1 . Concerned about pollution and congestion (拥塞), a growing number of local governments are trying to reduce the number of drivers in Europe’s big cities. Some, like London and Stockholm, have introduced congestion charges to discourage driving during peak hours. Paris has tried banning cars from driving on certain days, depending on whether they have even or odd number plates. Perhaps the most ambitious plan to curb cars comes from Oslo, Norway’s capital.
The change that is most easily to be noticed in Oslo is somewhat different from that in other European cities. Late last year, the government removed some 700 parking spaces from the city centre, replacing them with benches, bicycles and more pavements. The mere 50 or so spots that remain are largely reserved for handicapped residents and local businesses that rely on deliveries. Another big change has come in the form of zoning reform. Some roads in the city centre have been closed off to private cars; others have been changed so that traffic can only flow in one direction.
Enforcement has been severe, though. The city government has placed signs informing drivers of the new rules, but not everyone has paid them much attention. In addition, Norway’s conservatives believe strongly in the idea of car ownership, and shopkeepers worry that fewer cars might mean fewer customers. It is still too early to assess how effective the new measures have been. Still, early data show that pedestrian traffic in the city centre was up by 10% in the fourth quarter of 2018 over a year earlier, which suggests the reforms are working as intended.
Hanna Marcussen, vice-mayor for urban development and a member of the Green Party, notes that Oslo’s most successful shops are on the high street, where most customers are pedestrians anyway. The government is busy compiling tax records to measure the economic impact of its reforms. Research on Stockholm’s congestion-pricing scheme finds that the benefits from factors such as shorter travel times and safer roads far outweigh the fees paid by drivers.
The fact that the city’s efforts to control traffic have been controversial has forced the government to take an incremental (递增的) approach, constantly negotiating with suspicious business owners. Ms Marcussen compares the government’s traffic reforms to Norway’s public-smoking ban, which was passed in 2004. She said many people complained before the law was passed, but few today would demand loudly to let people smoke in pubs again.
1. Which of the following is closest in meaning to the underlined word “curb” in paragraph 1？| A．Support. | B．Control. |
| C．Replace. | D．Abandon. |
| A．The removal of public parking. | B．Creating more one-way traffic. |
| C．The limitation on cars in rush hours. | D．Placing strict restrictions on private cars. |
| A．Cars are hardly banned. | B．Anti-car policies are in vain. |
| C．The car industry is declining. | D．The reforms haven’t come easily. |
| A．New things need to be tested repeatedly. |
| B．Timing is important to the success of reforms. |
| C．More efforts are to be put in the traffic reforms. |
| D．Most people will finally support the traffic reforms. |
2 . Scientists may one day be able to destroy viruses in the same way that opera singers break wine glasses. New research mathematically determined the frequencies at which simple viruses could be shaken to death.
The capsid (壳) of a virus is something like the shell of a turtle, said physicist Otto Sankey of Arizona State University. “If the shell can be damaged by mechanical vibrations (震动), the virus can be destroyed.”
Recent experimental evidence has shown that laser (激光) pulses with the right frequency can kill certain viruses. However, locating these resonant (共振的) frequencies is a bit of trial and error. Experiments must try various conditions, Sankey said.
To further this search, Sankey and his student Eric Dykeman have developed a way to calculate the vibrations of every atom in a virus shell. From this, they can determine the lowest resonant frequencies. An experiment has recently shown that pulses of laser light can cause destructive vibrations in virus shells. Sankey said, “Like pushing a child on a swing from rest, one sudden push gets the virus shaking.”
However, it is difficult to calculate what sort of push will kill a virus, since there can be millions of atoms in its shell structure. A direct calculation of each atom’s movements would take several hundred thousand Gigabytes of computer memory, Sankey explained.
The team plans to use their technique to study other, more complicated viruses. However, it is still a long way from using this to destroy the viruses in infected people. “This is such a new field, and there are so few experiments that the science has not yet had enough time to prove itself,” Sankey said. “We remain hopeful but remain skeptical at the same time.”
1. What is the new way to kill viruses?| A．Replacing viruses’ capsids with shells. |
| B．Breaking viruses’ capsids by vibration. |
| C．Locating the position of certain viruses. |
| D．Damaging the conditions that viruses like. |
| A．To prove how simple the new theory is. |
| B．To explain how to start the virus shaking. |
| C．To suggest the idea comes from our real life. |
| D．To show the destructive power of vibrations. |
| A．The shell structure of viruses. |
| B．The lack of computer memory. |
| C．The challenging part of the research. |
| D．The importance of atoms’ movement. |
| A．Disapproving. | B．Worried. |
| C．Uncaring. | D．Positive. |
