In 1916, two girls of wealthy families, best friends from Auburn, N.  Y.—Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood—traveled to a settlement in the Rocky  Mountains to teach in a one-room schoolhouse. The girls had gone to Smith  College. They wore expensive clothes. So for them to move to Elkhead, Colo. to  instruct the children whose shoes were held together with string was a surprise.  Their stay in Elkhead is the subject of Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected  Education of Two Society Girls in the West by Dorothy Wickenden, who is a  magazine editor and Dorothy Woodruff's granddaughter.

Why did they go then? Well, they wanted to do something useful. Soon,  however, they realized what they had undertaken.

They moved in with a local family, the Harrisons, and, like them, had  little privacy, rare baths, and a blanket of snow on their quilt when they woke  up in the morning. Some mornings, Rosamond and Dorothy would arrive at the  schoolhouse to find the children weeping from the cold. In spring, the snow was  replaced by mud over ice.

In Wickenden's book, she expanded on the history of the West and also on  feminism, which of course influenced the girls' decision to go to Elkhead. A  hair-raising section concerns the building of the railroads, which  entailed(牵涉)drilling through the Rockies, often in blinding snowstorms. The book  ends with Rosamond and Dorothy's return to Auburn.

Wickenden is a very good storyteller. The sweep of the land and the  stoicism(坚忍)of the people move her to some beautiful writing. Here is a picture  of Dorothy Woodruff, on her horse, looking down from a hill top: "When the sun  slipped behind the mountains, it shed a rosy glow all around them. Then a full  moon rose. The snow was marked only by small animals: foxes, coyotes, mice, and  varying hares, which turned white in the winter."

24. Why did Dorothy and Rosamond go to the Rocky Mountains?

A. To teach in a school. B. To study American history.

C. To write a book. D. To do sightseeing.

25. What can we learn about the girls from paragraph 3?

A. They enjoyed much respect. B. They had a room with a bathtub.

C. They lived with the local kids. D. They suffered severe hardships.

26. Which part of Wickenden's writing is hair-raising?

A. The extreme climate of Auburn. B. The living conditions in Elkhead.

C. The railroad building in the Rockies. D. The natural beauty of the  West.

27. What is the text?

A. A news report. B. A book review. C. A children's story. D. A diary  entry.

C

Can a small group of drones(无人机)guarantee the safety and reliability of  railways and, at the same time, help railway operators save billions of euros  each year? That is the very likely future of applying today's "eyes in the sky"  technology to making sure that the millions of kilometres of rail tracks and  infrastructure(基础设施)worldwide are safe for trains on a 24/7 basis.

Drones are already being used to examine high-tension electrical lines.  They could do precisely the same thing to inspect railway lines and other vital  aspects of rail infrastructure such as the correct position of railway tracks  and switching points. The more regularly they can be inspected, the more railway  safety, reliability and on-time performance will be improved. Costs would be cut  and operations would be more efficient(高效)across the board.

That includes huge savings in maintenance costs and better protection of  railway personnel safety. It is calculated that European railways alone spend  approximately 20 billion euros a year on maintenance, including sending  maintenance staff, often at night, to inspect and repair the rail  infrastructure. That can be dangerous work that could be avoided with drones  assisting the crews' efforts.

By using the latest technologies, drones could also start providing  higher-value services for railways, detecting faults in the rail or switches,  before they can cause any safety problems. To perform these tasks, drones for  rail don't need to be flying overhead. Engineers are now working on a new  concept: the rail drones of the future. They will be moving on the track ahead  of the train, and programmed to run autonomously. Very small drones with  advanced sensors and AI and travelling ahead of the train could guide it like a  co-pilot. With their ability to see ahead, they could signal any problem, so  that fast-moving trains would be able to react in time.

28. What makes the application of drones to rail lines possible?

A. The use of drones in checking on power lines. B. Drones' ability to work  at high altitudes.

C. The reduction of cost in designing drones. D. Drones' reliable  performance in remote areas.

29. What does "maintenance" underlined in paragraph 3 refer to?

A. Personnel safety. B. Assistance from drones.

C. Inspection and repair. D. Construction of infrastructure.

30. What function is expected of the rail drones?

A. To provide early warning. B. To make trains run automatically.

C. To earn profits for the crews. D. To accelerate transportation.

31. Which is the most suitable title for the text?

A. What Faults Can Be Detected with Drones

B. How Production of Drones Can Be Expanded

C. What Difficulty Drone Development Will Face

D. How Drones Will Change the Future of Railways

D

The Government's sugar tax on soft drinks has brought in half as much money  as Ministers first predicted it would generate, the first official data on the  policy has shown.

First announced in April, 2016, the tax which applies to soft drinks  containing more than 5g of sugar per 100ml, was introduced to help reduce  childhood obesity(肥胖). It is believed that today's children and teenagers are  consuming three times the recommended level of sugar, putting them at a higher  risk of the disease.

Initially the sugar tax was expected to make ?520m a year for the Treasury.  However, data of the first six months showed it would make less than half this  amount. At present it is expected to generate ?240m for the year ending in April  2019, which will go to school sports.

It comes after more than half of soft drinks sold in shops have had their  sugar levels cut by manufacturers(制造商)so they can avoid paying the tax. Drinks  now contain 45 million fewer kilos of sugar as a result of manufacturers'  efforts to avoid the charge, according to Treasury figures. Since April drinks  companies have been forced to pay between 18p and 24p for every litre of sugary  drink they produce or import, depending on the sugar content.