Because it will avoid being blocked by the moon.”

1. How long will it take NASA to get the satellite to “the sweet spot”?

A．About six days.	B．At least six months.
C．Around five days.	D．More than four months.

2. When will the satellite’s engine start working?

A．At the first stage.	B．At the second stage.
C．At the third stage	D．At the fourth stage.

3. What does the underlined word “it” in paragraph 5 refer to?

A．NASA.	B．The satellıte.
C．The moon.	D．The new orbit.

4. What is an advantage of putting Gateway in the new orbit?

A．It will be able to escape the pull of the earth

B．It will be the closest to the moon all the time.

C．It does not need coactions to stay in the orbit.

D．It can commurucate conveniently with the earth.

【推荐2】E-scooter(电动滑板车)sharing, which once looked like it would completely change traffic in large cities around the world, is turning out to create just about as many problems as it solves.

When e-scooters began to appear on the city streets, it was thought that people would take e-scooters instead of driving, which could cut down on traffic jams, pollution, and parking problems. And for some people, there is usually no direct public transport from the bus and subway stops to their homes. So, e-scooters were also seen as a solution for the "last-mile" problem at first, helping connect riders' homes with bus and subway stops.

Then some companies started to make e-scooters and rent them out. They put lots of e-scooters in popular locations around busy cities. And customers can use their smartphones to find and rent e-scooters. It usually costs about $1 to unlock an e-scooter and then about 15 to 25 cents for every 15 minutes after that. When customers finish riding, they simply can park e-scooters in any place that's convenient.

However, soon e-scooters were being left almost everywhere. They were blocking sidewalks and sometimes roads. E-scooters weren't just in the way, and they were also dangerous. e-scooters can go as fast as 16 miles per hour. They're too fast for sidewalks and can put walkers in danger. But they're usually too slow for city streets, where they block the faster traffic of cars and buses. And people began to get injured. Scientists studied nearly 200 people who got injured in a three-month period in Austin, Texas. About 15% had serious brain injuries. Riders aren't just getting injured, there have also been several e-scooter-related deaths.

Most cities with e-scooters have now made rules about where and how e-scooters can be used. Other cities have gotten rid of them completely. Anyway, e-scooters have become a very popular way to get around in many big cities, but it will take time and effort to make e-scooters fit in with big city traffic safely.

1. Why were the shared e-scooters put on the market?

A．To encourage a healthy lifestyle.

B．To reduce the cost of transportation.

C．To help solve the city traffic problems.

D．To raise public awareness of saving energy.

2. Which of the following is the advantage of shared e-scooters according to Paragraph 3?

A．They can move as fast as buses.

B．They are easy to access in cities.

C．They can carry users' smartphones.

D．They can be ridden by people of all ages.

3. What do we know about shared e-scooters from Paragraph 4?

A．They are hardly found on the main streets.

B．They are disliked by many American people.

C．They become the main reason for traffic deaths.

D．They increase traffic pressure and safety concerns.

4. What is the author's attitude towards e-scooter sharing?

A．Positive.	B．Doubtful.
C．Objective.	D．Disapproving.