1 . A 420-meter white steel tube running alongside a railway line in the northern Netherlands could be the start of a new kind of transportation for people and goods. The tube from Hyperloop Center is the heart of the new transport technology that opened recently in Veendam. Developers from Hyperloop Center will be testing the changing technology there over the coming years.
Hyperloop technology was once supported by business leader Elon Musk. Its supporters say it is far faster than short flights, high-speed rail, and trucks. When Musk first presented the idea, he said it could transport people the nearly 645 kilometers between Los Angeles and San Francisco in 30 minutes. But since then, progress has been slow to get from an idea to the real world.
Sascha Lamme is the center’s director. He expects to have the first Hyperloop route by 2030. He said, “There are already preparations being done for such routes in for example Italy or India.”
Robert Noland is a professor at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He told The Associated Press that policy makers go after big ideas of the future but they should invest in simpler transportation structures. He added, “It costs too much to build.” But Lamme noted that they have not added all of the ways they can reduce costs over the next ten years.
The test center’s tube is made up of 34 separate sections mostly 2 and a half meters wide. A piece of equipment next to the tube removes air in the tube to reduce the pressure inside the tube. That reduces air resistance and permits capsules to travel at such high speeds. A capsule built by Dutch hyperloop company Hardt Hyperloop will be tested next month. It receives financial support from private investments, local and national governments, and the European Commission.
While testing continues in Veendam, hyperloop developers hope that routes for their technology will be coming. Lamme stated that getting government authorization (授权) for building routes is their main hardship they encountered. And he said finding new financial support to test and show the technology is what is needed to make this happen.
1. What does Hyperloop Center aim to do?A.Build a 420-meter white steel tube. | B.Develop a new transport technology. |
C.Ask for donations from the local company. | D.Meet the challenges of the new technology. |
A.It’s more eco-friendly. | B.It’s cheaper. |
C.It’s more efficient. | D.It’s much safer. |
A.Unclear. | B.Indifferent. | C.Approving. | D.Doubtful. |
A.Finding some new financial supports. | B.Gaining the government’s approval. |
C.Travelling at a very high speed. | D.Running along a railway line. |
2 . How to charge an electric vehicle (EV) is one of the biggest concerns people have when working out whether going electric is right for them.
It is true that sometimes gaining access to reliable charging can seem a bit tricky.
First, download an app with a comprehensive map of the public charging points showing their locations, how powerful they are, and whether they’re working. All this is vital information because, even if you have public charging points nearby, you will need alternatives in case they’re in use.
A growing number of property owners are renting out their charging points and drive ways to other local EV drivers when they’re not using them.
For now, if charging access remains difficult for you, it’s still possible to go electric—in part.
A.But it may be easier than you think. |
B.It actually worked out much cheaper. |
C.There are also other innovative ways to get your EV going. |
D.A plug-in EV combines a petrol engine with a smaller battery. |
E.A “fast” charger usually takes eight hours to fully charge an EV. |
F.So you need to get a good feel for where your nearest points are. |
G.You can find a map of homeowners whose charging points are available. |
1. What is the man doing?
A.Conducting a survey. | B.Asking for directions. | C.Planning a trip. |
A.Its space. | B.Its Internet. | C.Its speed. |
A.It was too crowded. | B.It broke down halfway. | C.It ran behind schedule. |
A.The information display facilities. |
B.Bigger boards for train times. |
C.More seats on the platforms. |
A.lanes B.charged C.dramatically D.mostly E.estimated F.powered G.connectivity H.boundary I.dependent J.advocates K.invasion |
E-Scooters
Over the past two years, electric scooters have become ever-present in many of Europe and America’s biggest cities. Britain is the last major western European country to hold out against the
As with a dockless (无桩) bike, scooters are fitted with GPS trackers and wireless
E-Scooters have the potential to solve some of the worlds biggest transport problems. Most cities are already dangerously polluted and heavily congested, and it is simply not an option to put more cars and taxis on the streets. Scooters are efficient; one kilowatt hour of energy carries a car
Scooters are clean, cheap, and they require little new infrastructure. For a country like car-
5 . The longest rail link in the world and the first direct link between China and Spain is running after a train from Yiwu completed its journey of 8, 111 miles to Madrid. On the way, it passed through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany and France before arriving in Madrid. The railway has been considered as the “21st-century Silk Road” by Li Qiang, the governor of Zhejiang province, where Yiwu is located.
The first train was met by the mayor of Madrid, Ana Botella, and Spain’s minister of public works, Ana Pastor. It consisted of 30 containers carrying 1,100 tonnes of cargo —— mostly toys stationery (文具) and other goods for sale over Christmas across Europe. According to China’s ambassador to Spain, Zhu Banzao, it will return filled with wine, jamon and olive oil in time for the Chinese new year in February.
China is Spain’s biggest trading partner after the EU and it is also Spain’s third largest source of imports (进口产品), after Germany and France. About half of these imports are made up of mobile phones and clothing. The Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, was in China in September, where he signed deals reported to be worth more than £6.3 billion.
A major advantage of the rail route is speed. The train took just three weeks to complete a Journey that takes up to six weeks by sea. It is also more environmentally friendly than road transport, which would produce 1l4 tonnes of CO2 compared with the 44 tonnes produced by the train —— a 62% reduction.
