1 . School Bus Safety in the United States

Each school day, millions of children ride school buses. Do you know that the school bus is one of the safest vehicles on the road? Less than 1% of all traffic deaths involve children on school transportation vehicles. However, children are more at risk when approaching or leaving a school bus. It’s important for you to understand school bus safety.

Stop for School Buses

When you see a school bus slowing down or stopping, it’s not just the bus that you need to have your eyes on — but the surrounding area, too. Children wait at least several feet away from a bus and often cross the street when they’re boarding or getting off the bus. This is why you must stop for school buses, and don’t attempt to pass.

Illegal School Bus Passing

Illegal school bus passing poses a significant threat to children and others on the road. In every state, it is illegal for you to pass a school bus while the stop-arm is extended and the red lights are flashing.

Understanding School Bus Lights

Learn the school bus laws in your state and always follow them, as well as the flashing lights that school bus drivers use to warn you.

Yellow flashing lights indicate the bus is preparing to stop to load or unload children. You should slow down and prepare to stop your vehicle.

Red flashing lights and extended stop-arms indicate the bus has stopped and children are getting on or off. You must stop your car and wait until the red lights stop flashing, the extended stop-arm is withdrawn, and the bus begins moving, before you can start driving again.

1. What should you especially pay attention to when a school bus stops?

A．Its driver on duty.	B．The direction in which you pass it.
C．Kids getting on or off it.	D．The way to follow closely behind.

2. In which case is it legal for other vehicles to pass a stopped school bus?

A．After it has moved.	B．Before it begins moving.
C．While its stop-arm is extended.	D．When the red lights are flashing.

3. Who is the text intended for?

A．Parents.	B．Drivers.
C．Teachers.	D．Students.

3 . In a small, rough shipyard on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, a small team is building what they say will be the world’s largest ocean-going clean cargo ship.

Ceiba is the first ship built by Sailcargo, a company trying to prove that zero-carbon shipping is possible, and commercially available. Made largely of wood, Ceiba combines both very old and very new technology: sailing masts stand alongside solar panels, a uniquely designed electric engine and batteries. Once on the water, she will be capable of crossing oceans entirely without the use of fossil fuels, which sets her apart.

“The thing that is striking is the fact that she’ll have one of the largest marine electric engines of her kind in the world,” Danielle Doggett said. The system also has the means to capture energy from underwater propellers (螺旋桨) as well as solar power, so electricity will be available for the engine when needed. “Really, the only limit on how long she can stay at sea is water and food on board for the crew.”

Despite some hold-ups due to the global disaster, the team hopes to get her on the water by the end of 2024 and operating by 2025, when she will begin transporting cargo between Costa Rica and Canada.

“There are actually loads of innovations happening that could transform shipping emissions, but few companies are willing to apply them to building ships like Ceiba.” says Lucy Gilliam. “So it’s not that we don’t have great ideas. The problem that we have is that fossil fuels are still too cheap. And we don’t have the rules to force people to take up the new technology.”

When it comes to promoting this kind of boat, it has to be said that Ceiba is small for a cargo ship — tiny in fact. She will carry around nine standard shipping containers. She is also relatively slow. Being a world-first, there are some aspects of Ceiba’s design that have yet to be proven at sea.

1. What is unique about Ceiba as a cargo ship?

A．It is the world’s largest.	B．It is environment-friendly.
C．It is wooden with old technology.	D．It is modern with unique equipment.

2. What determines Ceiba’s length of staying at sea according to Danielle Doggett?

A．The size of the sail.	B．The weather of the ocean.
C．The power of the electric engine.	D．The quantity of the living supplies.

3. Why are companies unwilling to build ships like Ceiba?

A．The rules are disobeyed.	B．The fuels are affordable.
C．The bigger ships are preferable.	D．The innovations are distrusted.

4. What is the author’s attitude to the innovation of Ceiba?

A．Objective.

B．Doubtful.

C．Critical.

D．Favorable.

4 . Why do the speakers choose the subway?

A．The weather is too hot.

B．The time is very tight.

C．Their car is being repaired.

8 . Where will the man turn right to get to the Teachers’ Office?

A．At the two-storey building.

B．At the Student Center.

C．At the first traffic circle.

10 . On Feb. 21, four students were standing on the side of Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu when a driver going 110 miles per hour lost control of his car and it crashed into the parked vehicles.12 people were killed at the scene, including 2 drivers.

This kind of traffic death shouldn’t be called an accident. In Los Angeles, we seem to have accepted constant carnage (屠杀) in our streets in exchange for maximizing driver speed and convenience. The official responses to proven traffic dangers are mere gestures, if even that.

Los Angeles is a uniquely deadly city with a death rate that is four times the national average. Unsurprisingly, it’s also a city that has been designed with one thing in mind: a concept called level of service, which grades streets on how well they serve those in automobiles. To many Angelenos, that makes sense — to design our streets for car traffic, which is the way many get around the city. Unfortunately, we don’t recognize that there’s a trade-off. We can either have streets bettered for free-flowing traffic, or we can design streets for people to move around safely outside of cars.

City leaders consistently choose for the easy but deadly option. In one recent example, a resident asked the city’s Department of Transportation to block drivers from using Cochran Avenue at Venice Boulevard as a cut-through street, as they were speeding through a quiet residential neighbourhood. The department responded by suggesting a “speed awareness campaign” in which neighbours put up yard signs urging drivers to slow down.

People don’t drive based on signage, but they drive on the design of the street. The trunk roads of Los Angeles such as Venice Boulevard all need to be revised so that people are prioritized over cars. This would include narrowing travel lanes (道), building bike lanes, and banning right turns at red lights. These measures would make drivers feel like they’re in a city and not on a highway. A recent John Hopkins study says this would have substantial safety benefits.

With more than 7,500 miles of streets in the city of Los Angeles, they won’t all be rebuilt anytime soon. But with each road construction project, or each crash, we should be revising streets to make them safer for all road users.

The solution to traffic jam isn’t to make more space for cars. It’s to design the streets to be safe enough for alternatives such as biking, walking and mass transit, especially for the 50% of trips daily in Los Angeles that are less than three miles. The solution to protecting people dining outdoors isn’t crash barriers. It’s a street design that forces drivers to go slowly. The problem is carnage in the streets, and we know the solutions.

1. Why should the traffic death in Los Angeles be called “constant carnage”?

A．The traffic accidents happen quite often.

B．Too many people are killed in the traffic accidents.

C．The drivers’ speeding is to blame for the traffic death.

D．City leaders’ consistent choice contributes to the traffic death.

2. What does the word “trade-off” underlined in Paragraph 3 most probably mean?

A．Balance.

B．Guideline.

C．Conflict.

D．Resolution.

3. According to the passage, which is a likely solution to the traffic problem?

A．To widen travel lanes.	B．To add more crosswalks.
C．To arrange more traffic police.	D．To punish speeding drivers.

4. Which would be the best title for the passage?

A．Drivers first or walkers first?	B．Traffic death or constant carnage?
C．More warning signs or safer designs?	D．More narrow lanes or speedy highways?