1 . Many people love to listen to music while driving. Thanks to the world’s musical roads, drivers now don’t need to turn the radio on.
A musical road can create music when a car tires go over grooves (凹槽) on the road. To produce beautiful music, drivers must pass over the grooves at a certain speed. Signs often tell drivers the right speed.
In Hungary, there is a musical road in honor of one of the country’s most popular musical performers — Laszlo Bodi. Bodi was the lead singer for the band Republic.
| A．Musical roads are also keeping drivers safe. |
| B．There is not any music road in Eastern countries. |
| C．Musical roads help improve the road safety greatly. |
| D．But they can also enjoy music while taking road trips. |
| E．Formed in 1990, the group is one of Hungary’s biggest acts and is still active today. |
| F．The first musical road was created in Gylling, Denmark, in 1995. |
| G．For example, in Japan, there are many musical roads throughout the country. |
2 . In the world of signals, there’s no doubt that red means stop. From red traffic lights to the stop sign itself, red draws your attention and sends a message to stop. But you probably don’t know that red stop sign has only been the standard for about sixty years. Before then, the octagonal (八角形的) traffic sign was yellow, with the word STOP in black letters. It wasn’t until 1954 that the stop sign became the bright red color with white letters that we know today.
In the early 20th century, stop signs actually weren’t any specific (特定的) color or even shape. Understandably, having no standards confused drivers, so the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) decided to select a standard design in 1922. This is how the octagon shape came to be. The AASHO wanted to choose a shape that even drivers coming in the other direction would recognize, so that they would know that the oncoming traffic had a stop sign. They chose a yellow design with black letters, hoping that the colors would draw the drivers’ attention.
However, why didn’t they choose red at first? They actually did consider making stop signs red, since red already meant “stop” on electric traffic lights, which had been invented in 1912. The problem with that was that, back then, there was no red dye (染料) that wouldn’t fade over time.
By 1954, though, sign makers began using a special red dye that never changed. The red color fading was no longer a problem. That year, the Joint Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices said officially that stop signs would be red with white lettering.
1. What does Paragraph 1 tell us?| A．The change of the stop sign. | B．The role of red in our lives. |
| C．The color of the traffic sign. | D．The influence of the stop sign. |
| A．To slow down the traffic. | B．To help drivers stop traffic. |
| C．To make the sign look beautiful. | D．To give a clear warning to drivers. |
| A．It became red because of traffic lights. | B．Its black letters were popular with drivers. |
| C．The yellow design wasn’t the first choice. | D．People began to realize its importance in 1922. |
| A．Cause a problem. | B．Become less bright. |
| C．Need improvement. | D．Meet different needs. |
3 . HS2 has announced the formal start of construction of the high-speed rail line between London and the West Midlands, which it claims will create 22,000 jobs.
The UK government will launch the main civil engineering contracts on Friday.
The contracts to build the first phase of the line, including viaducts, tunnels, and stations at Euston and Old Oak Common, were signed off by the Treasury during lockdown, after the government approved the controversial £106 bn project in February.
The company HS2 Ltd said most work to date had been preparatory, including design, ground clearance and demolition.
With coronavirus putting limitations on work since the formal notice to proceed in April, it said the launch on Friday of full construction work was “a step closer to reality” for the high-speed line, which has been more than 10 years in gestation and will not see full intercity services for another 10 years.
Midlands, a Balfour Beatty-Vinci joint venture, expects to be one of the biggest recruiters in the region over the next two years, looking for up to 7,000 skilled workers. Contracts to build stations, tunnels and viaducts will produce another 10,000 vacancies in greater London, HS2 said.
The first phase of the line, linking London and Birmingham, is expected to cost up to £45 bn, according to the Department for Transport and HS2 Ltd’s estimates, with full services now expected to begin running from Euston as late as 2036, although first high-speed trains might appear by 2029.
The eventual completion of the second phase, completing a Y-shaped network to Manchester and Leeds, remains in some doubt.
The parliamentary spending watchdog blasted HS2’s management in May in a report that warned that the scheme had gone “badly off course” and that further delays and cost overruns could not be ruled out.
1. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?| A．Prime Minister showing up for engineering contracts |
| B．HS2: construction of high-speed rail line officially starts |
| C．The transportation network of a high-speed railway |
| D．HS2 Ltd playing an important role in building high-speed rails |
| A．viaducts | B．shops |
| C．tunnels | D．stations |
| A．As late as 2036. | B．By 2029. |
| C．In 10 years. | D．Still not sure. |
4 . Istanbul has been around for centuries. Sure, it’s changed its name a few times over the years, but the location has always been the same. And in those years, there was no need at all for wide lanes. The term “rush hour” wasn’t even invented yet. The only traffic was an occasional horse-drawn carriage. The result is that the city center consists of very narrow streets.
All the action (nightlife, tourist attractions, etc.) is located in the city center, making people travel daily between their homes in the suburbs and their offices in downtown Istanbul. Besides, Istanbul is not only surrounded (环绕) by water, it’s also twice divided by it. The only way to get from one shore to the other is through bridges. And it is true of all bridges. They’ll get stuck easily.
On a normal dry day, morning rush hour starts as early as 7 a.m. and lasts until around 10 a.m.. After a short cool off period, traffic again starts peaking (达到高峰) from 4 p.m. to 9:30 p.m..
As soon as traffic jams start building up, drivers try to find alternative roads. And once found, they race through them trying to catch up on time already lost. But it doesn’t work. So they immediately turned to plan B. Make the most use of the road at hand. Lanes painted on the surface must be for decorative purposes, since you would be surprised how easily they can change a three-lane road into a five-lane one. On highways, the emergency lanes are taken, too. And of course, horns are blown as much as possible.
Of course the city’s government is making great efforts now to deal with these problems. Extra tunnels, subways, tramways and bus only lanes have been made available or are under construction. Also Electronic Detection Systems are used to detect and fine drivers who abuse the emergency lanes or drive through red traffic lights.
And although Turkish drivers are certainly not among the worst in the world, paying little attention to basic traffic rule, scrowding into the smallest space available, turning across the roads and blocking emergency lanes make traffic jams unable to be dealt with timely. They’re also part of the problem.
1. Which of the following is TRUE of Istanbul?| A．It has changed its location. |
| B．It has had different names. |
| C．The streets were busy in the past. |
| D．The government divided it into two parts. |
| A．taking the nearest road |
| B．looking for another road |
| C．taking an emergency lane |
| D．driving as fast as possible |
| A．No emergency lanes are available. |
| B．There are many bridges over water. |
| C．Lanes painted on the surface are narrow. |
| D．Quite a few drivers break traffic rules. |
5 . On a tram smoothly pulling into the heart of Luxembourg City, Marck gives a smile and takes a look at the fabric of the seat next to him. For him, the city’s trams are more than just transport. More even than the focus of his job. They are about transforming his country and, perhaps, changing the world.
Marck is the director general of Luxtram, Luxembourg’s modern trams. It first started running services two years ago. Next year, Luxembourg will become the world’s only country to get rid of fares on all its forms of public transport. Luxembourg’s traffic problems come from its army of workers. The population of the capital city almost doubles during the working day, when more than 110,000 people travel in and out.
After three decades when its roads have become so crowded, Luxembourg is going to do something remarkable. Free fares, and a plan to persuade people to switch from cars to trams or trains. Marck, along with many others, is excited to see what happens next. “The fact that this is free means that everyone can use it — young or old, rich or poor,” he said. “Everyone can say to themselves it’s better to leave the car at home. We must continue to improve and extend the network. It must always be comfortable, well-connected, efficient.”
Lydie Polfer, the city’s mayor, says she hopes to reach the point where more than a third of people come into the city using public transport — at the moment, it’s less than one in five. She said, “It’s not practical to ban cars because some people, like the elderly, need them. But everyone has to be aware that he or she can do something to improve the situation. There is an expression in German — you are not in the traffic jam — you are the traffic jam, and that is true. I think that making it free will be the biggest arguments for people to use public transport. ”
1. Why does Marck think the city’s trams are more than just transport?| A．The trams are his goal that he strives for. |
| B．There are more means of transportation than trams. |
| C．City’s trams bring more changes beyond transport. |
| D．The trams are the heart of Luxembourg City transport system. |
| A．The cause of the traffic problems. | B．The means of public transport. |
| C．The development of running services. | D．The increase of working population. |
| A．The convenience. | B．The fare. | C．The comfort. | D．The efficiency. |
| A．The elderly needn’t use public transport. |
| B．It’s possible to persuade most people to use the trams. |
| C．Everyone can do his part to improve transport situation. |
| D．Those who don’t take public transport cause traffic jams. |
The Bay Airline offers a
7 . Kenny Li is waiting patiently at a coach terminus (终点站) in Kowloon on a misty and cold Hong Kong morning.