1. What is the main purpose of running the direct train link?A.To exchange goods. |
B.To celebrate festivals. |
C.To improve environment. |
D.To make sure of the safety of transport. |
A.Green and fast. | B.Quick and expensive. |
C.Changeable and productive. | D.Comfortable and fashionable. |
A.News. | B.Environment. |
C.Lifestyle. | D.Culture. |
6 . It was not until photographer Rita Nannini left New York that she grew fascinated by the city’s subways. While living in Manhattan for some 15 years in the 1980s and early 1990s, Nannini only commuted (通勤) on the one train-given the subway system’s bad reputation. But after relocating to New Jersey for several years where subway is not an option, Nannini found that absence did make the heart grow fonder — maybe even for pizza rats. During her visit back to New York, Nannini nodded, noticing improvements in the subway’s facilities.
While Nannini was waiting for a train, a bench on the platform opposite caught her attention due to the ever changing faces and characters. They were people of different accents, colors and beliefs. They were from all walks of life, a diverse mix of New Yorkers all there for their own different reasons. Having learned the teenagers’ popular “End of the Line” challenge — boarding trains at random and riding them until their final destination; Nannini decided to visit every first and last stop across the NY subway’s lines with her beloved camera.
Nannini’s “End of the Line” experience saw her traveling some 665 miles across 26 routes in New York city. She took over 8,000 photos of the final stations, as well as the communities they served. In many cases, she rode the routes two or three times over to ensure she got “the shot”. “The project really shows me how important the subway is, and how sustainable it makes our lives,” she said
“It’s often said that my photos show the end of the lines — the last stops,” she said. “But theend of the line is indeed the start for so many people. That made me think about who the people and the communities that live at the two ends are and what it is that the subway means to them.”
Nannini was proud of her set of images directly challenging the traditions of story telling, which echoed both the boredom and excitement of travel on tracks.
Nannini enjoyed taking her time, starting her challenge in 2013 and only shooting the final photos last year. Her first monograph on the terminal stops of the NY subway was released in April 2023.
“When you drive in the suburbs, you don’t have those encounters,” she continued. “People enter your life on the subway. That’s what strikes me most on my jouney on tracks.”
1. How did Nannini find the New York subway during her revisit?A.It tumed out fine. |
B.It was depressing. |
C.It still held the same bad reputation. |
D.It would be her only commuting option. |
A.The diversity of New Yorkers’ daily life. |
B.The inspiration for Nannini’s subway shots. |
C.The popularity of “End of the Line” challenge. |
D.The challenges of Nannini’s job as a photographer. |
A.Her way of telling stories is traditional. |
B.She expressed sympathy for the subway riders. |
C.Her photography is highly expected by the encounters. |
D.She found life on tracks was more interesting than life on wheels. |
A.“End of the Line” Challenge: A New Trend in NY Subways |
B.The Road Home: Rita Nannini’s Record of her Subway Ride |
C.Last Stop to New Start: A Photographer’s Rediscovery of NY Subways |
D.New Yorkers’ Routine: A Surprising Mixture of Boredom andExcitement |
1. Why was Jim unable to find Susan’s home
A.He hadn’t been told how to get there. |
B.He forgot to bring the map Susan gave him. |
C.He just spent thirteen minutes searching for her house. |
A.Come and get him. | B.Give him a new map. | C.Tell him the direction again. |
A.On foot. | B.By bike. | C.By bus. |
The sheepskin raft (羊皮筏), the oldest means of transportation along the Yellow River, has
It is said that the largest sheepskin raft in old times
In the early 20th century, before the 1950s,
However, with the rapid development of society, the sheepskin raft has
9 . Researchers have proposed a novel method for counting and tracking vehicles on public roads, a development that could improve current traffic systems and help travelers get to their destinations faster.
Using the cameras already installed on campus buses at the Ohio State University, researchers proved that they could automatically and accurately measure counts of vehicles on urban roadways, detect objects in the road and distinguish parked vehicles from those that are moving.
In previous studies, Ohio State researchers found that using these mobile cameras provides much better spatial and temporal (时间的) coverage than relying on often temporarily placed sensors that don’t provide a view of many streets and roads in a city.
“If we collect and process more high-resolution (高清) spatial information about what’s happening on the roads, then planners could better understand changes in demand, effectively improving efficiency in the broader transportation system,” said Keith Redmill, lead author of the study.
“If we can measure traffic in a way that is as good or better than what is conventionally done with fixed sensors, then we will have created something incredibly useful extremely cheaply,” he said. “Our goal is to start building a system that could do this without much manual intervention because if you want to collect this information over lots of potential vehicles and lots of time, it’s worth fully automating that process.”
While still a long way from total implementation (实施), the study suggests the system’s results bear promise for the future of intelligent traffic surveillance. Transportation planners, engineers and operators make vital decisions about the future of our roadways, so when designing transportation systems to work over the next 30 to 50 years, it’s necessary that we give them data that allows them to improve the efficiency of the system and the level of service provided to travelers.
1. How can cameras on buses benefit travelers?A.By shortening their travel time. |
B.By making their schedules tight. |
C.By decreasing their transport cost. |
D.By improving their safety awareness. |
A.They provide more spatial coverage. |
B.They can’t detect objects on the road. |
C.They cover less view of the urban traffic. |
D.They accurately record the flow of traffic. |
A.Operation. | B.Monitoring. | C.Protection. | D.Arrangement. |
A.Transportation automation is on its way |
B.It is time to improve the efficiency of traffic system |
C.Transportation planners use cameras to make policies |
D.Cameras installed on buses can better measure traffic |
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is road testing a new way to keep winter roads ice-free by spreading on them cheese brine, the salty liquid
Wisconsin, also called “America’s Dairyland”, is famous for its cheese. The state produced 2.8 billion pounds of cheese last year! As a result, there
Cheese brine has salt in it,
In addition to saving money, cheese brine could also be a more eco-friendly option. Many people suspect that all the rock salt used every winter