社会热点英语话题 03

　　China's infrastructure¹ splurge
China's race to build roads, railways and airports speeds ahead. Beijing badly needs to expand its handling capacity. In 2002, the airport ranked 26th in passenger numbers worldwide, now it is the 9th busiest. China's rapid economic growth and equally rapid integration² into the global economic system is putting huge strains on its infrastructure. This has led to a spate³ of spending on transport. At 30 billion dollars, the Beijing-Shanghai high speed line is the most expensive project in China's railway history. More prosaic⁴ but cumulatively⁵, no less remarkable⁶ projects abound⁷. 15 years ago, intercity travel was often a choice between slow, crowded trains or a perilous⁸ journey by car or bus on narrow railroads. Flying was for the privileged. Until 1993, buying a plane ticket required a letter of authorization⁹ from an employer. But since the 1990s', China has built an expressway network crossing the country that is second only to America's interstate highway system in length. By the end of 2007, some 53600 kilometers of toll¹⁰ expressways have been built. The pace of construction will now be slowing a bit, but the aim is to have 70000 kilometers of expressways by 2020. The ministry¹¹ of communications, which is responsible for roads, boasts that china's expressway builders achieved in 17 years what the west took 40 to accomplish. The expressway network has helped divert some of the freight traffic from the overburdened railway system. It has also, to the delight of China's burgeoning¹² car industry, but to the horror of environmentalists, helped to promote a shape increase in private car ownership. The Asian development bank, ADB, which financed part of a 660 kilometer expressway linking Beijing with Shenyang in the northeast, found that the new toll road was little use after its completion in 2000. Now, says an ABD official, traffic flow and therefore revenue far exceeds initial predictions thanks to the growth of industries near the route and the increasing use of private cars for long distance travel. It is not just expressways that are getting attention. In 2005, China's leadership launched a programme to build what it called a new socialist¹³ countryside. This was an effort to assuage¹⁴ discontent in the countryside over the widening gap between rural and urban incomes and public services. The program included the plan construction of 300000 kilometers of new railroads between 2006 and 2010, an increase of nearly 50%. Investment in railways has been far slower to gather pace, in southern China, the worst snowstorms in decades paralyzed much of the network in late January and early February, but the rail connections between north and south were already inadequate¹⁵. Much of the south's coal supply is sent by rail from northern mines to the coast and then loaded onto ships. The world bank says that China's railway carries 25% of the world's railway traffic on just 6% of its track length. Strong political world may have helped what one world bank advisor¹⁶ calls China's mind-boggling pace of rail and road construction. A plan published by the ministry of communications in 2004 mentions offhandedly¹⁷ an expressway from Beijing to Taipei, target completion date 2030. How the road will traverse the 150 kilometers Taiwai strait is not mentioned, nor does the document suggest how to tackle the even bigger problem of reaching agreement with Taiwan. But government maps of the completed expressway network show it. It would be unwise to rule it out.
..

1 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

2 integration   

n.一体化，联合，结合

参考例句：

• We are working to bring about closer political integration in the EU.我们正在努力实现欧盟內部更加紧密的政治一体化。
• This was the greatest event in the annals of European integration.这是欧洲统一史上最重大的事件。

3 spate   

n.泛滥，洪水，突然的一阵

参考例句：

• Police are investigating a spate of burglaries in the area.警察正在调查这一地区发生的大量盗窃案。
• Refugees crossed the border in full spate.难民大量地越过了边境。

4 prosaic   

adj.单调的，无趣的

参考例句：

• The truth is more prosaic.真相更加乏味。
• It was a prosaic description of the scene.这是对场景没有想象力的一个描述。

5 cumulatively   

adv.累积地，渐增地

参考例句：

• Mind has become self-reproducing through man's capacity to transmit experience and its products cumulatively. 通过传递生活经验和积累创造的产品，人类的智慧在不断地进行着自我丰富。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• At first, the drug does no harm, but cumulatively its effects are bad. 这药开始对人没有害处，但连续服用后果就坏了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

7 abound   

vi.大量存在；(in，with)充满，富于

参考例句：

• Oranges abound here all the year round.这里一年到头都有很多橙子。
• But problems abound in the management of State-owned companies.但是在国有企业的管理中仍然存在不少问题。

8 perilous   

adj.危险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• The journey through the jungle was perilous.穿过丛林的旅行充满了危险。
• We have been carried in safety through a perilous crisis.历经一连串危机，我们如今已安然无恙。

9 authorization   

n.授权，委任状

参考例句：

• Anglers are required to obtain prior authorization from the park keeper.垂钓者必须事先得到公园管理者的许可。
• You cannot take a day off without authorization.未经批准你不得休假。

10 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

11 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

12 burgeoning   

adj.迅速成长的，迅速发展的v.发芽，抽枝( burgeon的现在分词 )；迅速发展；发（芽），抽（枝）

参考例句：

• Our company's business is burgeoning now. 我们公司的业务现在发展很迅速。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• These efforts were insufficient to contain the burgeoning crisis. 这些努力不足以抑制迅速扩散的危机。 来自辞典例句

13 socialist   

n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的

参考例句：

• China is a socialist country,and a developing country as well.中国是一个社会主义国家，也是一个发展中国家。
• His father was an ardent socialist.他父亲是一个热情的社会主义者。

14 assuage   

v.缓和，减轻，镇定

参考例句：

• The medicine is used to assuage pain.这种药用来止痛。
• Your messages of cheer should assuage her suffering.你带来的这些振奋人心的消息一定能减轻她的痛苦。

15 inadequate   

adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的

参考例句：

• The supply is inadequate to meet the demand.供不应求。
• She was inadequate to the demands that were made on her.她还无力满足对她提出的各项要求。

16 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

17 offhandedly   

adv.立即地；即席地；未经准备地；不客气地

参考例句：

• She had made these remarks offhandedly. 她即席做了这些评价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She threw him over offhandedly without even a dear-john letter. 她随即就把他甩了，甚至连封分手信都没有写。 来自互联网