考研英语阅读unit-8.doc

Unit 8 Nothing is to be got without pains but poverty.世上唯有贫穷可以不劳而获。学习内容 题材 数 建议时间 得分统计 做题备忘 Part A Text 1 /10 Text 2 商业经济 421 /10 Text 3 文化教育 457 /10 Text 4 社会生活 432 /10 Part B 科普知识 592 /10 Part C 文化教育 479 /10 Part A Directions：Read the following texts. Answer the questions blow each text by choosing [A],[B],[C] or [D]. Text 1 . The goal of smart-highway technology is to make traffic systems work at optimum efficiency by treating the road and the vehicles traveling on them as an integral transportation system. Proponents of this advanced technology say electronic detection systems, closed-circuit television radio communication, ramp metering, variable message signing, and other smart highway technology can now be used at a reasonable cost to improve communication between drivers and the people who monitor traffic. Pathfinder, a Santa Monica, California-based smart-highway project in which a 14-mile stretch of the Santa Monica Freeway, making up what is called a “smart corridor”, is being instrumented with buried loops in the pavement. Closed-circuit television cameras survey the flow of traffic, while communications linked to properly equipped automobiles advise motorists of the least congested routes or detours. Not all traffic experts, however, look to smart-highway technology as the ultimate solution to traffic gridlock. Some say the high-tech approach is limited and can only offer temporary solutions to a serious problem. “Electronics on the highway addresses just one aspect of the problem: how to regulate traffic more efficiently,” explains Michael Renner, senior researcher at the Worldwatch Institute.揑t doesne’t deal with the central problems of too many cars for roads that can’t be built fast enough. It sends people the wrong message.” “They start thinking ‘Yes, there used to be a traffic congestion problem, but that’s been solved now because we have an advanced high-tech system in place.’” Larson agrees and adds, “Smart high