Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning） (15 minutes)

Directions: Inthis part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answerthe questions on Answer Sheet 1. For questions 1-7, mark Y(for YES)if thestatement agrees with the information given in the passage; N(for NO）ifthe statement contradicts the information given in the passage; NG(for NOTGIVEN）if the information isnot given in the passage. For questions 8-10, complete the sentences with theinformation given in the passage.

Highways

Early in the 20thcentury, most of the streets and roads in the U.S. were made of dirt, brick, andcedar wood blocks. Built for horse, carriage, and foot traffic, they wereusually poorly cared for and too narrow to accommodate (容纳）automobiles.

With the increase inauto production, private turnpike (收费公路）companiesunder local authorities began to spring up, and by 1921 there were 387,000miles of paved roads. Many were built using specifications of 19th centuryScottish engineers Thomas Telford and John Macadam (for whom the macadamsurface is named), whose specifications stressed the importance of adequatedrainage. Beyond that, there were no national standards for size, weightrestrictions, or commercial signs. During World War I, roads throughout thecountry were nearly destroyed by the weight of trucks. When General Eisenhowerreturned from Germany in 1919, after serving in the U.S. Army's firsttranscontinental motor convoy (车队), he noted: "The oldconvoy had started me thinking about good, two-lane highways, but Germany'sAutobahn or motorway had made me see the wisdom of broader ribbons across theland".

It would take anotherwar before the federal government would act on a national highway system. DuringWorld War II, a tremendous increase in trucks and new roads were required. Thewar demonstrated how critical highways were to the defense effort: thirteen percent of defense plants received all their supplies by truck, and almost allother plants shipped more than half of their products by vehicle. The war alsorevealed that local control of highways had led to a confusing variety ofdesign standards. Even federal and state highways did not follow basicstandards. Some states allowed trucks up to 36,000 pounds, while othersrestricted anything over 7,000 pounds. A government study recommended anational highway system of 33,920 miles, and congress passed the Federal-AidHighway Act of 1944, which called for strict contract-controlled designcriteria.

The interstate highwaysystem was finally launched in 1956 and has been hailed as one of the greatestpublic projects of the century. To build its 44,000 mile web of highways, bridges,and tunnels, hundreds of unique engineering designs and solutions had to beworked out. Consider the many geographic features of the country: mountains, steepgrades, wetlands, rivers, deserts and plains. Variables included the slope ofthe land, and the ability of the pavement to support the load. Innovativedesigns of roadways, tunnels, bridges, overpasses, and interchanges that couldrun through or bypass urban areas soon began to weave their way across thecountry, forever altering the face of America.

Long-span,segmented-concrete, cable-stayed bridges such as Hale Boggs in Louisiana andthe Sunshine Skyway in Florida, and remarkable tunnels like Fort MC Henry inMaryland and Mr. Baker in Washington developed under the nation's physicalchallenges. Traffic control systems and methods of construction developed underthe interstate program soon influenced highway construction around the world, andwere invaluable in improving the condition of urban streets and trafficpatterns.

Today, the interstatesystem links every major city in the U.S.and the U.S. with Canada and Mexico. Built with safety in mindthe highways have wide lanes and shoulders, dividing medians, or barriers, longentry and exit lanes, curves engineered for safe turns, and limited access. Thedeath rate on highways is half that of all other U.S. roads (0.86 deaths per 100million passenger miles compared to 1.99 deaths per 100 million on all otherroads).

By opening the NorthAmerican continent, highways have enabled consumer goods and services to reachpeople in remote and rural areas of the country, spurred the growth of suburbs,and provided people with greater options in terms of jobs, access to culturalprograms, health care, and other benefits. Above all, the interstate systemprovides individuals with what they enrich most: personal freedom of mobility.

The interstate systemhas been an essential element of the nation's economic growth in terms ofshipping and job creation: more than 75 percent of the nation's freightdeliveries arrive by truck. And most products that arrive by rail or air useinterstates for the last leg of the journey by vehicle.

Not only has thehighway system affected the American economy by providing shipping routes, ithas led to the growth of spin-off industries like service stations, motels, restaurants,and shopping centres. It has allowed the relocation of manufacturing plants andother industries from urban areas to rural.

By the end of the centurythere was an immense network of paved roads, residential streets, expressways, andfreeways built to support millions of vehicles, the high way system wasofficially renamed for Eisenhower to honor his vision and leadership. The yearconstruction began he said: "Together, the united forces of our communicationand transportation systems are dynamic elements in the very name we bear United States.Without them, we would be a mere alliance of many separate parts."

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡1上作答。

1.Nationalstandards for paved roads were in place by 1921.

2.GeneralEisenhower felt that the broad German motorways made more sense than the two-Lanehighways of America.

3.Itwas in the 1950s that the American government finally took action to build anational highway system.

4.Manyof the problems presented by the country's geographical features foundsolutions in innovative engineering projects.

5.Inspite of safety considerations, the death rate on interstate highways is stillhigher than that of other American roads.

6.Theinterstate highway system provides access between major military installationsin America.

7.Servicestations, motels and restaurants promoted the development of the inter-statehighway system.

8.Thegreatest benefit brought about by the interstate system was_______.

9.Trucksusing the interstate highways deliver more than_______.

10.Theinterstate system was renamed after Eisenhower in recognition_______.

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