1 . Many of you have probably had this experience: You get on a train and are ready to take a nap or read a book, only to find that the passenger in front of you is watching a TV show on his cellphone without headphones. The child next to you won't stop crying. And the old lady behind you talks on her phone during the whole trip.

Wish the train could be less noisy? There might be a solution for you. The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, one of China's busiest high-speed rail lines, will have “quiet” carriages starting from Dec 23, Xinhua reported.

In quiet carriages, onboard videos will be muted and announcements will be made at a lower volume. Doors at the ends of the carriage will be kept closed to reduce noise from other carriages, CGTN noted. Train attendants will be responsible for making sure that passengers remain quiet and follow the rules.

Passengers who are willing to obey the rules can choose the quiet carriages when booking their tickets, according to China's national railway operator.

Some people have pointed out that this kind of quiet environment should be offered in all carriages. They say that having quiet carriages might give people the impression that they don't need to be quiet in non-quiet carriages.

While some Internet users are upholding the new service, it has also sparked discussion about just how quiet travelers should be in quiet carriages. Many people have raised questions such as “What if I snore?” and “Can we talk to our travel companions if we need to?”

1. Paragraph 1 is written to show that        

A．traveling by train is very common	B．people do all kinds of things on trains
C．many people watch TV shows on trains	D．people on trains are sometimes very noisy

2. How will quiet carriages work?

A．Passengers won't be allowed to watch videos.

B．Train attendants won't make any announcements.

C．No one will make sure passengers follow the rules.

D．The doors at the ends of carriages will stay closed.

3. What does the underlined word “uphold” in the last paragraph mean?

A．In need of.

B．In support of.

C．In search of.

D．In place of.

4. What do we know from the last paragraph?

A．The rules should be made clearer.	B．Most people don't like the service.
C．The service is better for solo travelers.	D．It's easy to make trains perfectly quiet.

2 . Looking around the streets of London, you’ll definitely see many methods people use to move around.     1    Now there’s a new addition: electric scooters or e•scooters.

This traditional children’s vehicle has become more complicated over the years. And now, with the addition of a small electric motor, it’s become a cheap and easy mode of transport. Scooting around town can be fun   and doesn’t   involve much   effort.       2    But considering   accidents involving this electric scooter in the U.K., questions are being asked about their safety and whether traffic laws should be changed.

Many e•scooter riders in the U.K. broke the law. Some had been seen on pavements, and others on the road jumped red traffic lights, adding to the frustration of motorists stuck in traffic jams. In the U.K., the law states that riding one on the public highway or pavement is forbidden. Despite this, it seems the increasing popularity of e•scooters means they can be seen everywhere.     3    

The U.K. government is looking at how safely they can be used on the road and is “reviewing” the law. But its transport minister, Michael Ellis, has told the BBC that “Micro­mobility products are appearing in countries across the globe and are an exciting innovation, for which we know there is demand.     4    ”

    5    Despite the fact that some of them can exceed 30 mph, they sometimes only have one brake and no lights. However confident the rider may be, larger vehicles on the road make them unprotected. So it seems that more work needs to be done to give e•scooters a safe and legal space to travel in.

A．The roads are already very crowded.

B．What’s the best means of transport?

C．People seldom see e•scooter accidents in the U.K.

D．However, safety must always be our top priority.

E．And now users are asking that regulations be changed.

F．There’s no doubt that there are dangers of riding a two•wheeled scooter.

G．It’s no wonder that it’s becoming increasingly popular in the world.

3 . Hundreds of new drivers have been given bans (禁令) for using their mobile phones at the wheel, as part of stricter new laws introduced. In March, the punishment for driving while on the phone was doubled to six points — meaning drivers with less than two years’ experience faced a ban.

New laws meant the punishment for being caught on a mobile phone at the wheel was increased to six points. The new rules were introduced in England, Scotland and Wales. Drivers who get six points within two years of passing their test will lose their licence, creating a one-strike rule for mobile phone users. To get back behind the wheel, new drivers have to retake both the theory and practical parts of the driving test.

Mr Williams in the RAC said, “These people have spent hours and hours and hundreds of pounds learning to drive to gain their personal freedom only to throw it all away through this foolish behaviour. The only comfort is that they won’t be drawn into some terrible crashes caused by the distraction (使人分心的事物) of a hand-held mobile phone.”

