In China, there are    1    (variety) means of transport for day-to-day living: subways, buses, cars, and even bikes… but taxis rank high on the list.

Taxis are certainly the most convenient, as    2    requires little effort to raise your arm to call a cab. Besides, fares in China are affordable. They start in daytime hours in the capital at 13 yuan for    3    first 3 kilometers, after    4    you pay another 2.3 yuan per kilometer. This is far    5    expensive than that in European capitals. In London, for example, two kilometers’ ride could cost you about 63 yuan.

Taxicabs , as we know today, first appeared in China in the early 20th century, but    6    (be) the reserve (特权) of the rich and the powerful. Nowadays, taking a cab is common in China.

Before coming to China, I    7    (warn) that there were awful drivers who would make long detours (绕行)    8    (get) higher fares.     9    , most taxi drivers I have met are nice. They know the city like the back of their hands, and are glad to be    10    some help.

Humans take a step closer to “flying cars”

In the 1880s, the first automobile was developed, and about two decades later, the Wright brothers in North Carolina invented the first successful airplane. “Today, the world is closer to     1     (combine) those two concepts.” said a Japanese tech company     2     completed a manned test flight of a “flying car”.

The company, SkyDrive, said in     3     news release on Friday that it     4     (complete) a flight test using “the world’s first manned testing machine,” its SD-03model, an electrical vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle. “The flight time was four minutes.” the company said.

The aircraft has one seat and operates with eight motors and two propellers (螺旋桨). It lifted about 10     5     (foot) into the air and was operated by a pilot, the company said. Tomohiro Fukuzawa, SkyDrive’s chief executive, said that five years ago there were various prototypes (原型) of flying cars, usually with fixed wings. SkyDrive’s product, he said, was one of the most smallest in size and was lighter     6     (compare) with other designs.

    7     (safe) is one of two challenges preventing the technology from becoming     8     (wide) used, said Derya Aksaray, an assistant professor of aerospace engineering and mechanics at the University of Minnesota. “Now, safe autonomous technology for eVTOL aircraft     9     (develop).” Aksaray said, “The other challenge is design—the vehicles should be powerful enough to carry any necessary weight, yet quiet enough to fly     10     undetermined low altitudes.”