Lying near mountains and Taihu Lake, Li yang
The 365-kilometer road
Li yang No. 1 Roadis also called “Rainbow Highway” because of the red, yellow and blue lines
Not only has Li yang No. 1 Road helped with the
2 . Carbon dioxide emissions from transportation are now thought as the top source of green-house gases. One of the most effective ways to reduce your carbon footprint is to reconsider how much, and how often, you travel.
Going car free for a year could save about 2. 6 tons of carbon dioxide, according to a study from the University of British Columbia. How can you stop using a car? Try taking a train, bus or better yet, riding a bike.
But let’s be realistic. You will likely need to use a car this year. So, when you do, here are some tips to make your trip more climate-friendly. Driving efficiently can help to reduce emissions. Go easy on the gas and brakes and drive like you have an egg under your foot. Regularly service your car to keep it more efficient. Keeping your tires pumped correctly can re-duce emissions. Low tire pressure will hurt your fuel economy. Air conditioning and frequent city driving can make emissions go up. So cut down on these as often as possible. Use cruise control (定速巡航) on long drives-in most cases, this can help to save gas. Don’t weigh your car down with extra things that you don’t need on your trip.
Fly often? Taking one fewer long round-trip flight could reduce your personal carbon footprint significantly. If you use public transportation often and fly less, your carbon foot-print might still be relatively sustainable, but if you drive and fly a lot, your emissions will be sigher. If you can’t avoid flying, you can offset them by donating money to sustainable proacts, such as supplying efficient stoves to rural homes, or projects which help farmers deal with crop waste environmentally.
1. What does the author think of going car free?| A．Efficient. | B．Costly. | C．Impractical. | D．Reliable. |
| A．Maintaining your car properly. | B．Using cruise control in the city. |
| C．Stepping hard on the gas and brakes. | D．Geiting rid of all the necessary loads. |
| A．Make up for. | B．Team up with. | C．Set foot in. | D．Put up with. |
| A．How to save fuel when driving cars | B．How to reduce your carbon footprint |
| C．Reduce carbon footprint by all means | D．Lower carbon footprint in transportation |
The Grand Canal of China was first dug in 486 BC, and well developed through the late 6th to early 10th century. From the late 13th until 19th century, with the highest section built and the overall length
The Grand Canal was
The Grand Canal
| A．At 1:00 pm. | B．At 1:30 pm. | C．At 2:30 pm. |
It took years
6 . This month, Germany’s transport minister, Alexander Dobrindt, proposed the first set of rules for autonomous vehicles. They would define the driver’s role in such cars and govern how such cars perform in crashes where lives might be lost.
The proposal attempts to deal with what some call the “death valley” of autonomous vehicles: the grey area between semi-autonomous and fully driverless cars that could delay the driverless future.
Dobrindt wants three things: that a car always chooses property damage over personal injury; that it never distinguishes between humans based on age or race; and that if a human removes his or her hands from the driving wheel — to check email, say — the car’s maker is responsible if there is a crash.
“The change to the road traffic law will permit fully automatic driving,” says Dobrindt. It will put fully driverless cars on an equal legal footing to human drivers, he says.
Who is responsible for the operation of such vehicles is not clear among car makers, consumers and lawyers. “The liability (责任) issue is the biggest one of them all,” says Natasha Merat at the University of Leeds, UK.
An assumption behind UK insurance for driverless cars, introduced earlier this year, insists that a human “be watchful and monitoring the road” at every moment.
But that is not what many people have in mind when thinking of driverless cars. “When you say ‘driverless cars’, people expect driverless cars,” Merat says. “You know — no driver.”
Because of the confusion, Merat thinks some car makers will wait until vehicles can be fully automated without human operation.
Driverless cars may end up being a form of public transport rather than vehicles you own, says Ryan Calo at Stanford University, California. That is happening in the UK and Singapore, where government-provided driverless vehicles are being launched.
That would go down poorly in the US, however. “The idea that the government would take over driverless cars and treat them as a public good would get absolutely nowhere here,” says Calo.
1. What does the phrase “death valley” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．A place where cars often break down. | B．A case where passing a law is impossible. |
| C．An area where no driving is permitted. | D．A situation where drivers’ role is not clear. |
| A．stop people from breaking traffic rules | B．help promote fully automatic driving |
| C．protect drivers of all ages and races | D．prevent serious property damage |
| A．Singapore | B．the UK | C．the US | D．Germany |
| A．Autonomous driving: Whose liability? | B．Fully automatic cars: A new breakthrough |
| C．Autonomous vehicles: Driver removed! | D．Driverless cars: Root of road accidents |
7 . Electric cars are already greener than petrol cars in almost every part of the world today, according to researchers. They say electric vehicles are “a no-regret choice” even in places where power nets haven’t gone fully green.
Some previous comparisons suggested petrol cars produce lower net carbon emissions (净碳排放量) over their lifetime than battery- powered cars. Yet these analyses have often compared only two fixed models of cars.