When the new laws were introduced, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said they would act as a strong warning to mobile phone users. However, the numbers suggested a total of 15,752 drivers received the punishment of six points for using a mobile phone between March and August. This is an increase from 15, 237 drivers in the same period of last year.

National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead on roads Policing, Chief Constable Anthony Bangham, said the police took the offence (违法行为) seriously. “This is not a small offence and is never a risk worth taking because a moment’s distraction behind the wheel can change lives forever.” “Our message is simple — don’t do it,” he added.

1. What can we infer from Paragraph1?

A．The new laws have not been passed.

B．The new laws are not strict enough.

C．Drivers with less than two years’ experience won’t be affected.

D．Punishment for driving while phoning used to be three points.

2. What will happen if a Welsh citizen who got a licence last year gets six points?

A．He will be fined a lot.

B．He must learn the new rules.

C．He will lose his driving licence.

D．He will be given a warning.

3. When the new laws were first introduced, _________.

A．traffic accidents were cut down

B．there were still many drivers who broke them

C．drivers thought the laws were unfair to them

D．fewer people broke them compared

4. What does Anthony Bangham mean?

A．The police didn’t take the new rules seriously.

B．The roads policy should be improved for safety.

C．A moment of carelessness may cause big accidents.

D．The laws need to be improved a lot and retested.

4 . Travel can be a lifesaver. The right vacation at the right time can give new life to your whole year, not to mention your body and mind. But in today's economy, with airlines adding new fees almost daily and ticket prices sharply on the rise, many have canceled travel as it is too expensive.     1    

Early bird gets the deal. Travel experts say that there are certain times of day when more deals are available.     2    Early morning is when the fares tend to be lowest, but it is a good idea to check every five hours to track prices as they change throughout the day. Also, it's a good idea to check again at 5 p.m. when the airlines are trying hardest to fill empty seats.

Avoid the crowds.     3    . The lowest time of the year for travel is in the Fall between Labor Day and Thanksgiving. Again, to try and fill more vacant (空着的) seats, the airlines will lower prices and offer better deals to get people to fly during this time of the year.

Right time, “wrong” place? By flying to popular destinations at unpopular times, you can secure the best prices from travel companies and airlines. Here's where flexibility in your planning can pay off. Going to the airline websites and planning your vacation around the best ticket prices offered can result in a fun, cost-effective vacation.     4    

    5     Many times the best deals on airfare can be found as part of a package rate. Most travel sites have package rates available and they are definitely worth a look. Often, the entire package (hotel, airfare, rental car) is cheaper than just the plane ticket on another site.

A．Package Deals.

B．Save Money,and Save Time.

C．Fly to popular places at unpopular times.

D．These deals are especially good on last minute package.

E．Airfares can change three times a day as airlines adjust their prices to fill up flights.

F．And maybe it can widen your horizons to a place you might never have considered.

G．However,with a few tricks,there are still many great deals to be had on air tickets.

5 . Kids Flying Alone Guide

Helpful tips for children traveling alone
Airline	Age	Fee per child (each way).	Notes
Air Tran Airways	6 to 8 years old — non-stop or direct flights only	$ 48 for a non-stop flight	Unaccompanied children.
American	6 to 8 years old — non-stop or direct flights only	$ 110	Flights for unaccompanied children cannot be booked online.
British Airways	7 to 15 years old — can travel alone on connecting flights	$ 60 for flights within UK	Flights for unaccompanied children cannot be booked online.
Frontier Airlines	6 to 15 years old — non-stop or direct flights or connecting flights	$ 60 for non-stop or direct flights $120 for connecting flights	Flights for unaccompanied children cannot be booked online.

Before the flight:

Try to book a morning flight. If it is delayed or canceled, you have the rest of the day to make alternate planes. Make sure your child doesn’t wear any clothing that has his or her name on it, which would make it easier for a stranger to convince a child he can be trusted.

At the airport:

Make sure the flight attendants know that your child is traveling alone. Make sure that he or she will be seated in an area of the aircraft that’s convenient for attendants to keep an eye on — the very front of very back of the aircraft is ideal.

