Section B
Passage One
Today is a rather sad day for one of the London's oldest friends. The famous red London bus, officially called [26]The Routemaster, is being replaced by modern buses. Like Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and the red telephone box, the red bus has listed [27]one of these heritages.
They first arrived on London's streets in 1959 to [26]replace the trolleybuses, which were powered like a tram by overhead electric cables. In fact, my father used to drive trolleybuses and went on to drive the new red bus when they arrived almost 50 years ago. Later on, it was always a special treat for me to go to work with my dad to see all the sights of London. And it became such a star that it was even featured in Britain's first Elvis Presley type film Summer Holiday starring Cliff Richard.
But some people aren't sad to see the back of the famous red bus. They believe Routemasters are no longer a suitable form of transport for London. 10% of Londoners can't even get onto it; old people, disable people, people with buggies. It's a real, real problem. The hop on, hop off platform at the back of the Routemaster bus makes it a convenient form of transport for passengers. [28]But sadly, such features also make the bus dangerous. As some research shows, people are 5 times more likely to have an accident on a Routemaster than on any other sort of bus.
After today, we can see only a few Routemasters on the Heritage Routes, special journeys that will mostly be taken by tourists.
Questions 26 to 28 are based on the passage you have just heard.
26. According to the speaker, what is the evolution of London's public transport?
正确答案:C
解析:短文说,在50年前,Routemaster,也就是red bus,取代了无轨电车,现在又将被现代巴士所取代。故答案是C。由四个选项的from...to...to结构,猜测题目与交通工具的演进有关。每个选择包含三种车,其中都出现了Routemaster,但排列顺序不同。根据原文的提示,最早和最后出现的交通工具都不是Routemaster,可以排除A和D。B和C相似,但red bus是Routemaster的俗称,排除B。
27. What makes the Routemaster famous?
正确答案:D
解析:短文说,Routemaster与伦敦大钟、白金汉宫,红色电话亭齐名,被视为文化遗产之一。这些所提到的建筑物和物件是当地的象征,故答案是D。选项是四个描述的句子,根据主题,猜测题目与Routemaster的特点有关。综合全文的怀旧气息,与文化遗产很匹配。
28. What is the disadvantage of Routemaster?
正确答案:D
解析:短文说,在车尾的可伸缩平台本来是为方便乘客上车而设计的,但这同时也增加了危险性。故答案是D。It选项题,提示词inconvenient, difficult, dangerous, accident,猜测题目与Routemaster的缺点有关。buggies指童车,注意与读音相近的baggage区分(baggage是不可数名词,后面不能加s),故A是干扰项。