B: I’m so sorry. It’s my first time to drive alone.
A:
B:
A: About two kilometers.
B: Thanks. Can you tell me the way there?
A: You can use the guide map in your car.
B: But I don’t know how to use it! Can you help me?
A:
B: It’s very kind of you. Thank you so much!
A: You are welcome.
| A．What’s the matter? |
| B．It will take you there. |
| C．There is a parking lot (停车场) near the supermarket. |
| D．How far is it from here? |
| E．The road is too busy. |
| F．I really can’t find a place to park my car. |
| G．Well, you can do it like this… |
2 . Self-driving cars have been backed by the hope that they will save lives by getting involved in fewer crashes with fewer injuries and deaths than human-driven cars. But so far， most comparisons between human drivers and automated vehicles have been unfair.
Crash statistics for human-driven cars are gathered from all sorts of driving situations， and on all types of roads. However， most of the data on self-driving cars' safety have been recorded often in good weather and on highways， where the most important tasks are staying in the car's own lane and not getting too close to the vehicle ahead. Automated cars are good at those tasks， but so are humans.
It is true that self-driving cars don't get tired， angry， frustrated or drunk. But neither can they yet react to uncertain situations with the same skill or anticipation of an attentive human driver. Nor do they possess the foresight to avoid potential perils. They largely drive from moment to moment，rather than think ahead to possible events literally down the road.
To a self-driving car， a bus full of people might appear quite similar to an uninhabited corn field. Indeed， deciding what action to take in an emergency is difficult for humans， but drivers have sacrificed themselves for the greater good of others. An automated system’s limited understanding of the world means it will almost never evaluate(评估) a situation the same way a human would. And machines can't be programmed in advance to handle every imaginable set of events.
Some people may argue that the promise of simply reducing the number of injuries and deaths is enough to support driverless cars. But experience from aviation(航空) shows that as new automated systems are introduced， there is often an increase in the rate of disasters.
Therefore comparisons between humans and automated vehicles have to be performed carefully. To fairly evaluate driverless cars on how well they fulfill their promise of improved safety， it's important to ensure the data being presented actually provide a true comparison. After all，choosing to replace humans with automation has more effects than simply a one-for-one exchange.
1. What makes the comparison between self-driving cars and human-driven cars unfair?| A．Self-driving cars never get tired. | B．Statistics are collected differently. |
| C．Machines can make decisions faster. | D．Self-driving cars know the world better. |
| A．Dangers. | B．Self-driving cars. |
| C．Pedestrians. | D．Human-driven cars. |
| A．Driving steadily. | B．Climbing steep slopes. |
| C．Evaluating the cost of loss. | D．Making complex decisions. |
| A．To support human-driven cars. |
| B．To show his doubt about self-driving cars. |
| C．To call for exact evaluation of self-driving cars. |
| D．To stress the importance of reducing car accidents. |
1. Why is Dorothy going to Europe?
| A．To attend a training program. | B．To carry out some research. | C．To take a vacation. |
| A．A few days. | B．Two weeks. | C．Three months. |
| A．It's expensive. | B．It's satisfactory. | C．It's inconvenient. |
| A．Recommend her apartment to Jim. |
| B．Find a new apartment for her. |
| C．Take care of her apartment. |
| A．By train. | B．By car. | C．By bus. |
| A．By car. | B．On foot. | C．By bike. |
| A．At 6:30. | B．At 8:30. | C．At 10:30. |
7 . When I revealed that 1 was planning to travel around Britain by public transport, everyone I saw said, 'Gosh, you're brave!' but it never occurred to me to go any other way. Driving in Britain is such a dull experience these days. There are far too many cars on the road, nearly double what there were when I first came here, and in those days people didn't actually drive their cars. They just parked them in the driveway and cleaned them once every week or so. About twice a year they would “get the car out” for a pleasant drive to visit relatives or take a trip.
Now everyone drives everywhere for everything, which I don't understand because there isn*t a single feature of driving in Britain that has even the tiniest measure of enjoyment in it. Just consider the average multi-storey（多层的）car park. You drive around for ages, and eventually find a space that is exactly two inches wider than average car. Then, because you are parked next to a pillar（柱子）,you have to climb over the seats and end up squeezing out of the passenger door, in the process transferring all the dirt from the side of your car to the back of your smart new jacket. Then you go hunting for some distant pay-and-display machine, which doesn't give change.