Register your child’s travel plans with the U. S. State Department, which can provide assistance in an emergency. This is a free service.

What to pack:

Cell phone: If your child doesn’t have a cell phone, buy him or her a pay-as-you-go phone at a cell phone retailer (零售店) so he or she has an easy form of communication for emergencies.

Gift cards: Invest in a few pre-paid gift cards worth $ 25 or $ 50, This will reduce the worry of traveling with a large amount of cash.

Family/ friends contact information: Give your child a complete list of names, numbers and addresses of the people who are picking your child up at the airport.

1. How much should you pay if your child aged eleven travels alone on a connecting flight by Frontier Airlines?

A．$ 50.	B．$ 75.
C．$ 120.	D．$ 160.

2. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Juice or water can’t be brought onto the aircraft.

B．Unaccompanied children can’t fly on the last flight of the day.

C．Pay-as-you-go phones are provided for free at the airport for children without cell phones.

D．Parents can register children’s travel plans with the U. S. State Department for free.

3. Which of the following is recommended for unaccompanied children?

A．Booking them morning flights.

B．Giving them a large amount of cash.

C．Making them sit in the middle of the aircraft.

D．Dressing them in clothing with their names on it.

6 . Your next car might drive itself. After years of trials on city streets, driverless vehicles are now nearing the production phase. Last month, a driverless bus began carrying passengers through Lyon, France. Most in the automobile industry think self-driving vehicles will be on the road by 2020 or before.

Driverless cars will at first be huddled with human-driven cars. But the first places where they will become dominant（占支配地位的）are dense urban areas-precisely the spots most damaged by the automobile age. Many advanced cities are already reducing the role of human-driven cars. Driverless cars will quicken that process and will bring us great benefits.

Driverless cars will reduce accidents by around 90 percent. That's big-the annual death toll on the world's roads is about 1.2 million a year. Pollution and carbon emissions will drop, because urban driverless cars will be electric. The old, otherwise they would stay at home most of the time and the disabled and teenagers will suddenly gain mobility.

On the other hand, driverless cars will bring catastrophe（灾难）.The best thing about the automobile age is that it employs tens of millions of people to make, market, insure and drive vehicles. Over the next 20 years, most men who now drive trucks, taxis and buses will see their jobs reduced. Carmakers are especially scared. A few cars in the future might be made by tech companies such as Apple, Baidu and Google. Imaging the impact on Germany, where the automotive sector is the largest industry.

Dramatic change is coming, and driverless cars could arrive by 2020. But governments have hardly begun thinking about it. Only 6 percent of the biggest US cities have factored them into their long-term planning.

A decade ago anyone hardly saw the smartphone coming. It has brought an epidemic of mass addiction. Let's hope we do a better job of handling the driverless car.

1. The underlined words "be huddled with "in Paragraph 2 can be replaced by "________".

A．show up with	B．exist together with
C．get rid of	D．take the place of

2. Why can driverless cars reduce pollution and carbon emissions?

A．Driverless cars reduce the number of human-driven cars.

B．Driverless cars will be powered by electricity.

C．Driverless cars save fuel by driving themselves.

D．Driverless cars will reduce too many accidents.

3. What can we know about driverless cars？

A．They will not hit the road until 2020.

B．They will only be used in urban areas.

C．They will not cause any road accident.

D．They aren't still seriously taken by governments.

4. What's the author's attitude toward driverless cars？

A．Doubtful.	B．Negative.
C．Objective.	D．Worried.

7 . When a driver slams on the brakes to avoid hitting a pedestrian crossing the road illegally, she is making a moral decision that shifts risk from the pedestrian to the people in the car. Self-driving cars might soon have to make such ethical (道德的)judgments on their own — but settling on a universal moral code for the vehicles could be a tough task, suggests a survey.

The largest ever survey of machine ethics, called the Moral Machine, laid out 13 possible situations in which someone’s death was unavoidable. Respondents were asked to choose who to spare in situations that involved a mix of variables: young or old, rich or poor, more people or fewer. Within 18 months, the online quiz had recorded 40 million decisions made by people from 233 countries and territories.

