【推荐1】Bike Share Toronto is the city’s official bike share program, designed to give the locals and visitors a fun, affordable and convenient alternative to walking, taxis, buses and the subway. There are 200 Bike Share Toronto stations and 2, 000 bikes across the city, making Bike Share the most accessible way to get around and explore.

How it works

• Become an Annual Member or buy a Day Pass to access the system.

• Find an available bike nearby, and get a ride code or use your member key to unlock it.

• Take as many short rides as you want while your pass or membership is active.

• Return your bike to any station, and wait for the green light to make sure it’s locked.

Choose a plan

• For visitors

Day Pass: $ 7. Unlimited 30-minute rides in a 24-hour period.   3-Day Pass: $ 15. Unlimited 30-minute rides in a 72-hour period. • For the locals

Monthly Pass: $ 25. Unlimited 30-minute rides for a month.

Annual Membership: $ 90. Unlimited 30-minute rides for a whole year. The Annual Membership is the most suitable deal for the locals of Toronto and other frequent riders.

The first 30 minutes of each ride is included with the membership or pass price. Avoid extra fees by dropping off your bike every 30 minutes at any other station. If you keep a bike out for longer than 30 minutes at a time, you will be charged an extra $ 1. 50 for the first 30 minutes over, $ 4 for the next 30 minutes, and $ 7 for each additional 30 minutes after that.

Contact us

• Customer Service: (855)898-2388

• Repair Service: (855)898-2378

• Corporation Partners: (855)898-2398

• Employment Opportunities : (855) 898-2498

1. What can we learn from the bike share in Toronto?

A．The green light shows the bike is unlocked.

B．Bike Share Toronto is a non-profit program.

C．A member can get a QR code or a key to the bike.

D．Shared bikes have taken the place of other vehicles.

2. Which is the best choice for the locals to use the system in Toronto?

A．Annual Membership.	B．Day Pass.
C．3-Day Pass .	D．Monthly Pass.

3. How much will the extra fee be if you travel for three hours by bike?

A．$ 15. 5.

B．$ 22. 5.

C．$ 26. 5.

D．$ 28. 5.

【推荐2】Singapore’s public transport system is one of the best in the world, so you should have no problem finding your way around like a local. There are four main forms of public transport that you would find in any other major city—trains, buses, taxis and rental cars.

TRAINS

Trains run from 6:00 am to midnight. Single trip tickets start at 80 cents. If you buy an EZ-Link card for $15, you can ride the trains and buses as you like.

If you need more information, just call Transit Link on 180076743330.

BUSES

There are several bus services in Singapore and fares start at 80 cents. Be sure always to ask the driver the cost of your ticket as he cannot give change.

If you need help, just call Transit Link on 18007674333.

TAXIS

There are three main taxi companies—City Cab, Comfort and Tibs. Booking can also be easy by calling the numbers listed above.

RENTAL CARS

Driving in Singapore is a pleasure and if you like to travel at your own pace, renting a car is a good choice. Renting takes away the trouble of getting to places around Singapore. Just sit back and enjoy the city. It also means you’ll get to see a lot more that a train or a bus won’t let you see.

For car rental, call Avis on + 6567371668.

1. What can an EZ-Link card be used for?

A．Renting cars.	B．Taking buses and trains.
C．Visiting places.	D．Calling the numbers.

2. What should people always remember to do when taking a bus?

A．Ask the driver how much the ticket is.

B．Make clear the time of the last bus.

C．Buy the bus map of Singapore.

D．Call Transit Link.

3. What can we know about traveling in Singapore from the text?

A．Visitors will have no trouble finding the cheapest way to travel.

B．It’s much cheaper to go around by bus than by train.

C．You can see a full view in Singapore by taking a bus.

D．It’s very convenient for visitors to travel in Singapore.

【推荐3】The world’s first self-driving taxis began picking up passengers in Singapore recently.

Select members of the public can hail (招呼) a free ride through their smartphones in taxis operated by nuTonomy, an autonomous vehicle software startup. While a number of companies, including Google and Volvo, have been testing self-driving cars on public roads for several years, nuTonomy is the first to offer rides to the public.

Its launch in Singapore is beating ride-hailing service Uber, which plans to offer rides in autonomous cars in Pittsburgh soon.

NuTonomy is starting small—six cars now, growing to a dozen by the end of the year. The long-term goal is to have a fully self-driving taxi fleet (车队) in Singapore by 2018, to help cut the number of cars on Singapore’s overcrowded roads from 900,000 to 300,000. Eventually, the model could be adopted in cities around the world, nuTonomy hopes. “When you are able to take that many cars off the road, it creates a lot of possibilities. You can create smaller roads, you can create much smaller car parks,” said Doug Parker, nuTonomy’s chief operating officer.

For now, the taxis only run in a 2.5-square-mile business and residential (住宅的) district called “one-north”, and pick-ups and drop-offs are limited to specified locations. Riders must have an invitation from nuTonomy to use the service. The company says dozens have signed up for the launch, and it plans to expand that list to thousands of people within a few months.

The cars—modified Renault Zoe and Mitsubishi i-MiEV electrics—have a driver in front who is prepared to take back the wheel and a researcher in the back who watches the car’s computers. Each car is fitted with six sets of Lidar—a detection system that uses lasers to operate like radar—including one that constantly spins on the roof. There are also two cameras on the dashboard to scan for obstacles (障碍) and detect changes in traffic lights.