And that's just one tiny part of the driving experience. There are all the other annoyances of motoring, like traffic lights on busy roundabouts（环形交通枢纽）that never let you advance more than 20 feet at a time, and motorway service areas where food is much more expensive. Motorized vehicles are ugly and dirty. They occupy every pavement, turn ancient market squares into disorderly and untidy groups of metal, and cause petrol stations and other discouraging places to appear in great number. They are horrible and awful and 1 wanted nothing to do with them on this trip.
1. Why did the author decide to travel by public transport?| A．Because he didn't have a car. |
| B．Because he hated driving in Britain. |
| C．Because he wasn't familiar with roads in Britain. |
| D．Because he was inspired by how people used to travel. |
| A．The inconvenience of parking cars. | B．The unreasonable parking fees. |
| C．The uncleanness of car parks. | D．The improper use of cars. |
| A．By providing ex amples. | B．By making comparisons. |
| C．By following the order of time. | D．By following the order of space. |
| A．The terrible places caused by vehicles. | B．The bother caused by driving cars. |
| C．His travels by public transport. | D．His past driving experience. |
1. How many times has the man been to Morocco?
| A．Once. | B．Twice. | C．Three times. |
| A．By plane. | B．By ship. | C．By coach. |
1. Why does the man hire some bikes?
| A．To go traveling abroad. |
| B．To visit the island with his friend. |
| C．To go to visit the bicycle rental shop. |
| A．Seeing her tomorrow. |
| B．Going to the beach. |
| C．Hiring a motorbike. |
| A．At Burt’s Bicycle Rental. |
| B．At the Holiday Sun Hotel. |
| C．At No. 100 Teckman Street. |
10 . The possibility of self-driving robot cars has often seemed like a futurist’s dream, years away from coming into reality in the real world. Well, the future is apparently now. The California Department of Motor Vehicles began giving permits in April for companies to test truly self-driving cars on public roads. The state also cleared the way for companies to sell or rent out self-driving cars, and for companies to operate driverless taxi services. California, it should be noted, isn't leading the way here. Companies have been testing their cars in cities across the country. It's hard to predict when driverless cars will be everywhere on our roads. But however long it takes, the technology may change our transportation systems and our cities, for better or for worse, depending on how the transformation is managed.
While much of the debate so far has been focused on the safety of driverless cars, policymakers should be talking more about how self-driving cars can help reduce traffic jams, cut emissions (排放) and offer more convenient and affordable choices to move around. The arrival of driverless cars is a chance to make sure that those cars are environmentally friendly and more shared.
Do we want to copy or even worsen the traffic of today with driverless cars? Imagine a future where most adults own their self-driving cars. They accept long, slow journeys to and from work on crowded highways because they can work, entertain themselves or sleep on the ride. They take their driverless car to a date and set the empty car to circle the building to avoid paying for parking. Instead of walking a few blocks to pick up a child or the dry cleaning, they send the self-driving minibus. The convenience even leads fewer people to take public transport — an unwelcome side effect researchers have already found in ride-hailing (网约车) services. Policymakers should start thinking now about how to make sure the appearance of driverless cars doesn't worsen the transportation system we have today. The coming technological development presents a chance for cities and states to develop transportation systems designed to move more people, and more affordably. The car of the future is coming. We just have to plan for it.
1. What can we learn from the first paragraph?| A．Self-driving cars are not allowed in the real world. |
| B．Driverless taxies will be seen everywhere on the road in a short term. |
| C．California is not alone in testing driverless cars. |
| D．Self-driving technology will definitely benefit transportation system. |
| A．how driverless cars can help deal with transportation-related problems |
| B．how driverless cars can travel safely |
| C．how driverless cars can travel faster |
| D．how driverless cars can move more people |
| A．Journeys to and from work become longer. |
| B．More and more people abandon public transportation. |
| C．There is no place to park them. |
| D．They may result in traffic jams. |
| A．Preparing Cities for Robot Cars | B．Future Technology Underway |
| C．Transportation System in the Future | D．Robot Cars on the Road |
