Ten years ago, people bought electric vehicles (EVs) to reduce their carbon footprint.     1     the limited range and high price made EVs something of a rare sight on roads. A lot can change in a decade. Advances in battery technology     2     (mean) electric cars now travel much further on a single charge. Government grants (补贴) serve to draw buyers away from gasoline-powered cars. The change will have a huge impact     3     life. Roads will become far     4     (quiet) and pollution levels will be reduced quickly, potentially leading to improved quality of life.

3 . Surveillance (监视) is a fact of life. Your boss is monitoring your performance at work. Supermarkets are collecting data on your grocery shopping.     1    

In a few months, European Union law-makers are due to approve proposals that will make driver assistance systems mandatory (强制的) in cars within three years. All new models of car will come with black boxes (event data recorders), intelligent speed assistance, lane-keeping assistance and more besides.

A large number of technologies will soon be monitoring a driver’s every move. Are we prepared for devices that watch how we drive and try to help us do it better?

    2     In a report published in April 2018, it found that the suite of changes could save at least 7,300 lives by 2030, and reduce the number of serious injuries from car crashes by 38,900. “We can have the same kind of impact as when safety belts were first introduced,” says Oliver Carsten, who studies transport safety at the University of Leeds, UK.

    3     The black box is the most controversial (有争议的) tech because of fears that the tech encourages surveillance. It would be easy to worry about being watched in your car. But the EU rules say the system is only checked in the event of an accident to help with insurance claims and police investigation. The point is to provide for a fair allocation (分配) of responsibility when a crash occurs. Some people choose to have a black box because it can reduce their individual insurance premium (保险费).     4     What’s more, the data collected in human-driven cars will help train automated driving systems to the point that they could be ready for large-scale deployment in the future.

    5     Drivers should think of it as an extra layer of protection, rather than the vehicle trying to take over driving from you.

4 . Wilbur and Orille Wright are brothers famous for inventing the first aeroplane. Their interest in flight     1     (start) on the day when their father brought home a toy helicopter for them. It was made of paper and wood. The boys played with it until it broke, and then made their own     2     (replace) it. When they were older, they owned a bicycle shop where they started producing and selling their own bikes. This provided them with the money to pay for their experiments in flight. Eventually, they built their     3     (fly) machine.