When the researchers analysed these answers, they found that the nations could be divided into three groups. One contains North America and several European nations where Christianity has been the dominant (占支配地位的)religion; another includes countries such as Japan, Indonesia and Pakistan, with strong Confucian or Islamic traditions. A third group consists of countries in Central and South America, such as Colombia and Brazil. The first group showed a stronger preference for sacrificing older lives to save younger ones than did the second group, for example.

The researchers also identified relationships between social and economic factors in a country. They found that people from relatively wealthy countries with strong institutions, such as Finland and Japan, more often chose to hit people who stepped into traffic illegally than did respondents in nations with weaker institutions, such as Nigeria or Pakistan.

People rarely face such moral dilemmas, and some cities question whether the possible situations posed in the online quiz are relevant to the ethical and practical questions surrounding driverless cars. But the researchers argue that the findings reveal cultural differences that governments and makers of self-driving cars must take into account if they want the vehicles to gain public acceptance.

At least Barbara Wege, who heads a group working on autonomous-vehicle ethics at Audi in Ingolstadt, Germany, says such studies are valuable. Wege argues that self-driving cars would cause fewer accidents, proportionally, than human drivers do each year—but that people might focus more on events involving robots.

Surveys such as the Moral Machine can help to begin public discussions about these unavoidable accidents that might develop trust. “We need to come up with a social consensus,” she says, “about which risks we are willing to take.”

1. Why is it difficult to set universal moral rules for programming self-driving cars?

A．Social values always change with the times.

B．Moral choices vary between different cultures.

C．Drivers have a preference for sacrificing the weak.

D．Car makers are faced with decisions of life or death.

2. The researchers conducted the study by_____.

A．using a massive online quiz worldwide

B．comparing different cultures and customs

C．dividing the respondents into three groups

D．performing a series of controlled experiments

3. According to the study, in which country are drivers more likely to hit a pedestrian crossing the road illegally?

A．Nigeria	B．Colombia
C．Finland	D．Indonesia

4. Barbara Wege would probably agree that _____.

A．Self-driving cars will greatly improve the traffic environment

B．Accidents caused by self-driving cars might receive more attention

C．Problems involving self-driving cars might shake the public trust in society

D．Car makers needn’t take the risk of solving self-driving car ethical dilemmas

8 . China is a land of bicycles. At least it was back in 1992 when I traveled the country. Back then everyone seemed to be riding a bicycle. Millions of them, all black. Cars were rare. Yet since my arrival in Beijing last year, I’ve found the opposite is true. There are millions of cars. However, people still use their bicycles to get around. For many, it’s the easiest and cheapest way to travel today. Bicycles also come in different colors --- silver, green, red, blue, yellow, whatever you want.

It’s fun watching people biking. They rush quickly through crossroads, move skillfully through traffic, and ride even on sidewalks. Bicycles allow people the freedom to move about that cars just can’t provide.

Eager to be part of this aspect of Chinese culture, I decided to buy a bicycle. Great weather accompanied my great buy. I immediately jumped up on my bicycle seat and started home.

My first ride home was orderly (守秩序的). To be safe, I stayed with a “pack” of bikers while cars on the streets came running swiftly out of nowhere at times. I didn’t want to get hit. So I took the ride carefully.

Crossing the streets was the biggest problem. It was a lot like crossing a major highway back in the United States. The streets here were wide, so crossing took time, skill and a little bit of luck.

I finally made it home. The feeling on the bicycle was amazing. The air hitting my face and going through my hair was wonderful. I was sitting on top of the world as I passed by places and people. Biking made me feel alive.

1. According to the author, why are bicycles still popular in China today?

A．Because they are traditional and safe.

B．Because they are convenient and inexpensive.

C．Because they are colorful and available.

D．Because they are fast and environment friendly.

2. The author decided to buy a bicycle because he intended __________.

A．to ride it for fun	B．to use it for transport
C．to experience local culture	D．to improve his riding skills

3. How did the author feel about his street crossing？

A．It was boring.	B．It was difficult.
C．It was lively.	D．It was wonderful.

4. Which of the following best describes the author’s biking experience

A．The author enjoyed showing off his biking skills.

B．The author was annoyed by the air while riding.

C．The author was praised by the other bikers.

D．The author took great pleasure in biking.