Text 4 Shortly after dawn on February 17th 2003, the world’s most ambitious road pricing experiment will start in London. Though cordon toll schemes have been operating in Norway for years, and Singapore has an electronic system, no one has ever tried to charge motorists in a city of the size and complexity of London. For decades, transport planners have been demanding that motorists should pay directly for the use of roads. According to the professionals, it is the only way of civilizing cities and restraining the growth of inter urban traffic. Politicians have mostly turned a deaf ear, fearing that charging for something what was previously free was a quick route to electoral suicide. But London’s initiative suggests that the point where road pricing becomes generally accepted as the most efficient way to restrain traffic is much nearer than most drivers realize. The mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has pinned his political reputation on the scheme’s s
A. restrain the capital's traffic growth.
B. produce net annual municipal revenues.
C. remove on-street parking lots.
D. meet ambitious political aims.
Text 4 Shortly after dawn on February 17th 2003, the world’s most ambitious road pricing experiment will start in London. Though cordon toll schemes have been operating in Norway for years, and Singapore has an electronic system, no one has ever tried to charge motorists in a city of the size and complexity of London. For decades, transport planners have been demanding that motorists should pay directly for the use of roads. According to the professionals, it is the only way of civilizing cities and restraining the growth of inter urban traffic. Politicians have mostly turned a deaf ear, fearing that charging for something what was previously free was a quick route to electoral suicide. But London’s initiative suggests that the point where road pricing becomes generally accepted as the most efficient way to restrain traffic is much nearer than most drivers realize. The mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has pinned his political reputation on the scheme’s s
A. out of the question.
B. anything but new.
C. for the sake of safety.
D. nowhere near success.
Text 2 Since the dawn of human ingenuity, people have devised ever more cunning tools to cope with work that is dangerous, boring, burdensome, or just plain nasty. That compulsion has resulted in robotics - the science of conferring various human capabilities on machines. And if scientists have yet to create the mechanical version of science fiction, they have begun to come close. As a result, the modem world is increasingly populated by intelligent gizmos whose presence we barely notice but whose universal existence has removed much human labor. Our factories hum to the rhythm of’ robot assembly arms. Our banking is done at automated teller terminals that thank us with mechanical politeness for the transaction. Our subway trains are controlled by tireless robot-drivers. And thanks to the continual miniaturization of electronics and micro - mechanics, there are already robot systems that can perform some kinds of brain and bone surgery with submillimeter accuracy - f
A. the use of machines to produce science fiction
B. the wide use of machines in manufacturing industry
C. the invention of tools for difficult and dangerous work
D. the elite's cunning tackling of dangerous and boring work
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