It"s 2:45 p. m. on a Wednesday, and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is in the backseat of a black Chevy Tahoe that"s inching its way to city hall along the 101 freeway. This stretch of the often clogged road is eight lanes, but there are so many cars on it that everyone is moving at about 30 km/h, a single mass of steel and glass lurching toward downtown. Just a few hours earlier, Garcetti was traveling a lot faster. To get to an event in University Cit-y, about 16 km from his office, Garcetti took the city"s Red Line subway, which can reach speed of up to 110 km/h—a pace L. A. "s rush-hour drivers can only dream about. Persuading more Angele-nos to take the train could go a long way toward solving one of L. A. "s most intractable problems. " We don"t need people to completely give up their cars," he says while holding onto a pole on the Red Line. "But right now, we average 1. 1 people per car. If we could get that to 1.6, the traffic problem would go away. " In L. A. , cars are a source of smog, billions of dollars in lost productivity every year and endless frustration for residents. "Every working person plans their life around traffic in this town," say Zev Yaro-slavsky, a Los Angeles County supervisor and longtime friend of Garcetti"s. " Building a transportation infrastructure is something that needs to be focused on, and Eric gets that. " Should Garcetti, 43—who was elected in May as the youngest mayor of L. A. in more than a century—ever manage to get the freeways flowing, it would be a triumph. And it would only begin to cure what ails L. A. Los Angeles" structural problems are daunting. The city has fewer jobs now than it did in 1990, with a regional unemployment rate that is more than 2 points higher than the national average. L. A. is also buckling under health care and pension costs and is scaling back public services to compensate. The 2014—2015 budget is projected to be $ 242 million in the red. As the Los Angeles 2020 Commission, a group of business, labor and public-sector leaders charged by the city council with diagnosing the region"s ills, put it in a December report, " Los Angeles is barely treading water while the rest of the world is moving forward. "

单选题 In the first paragraph, the descriptions are about______.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】解析：本段几处关键词的描写体现了本段的主旨及作者意图，如“inching its way缓缓前行，寸步难行”；“clogged road堵塞的马路”。即使上面两个词组都看不懂，至少我们能看懂其中的moving at about 30 km／h。汽车的速度达到每小时30公里是什么概念?就是拥堵的意思，故本段讨论的主要问题是交通拥堵，而在第二段的尾句出现了traffic problem，进一步证明文章主要讨论的是交通拥堵问题。因此，本题答案为选项[A]。

单选题 Garcetti took a subway instead of traveling in a car because______.

单选题 We know from the third paragraph that______.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】解析：[A]项对应原文：Building a transportation infrastructure is something that needs to befocused on．原文说的是“我们需要重视交通基础设施的建设”，而非“制造更多汽车”，故选项[A]错误。选项[B]对应原文：Should Garcetti，43一who was elected in May as the youngest mayor of L．A．in more than a century…可见Garcetti是洛杉矶一百多年以来最年轻的市长，而非历史上最年轻的市长，故排除[B]。选项[C]对应原文尾句:．．．ever manage to get the freewaysflowing，it would be a triumph．And it would only begin to cure what ails L．A．即使Garcetti使得交通顺畅起来，这也仅仅是一个开始，故我们可以得知除了交通问题以外，洛杉矶还面临许多问题，第四段的开头“Los Angeles’structural problems are daunting”可以进一步证明。故选项[C]为答案。选项[D]对应原文：Should Garcetti，43一who was elected in May as the youngestmayor of L．A．in more than a century—ever manage to get the freeways flowing…原文用一个特殊的虚拟语气表达，强调的是“如果”，而非他已经使交通顺畅了，故该项错误。

单选题 By saying "Los Angeles is barely treading water" , the author means______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】解析：根据题干定位到原文最后一句：Los Angeles is barely treading water while the rest ofthe world is moving forward．本句的while表示比较，说明上下句信息是对应、相反的，由此可以猜测出treading water一词与moving forward相对。故可知这个词组表达出的感情色彩是否定的。选项[A]理解过于表面，错误。选项[D]是褒义、肯定的，与treading water的感情色彩不符，故错误。剩余两项中，与“moving forward前进”表述相反的是选项[B]中的“stagnant停滞”一词，故答案为选项[B]。

单选题 Which one would be the best title of this text?

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】解析：本文前三段都在讨论洛杉矶市的交通问题，而第四段讨论的是结构性问题。第三段尾句提到：．．．ever manage to get the freeways flowing，it would be a triumph．And it would onlybegin to cure what ails L．A．而第四段第一句提到：Los Angeles’structural problems are daunting．说明本文不仅讨论了交通问题，还讨论了其他结构性问题，故选项[D]是比较全面的答案。