题目内容
Bicycles for rent could become as common as newspaper stands and mail boxes on Germany’s street corners if a scheme launched by Deutsche Bahn is successful.
The German rail operator has launched a bicycle-hire scheme designed for simple one-way trips.
“It’s a new concept,”said Andreas Knie, head of the project.
Users must first register with Call-A-Bike at a cost of 15 euros(US$14.7). With a simple phone call, they can hire one of the many bikes parked outside stations, at a cost of 3 to 5 cents per minute. At the end of their journey, they ring a computer and tell it where the bike is parked.
The bikes are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
No one will be breaking speed records with Call-A-Bike bicycles. They weigh in at 25 kilograms, at least double the weight of a normal bicycle, though they do have eight gears(齿轮).
“They are pretty heavy, but we don’t want people taking them on the train or into the subway,” Knie said.
They are also designed with parts that do not fit a normal bicycle. Even the screws are irregular and the bike looks so odd that thieves would stand out.
Vandalism and theft have led to the downfall of previous schemes which date back to Amsterdam’s 1966“White Bike”scheme.
In that short-lived experiment, anti-establishment groups painted bikes white and left them around the Dutch capital.
However, many were taken permanently and repainted, while the police took away others on the basis that ownerless bikes were street rubbish.
Copenhagen, Vienna and Helsinki also have free bike schemes, in which users deposit a coin in Copenhagen’s case 20 crowns(US$2.50)—to free a bike from a rack.
“The advantage these schemes have is ease of use. But because they’re so cheap, people tend to hold on to the bikes and then there are none on the streets,”the person in charge said.
Oslo is also planning a bike-hire system where users will pay a symbolic fee of 50 Norwegian crowns(US$6.50)for unlimited use in the city for a year.
Users will buy an electronic identity card as a key that will register when the bike is parked or taken from a rack.
1. How many European countries have already launched the free bike schemes?
A. Four. B. Five. C. Six. D. Seven.
2.What can be learned about Amsterdam’s 1966“White Bike”scheme?
A. The bicycles were twice as heavy as a normal bicycle.
B. A heavy rain stopped the scheme from being carried out.
C. Some bicycles were damaged or stolen and the scheme failed.
D. The police ended the scheme for traffic safety
3. What can be inferred from the text?
A. Bicycles for rent have become as common as newspaper stands and mail boxes on Germany’s street corners.
B. The bikes in Germany are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
C. German bicycles for rent are designed specially so that they will draw people’s attention.
D. Germany has taken some measures to stop the bicycles for rent from being taken away.
4. Which do you think is the best title?
A. Free Bicycles for Europeans.
B. Tough Transporters.
C. Customer is King.
D. Unpractical Scheme.
BCDA
阅读短文,根据短文内容,从文后所给的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项,选项中有两项为多余选项。
A Famous University Town
When we say that Cambridge is a university town we do not mean that it is a town with a university in it.
【小题1】 The university is not just one part of the town; it is all over the town. The heart of Cambridge has its shops, restaurants, market places and so on, but most of it is university, colleges, libraries, clubs and other places for university staff and students. The town was there first. Cambridge became a center of learning in the thirteenth century. Many students were too poor to afford lodgings(公寓) 【小题2】 This was the beginning of the present day college system.
Today there are nearly thirty colleges. 【小题3】 Many of them live in lodgings at first and move into college for their final year. But every student is a member of his college from the beginning. He must eat a number of meals in the college hall each week.
【小题4】 so nearly all of them use bicycles. Don’t try to drive through Cambridge during the five minutes between lectures, as you will find crowds of people on bicycles hurrying in all directions. If you are in Cambridge at five minutes to the hour any morning of the term, you’ll know that you are in a university town. 【小题5】 .
A.Colleges were opened so that students could live cheaply. |
B.Students are not allowed to keep cars in Cambridge |
C.Many students were short of money for their education, so college towns were set up then. |
D.A university town is one where there is no clear separation between the university buildings and the rest of the city. |
F. The size of Cambridge University is not so big as the town.
G. Very few students can now live in college for the whole of their course; the numbers are too great.