NuTonomy was formed in 2013. Earlier this year, the company was the first to win approval from Singapore’s government to test self-driving cars in one-north. NuTonomy announced a research partnership with Singapore’s Land Transport Authority earlier this month.

Singapore is ideal because it has good weather, great infrastructrue and drivers who tend to obey traffic rules. As a land-locked island, the city of 5.4 million people is seeking creative ways to grow its economy, so it’s been supportive of autonomous vehicle research.

1. It seems that the service of self-driving taxis ________.

A．is operated with high technology

B．has passed through its initial stage

C．is supported by Google and Volvo

D．will spread to other countries soon

2. It is implied in the passage that self-driving taxis can finally ________.

A．reduce passengers’ fare	B．cut down fuel consumption
C．ensure passengers’ safety	D．result in better environment

3. According to the passage, what makes it possible for Singapore to provide self-driving taxi service includes ________.

A．its small area and urban population

B．support from its people and government

C．its advanced economy and technology

D．necessity to improve its infrastructure

4. What do we learn about the present self-driving taxis in Singapore?

A．Drivers drive them with the help of researchers.

B．One can get into or out of them wherever one is.

C．Hundreds of people can take advantage of them.

D．You do not have to pay whenever you take them.

【推荐2】Astronomers have taken the first ever image of a black hole, which is located in a distant galaxy (星系). It measures 40 billion km across – three million times the size of the Earth – and has been described by scientists as “a monster”.

The black hole is 500 million trillion km away and was photographed by a network of eight telescopes across the world. Details have been published today in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Prof Heino Falcke, who proposed the experiment, told BBC News that the black hole was found in a galaxy called M87. “What we see is larger than the size of our entire Solar System,” he said. “It has a mass 6.5 billion times that of the Sun. It is an absolute monster, the heavyweight champion of black holes in the Universe.” The image shows an intensely bright “ring of fire”, as Prof Falcke describes it, surrounding a perfectly circular dark hole. Some scientists assumed that the bright ring is caused by superheated gas falling into the hole. The light is brighter than all the billions of other stars in the galaxy combined – which is why it can be seen at such distance from Earth. The edge of the dark circle at the centre is the point at which the gas enters the black hole, which is an object that has such a large gravitational pull (引力) that even light can’t escape.

The image matches what theoretical physicists and indeed, Hollywood directors, imagined black holes would look like, according to Dr Ziri Younsi, of University College London. “Although they are relatively simple objects, black holes raise some of the most complex questions about the nature of space and time, and finally of our existence,” he said. “It is surprising that the image we observe is so similar to that which we obtain from our theoretical calculations (计算). So far, it looks like Einstein is correct once again.” But having the first image will enable researchers to learn more about these mysterious objects. They will be keen to look out for ways in which the black hole leaves from what’s expected in physics. No one really knows how the bright ring around the hole is created. Even more interesting is the question of what happens when an object falls into a black hole.

1. What made the scientists call the black hole a “monster”?

A．The hole’s larger size.	B．Its distance from the earth.
C．The gravitational pull.	D．The bright ring of the hole.

2. Why can the black hole be seen from the Earth?

A．The superheated gas falling into the hole makes it brighter.

B．An intensely bright “ring of fire” surrounds the black hole.

C．The gravitational pull of the hole is so large that no light escapes.

D．The light of the other stars combined can’t match that of the hole.

3. About the image of the black hole, which of the following is CORRECT?

A．Eight telescopes in the USA cooperated to take the image.

B．It will help researchers to learn more about black holes.

C．It is different from what Hollywood directors imagined.

D．It enables scientists to know the nature of our existence.

4. What might be the best title for the passage?

A．The Heaviest Black Hole	B．First Black Hole Image Released
C．A Surprising Monster	D．Einstein is Correct Once Again

【推荐3】For centuries, people wondered how big the Earth was. Unfortunately, although the Earth was flat, no one was able to figure out its size. Gradually, however, people began to realize that the Earth was really round.

Then, in the third century BC (2,300 years ago), a Greek man named Eratosthenes had an idea. Eratosthenes was sure that the Earth was a sphere. He used the sun and geometry (几何学) to figure out the size of the Earth. He calculated that the circumference (圆周) of the Earth was 28,600 miles (46,000 kilometers). The true size of the Earth is 25,000 miles (40,000 kilometers).

Eratosthenes’ measurement was wrong, but it was very close to the truth.

For many centuries after Eratoshenes lived, people made maps of the Earth. However, they did not know very much about the world outside of Europe, Asia, and North Africa. Mapmakers could not draw accurate maps of the Earth until people began traveling around the world in the fifteenth century, mapping small areas each time. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, people began making correct maps of countries, but the first accurate maps of the world were not made until the 1890s.

Maps today are reliable (可依靠的), inexpensive, and easy to understand. People depend on maps every day. What would our lives be like without them?

1. A sphere is a ______.

A．large shape	B．planet
C．ball shape	D．member of the sun family

2. What’s a synonym (同义词) for “figure out”?

A．geometry	B．calculate
C．make out	D．understand

3. The first correct maps of the world were made_____________.

A．in the 15gth century	B．in the 18th century
C．in the 19th century	D．in the 20th century

4. When did map makers begin to draw correct maps of the Earth?

A．When people began to travel around the world

B．When people knew the size of the Earth

C．When people knew the shape of the Earth

D．Before people traveled around the world