Instead, the researchers from Radboud University looked at the average emissions across many classes of car to get a clearer global picture. It includes during its production, while it is being driven and when it is broken, for all the petrol and electric cars sold in 59 areas across the world in 2015. They connected with information of those areas in the following years and found that the electric vehicles are greener than the new petrol cars. Electric vehicles already have lower net carbon emissions in 53 of those 59 areas. Only in some countries that use coal heavily, such as India and Poland, are electric car emissions worse than those of petrol cars.
The researchers say that the differences between petrol and electric cars on the carbon emissions will grow bigger as power stations get greener. By 2030, they expect the carbon emissions of electric cars to be 20 percent lower than that in 2015, and 30 percent lower by 2050. The suggestions for governments are clear, says Knobloch.“There is no need to wait. Don’t be confused by all those different results out there. It’s a no-regret choice already.”
1. Why did the former comparison show petrol cars more greener?| A．It was too simple. |
| B．It had no scientific basis. |
| C．It lacked experimental evidence. |
| D．It lacked enough reference objects. |
| A．6. | B．53. | C．59. | D．112. |
| A．Petrol cars will be fully replaced. |
| B．The carbon emissions of electric cars will be zero. |
| C．Power stations will get huge advance technologically. |
| D．Petrol cars’ pollution will force people to buy electric cars. |
| A．To state the development of electric cars. |
| B．To tell readers how to choose an electric car. |
| C．To show electric cars are greener than petrol cars. |
| D．To state the differences between petrol and electric cars. |
8 . Will there be a time in our lives when cars don’t crash? When we can just sit back and relax and our cars will drive themselves. Auto technology experts say “yes”. And they say that some of those advances may happen quicker than you might think.
They will require the users to input the name of the destination or the complete address of the location that they want to go and the cars’ artificial intelligence takes them there automatically without a driver. They will run on solar power in the daytime and ethanol fuel(乙醇燃料) at night. Toyota, BMW and Honda will completely control the trade of driverless car business together and will have the cheapest driverless cars. Fossil fuels(矿物燃料) will be completely incompatible(不相配的) with these cars.
Driverless cars will not require a driver’s license of any grade to operate. Anyone with basic literacy and computer skills who are at least 16 years of age will be legally allowed to operate the vehicle with absolutely no restrictions. This would give the young users permission to operate the driverless cars on major highways as well as secondary roads without needing a separate classification. In addition to all this, drunken people will be able to use their own automobiles to return home because they are not “driving” the vehicle.
What’s more, car insurance will become obsolete because there will be no more automobile accidents after the year 2025. This is because the driverless car will have all safety methods in place by the car’s artificial intelligence to prevent automobile accidents. Global positioning systems will become mandatory(强制的) in all newly-manufactured cars after 2010, and will be the most important part in the driverless car.
1. We can infer from the second paragraph that driverless cars ______.| A．will need fewer fossil fuels | B．will be environmentally friendly |
| C．will run on solar power only | D．will not need a human’s instructions |
| A．People with basic literacy and computer skills. |
| B．People who are drunk. |
| C．People without computer skills. |
| D．People without a driver’s license. |
| A．difficult to get | B．quite important | C．dangerous | D．out of business |
| A．Car safety. | B．Driverless cars. | C．The future cars. | D．New technology in cars. |
9 . London and Paris are two of Europe’s biggest tourist destinations, just a few hours away from each other by road or rail and an hour’s distance by air. What about the train-ferry combination that many recall fondly from their childhoods? Well, though it’s budget-saving, this option is too time-consuming today, so better leave it to your memories. Since the UK is not part the Schengen Area, passengers need to go through passport control prior to boarding.
Air trips
Though flying between London and Paris is by no means recommended, there are still a few people traveling between the two dynamic cities by air. A very low one-way fare is possible through advanced booking, but of course it’s rare, and that doesn’t include the taxi and rail fares traveling to and from the airports.
* One-way fares from Paris can be as low as 49;
* From London, Air France flies with fares as low as £39(46), and British Airways as low as £48 (56).
Rail trips
The only direct train between London and Paris is the Eurostar, which travels 15 -17 times per weekday. Eurostar’s 2015 edition trains can make the journey in two hours at speeds of up to 320 km/h. Besides, they offer good seating space.
* Fares begin at a reasonable £58(68), round trip;
* The earlier you book, the more you save.
Bus trips
The bus is by far the least expensive and longest way to travel between Paris and London. Eurolines and OUIBUS are two major bus lines traveling between the two capitals. The journey takes between seven and nine hours. Both lines advertise free Wi-Fi.
* One-way Eurolines fares begin at 15;
* One-way OUIBUS fares begin at 15 too, but early bird sales can even lower the fare.
1. Which way is probably the cheapest for a round trip?| A．By train-ferry. | B．By air. | C．By rail. | D．By bus. |
| A．Free booking. | B．Taxi pickup. |
| C．Good seating space. | D．Free Wi-Fi. |
| A．There are different competing companies. |
| B．They are cheaper if booked ahead of time. |
| C．They are more expensive from the Paris end. |
| D．There are still additional fees to be included. |
A Polite Request
If you park your car in the wrong place,