He is planning to have lunch in the city of Zhuhai, which on a normal day would take him about four hours to reach by road. But today the journey will take just over 30 minutes, because today is not a normal day.
Kenny is one of scores of passengers — including the correspondent(记者)—who are queuing for a seat on one of the first crossborder coaches to travel over the newlyopened Hong KongZhuhaiMacao Bridge.
The 55 km bridge and 6.7 km undersea tunnel link Hong Kong’s Lantau island to Zhuhai on the southern coast of Guangdong Province and Macao.The mega structure is supported by three cablestayed bridges and designed to withstand typhoonforce winds.
It took more than eight years to build and, according to ambitious plans hatched(策划)in Beijing, will help form a hightech and economic region, namely Greater Bay Area, to rival New York, San Francisco and Tokyo bay areas.
But those lofty aims feel fairly irrelevant to the band of eager passengers who have assembled at the Kowloon coach terminus on Wednesday morning.This group wants something different from the HZMB, as it has become known. For just HK $120 for a single trip ticket, we can be part of history.
“I was the first person to get the ticket three days ago, ” says Li, as he waits patiently for the coach to arrive.
Other passengers are similarly excited.YW Cheung and his wife bought the tickets on Sunday as soon as he heard about the news about coach companies running the bridge service.
“I want to take the first coach to cross the bridge, ” he said. “We will meet friends in Zhuhai and eat out with them, and then we will go to Macao.”
1. Why is today different for Kenny Li?| A．Because it is a misty and cold day in the morning. |
| B．Because he has to wait patiently at a coach terminus. |
| C．Because the time to Zhuhai will be saved more. |
| D．Because he can have lunch in Zhuhai by road. |
| A．It can withstand typhoonforce winds. |
| B．A round trip ticket of the coach by it just costs HK $120. |
| C．It is irrelevant to passengers at the Kowloon coach terminus. |
| D．It is part of history，more brilliant than New York. |
| A．A fashion magazine. | B．A history book. |
| C．A tourist brochure. | D．A newspaper. |
Despite strict laws and heavy fines, traffic in Greece still remains dangerous. This is particularly the case in large cities
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Roads in the country are the most terrible roads for foreign drivers. In spite of the speed limit of 80 km/h, local drivers rarely move at
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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome onboard Flight SP432 from Beijing to Hong Kong. We are currently third in line for take-off and
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Ladies and gentlemen, as we start our descent, please
10 . Should I stay or should I go? An LED device for driverless cars aims to give pedestrians at a crossing the power to communicate with cars, signaling for them to stop or drive on.
Blink, created by researchers at the Royal College of Arts and Imperial College London, turns the awkward dance of eye contact and hand gestures that happens when a car slows down while someone is waiting to cross the road into something driverless cars can understand.
Blink combines an organic light display with the windscreen and windows of a car and uses light signals to show pedestrians when the car is aware of their presence. If the car detects a pedestrian,a figure lights up.
If a pedestrian raises a hand as a stop sign, the figure turns green, directing the pedestrian to cross, and the car is prevented from moving forward. If they place a hand out to the side to signal for the car to go forward, the figure turns red and the car continues.
But George Filip at the University of Nottingham, UK, isn’t certain it is a good idea to give pedestrians control over driverless cars. He says cities could end up crowded because pedestrians keep stopping cars.
“Producers should wait until the novelty of driverless cars has worn off before creating car pedestrian communications systems,” he says.“ We need to learn how people actually communicate with autonomous cars.”
The idea is to help people feel more comfortable around driverless cars, says Blink cocreator Raunaq Bose. “It effectively gives pedestrians the car stopping powers of lollipop men and women.”
The team hasn’t yet tested the device on a driverless car, but Bose says several automotive companies have expressed interest.
1. What do we know about Blink?| A．It’s a new car brand. | B．It’s a driving aid system. |
| C．It’s a car producing company. | D．It’s already widely known to the public. |
| A．Pick up speed. | B．Slow down. | C．Come to a stop. | D．Keep moving. |
| A．Negative. | B．Curious. | C．Uninterested. | D．Appreciative. |
| A．There’s a demand for the device. | B．The device has an uncertain future. |
| C．The device is perfect for driverless cars. | D．Several companies have begun to use the device. |
