2014年12月英语四级考试仔细阅读真题和答案
An employee at Danny’s Cycles in Gramercy said Citi Bike is a good option for people to ease into biking in a city famed for its vehicular congestion and aggressive drivers.
“They can try out a bike without committing to buying one,” James Ryan said. “It makes a more comfortable biking environment in the city because there are a lot more bikes, too.”
Business at Danny’s Cycles has increased as well since the advent of bike-share.
“A lot of people come in for bike gear, and we’ve sold a lot of helmets,” he noted.
Rentals are not a big part of the business at either Gotham Bikes or Danny’s Cycles. But for Frank’s Bike Shop, a small business that has been at its current Lower East Side location on Grand St. since1976, the bike-share program has been bad news. Owner Frank Arroyo said that his rental business has decreased by 90 percent since the Citi Bikes were rolled out last month.
Arroyo’s main rental customers are European tourists, a demographic that has since been drawn away by Citi Bikes. Initially, a bike-share station was sited a few doors away from Frank’s Bike Shop on the corner of Grand and Henry Sts. But a petition onmoveon.org to relocate the bike station gathered more than 1,000 signatures. The Citi Bike dock was eventually removed — but only temporarily, according to the Citi Bike Twitter account, for utility construction in the street.
“I was grateful, and it was quite an honor to see how many people responded on my behalf,” Arroyo said of the petition effort. “It was really nice to see that people care. But they have flooded the place with them,” he said of the Department of Transportation, which installs the bike racks.
Removing one station does little since the area is overloaded with Citi Bike stations, said Arroyo.
“If you put it in front of a hotel, customers are going to walk of the hotel and use it,” he said.
However, Ben said the bike-share is good for bike sales at his shop.
“People have used the bike-share and realized how great it is to bike in the city, then decide that they want something nicer for themselves,” he noted.
Christian Farrell of Waterfront Bicycle Shop, on West St. just north of Christopher St., said initially he was concerned about bike-share, though, he admitted, “I was happy to see people on bikes.”
Consisting of equal parts tourists and locals, his customers get a better rental deal at his shop because, despite charging only $10for a daily rental, the bike-share program requires cyclists to check their bikes in at a bike station every half hour. His store, on the other hand, charges $10 for the first hour, $5 for the second, and $2.50 per hour after that.
“Six hours with Waterfront Bicycle Shop will cost a customer $25,” he said. “With Citi Bike, a six-hour rental will cost $126 [if the rider doesn’t re-dock his or her bike at a station every half hour]. Our rentals always include a helmet, a basket and a lock.”
Several dozen rental bikes were lined up on Weehawken St. last Sunday behind the store. Benny, who was watching over them, said another advantage over the Citi Bikes is that Waterfront’s bikes are all in good working order.
Farrell’s early concerns were echoed by Andrew Crooks, owner of NYCVelo, at 64 Second Ave.
“It seemed like a great idea, but one that would be difficult to implement,” Crooks said of Citi Bike. He said he worried about inexperienced riders’ lack of awareness of biking rules and backlash from non-cyclists. However, he said, it’s still too early to tell if his business has been impacted.
The actual Citi Bikes themselves have been criticized as “heavy,” “clunky,” even “ugly.” In comparison, Crooks said NYC Velo has bikes that are “lighter, faster and tend to be more comfortable.” Farrell of Waterfront also said his bikes are of “better quality” than the bike-share two-wheelers.
While it’s possible bike-share will cause a drop in business in the long run, Crooks allowed that the idea, as a whole, is good for the city.
[原文解读]
该文节选自The Villager，原题目为Bike store owners put their spin on new bike-share，题材为议论文。主要内容是花旗自行车共享计划的推出给自行车商店带来了一定的影响。有些商家的自行车销售量因此而上升，市民也觉得在城市里骑车非常棒。但对于一些小规模的店家来说，花旗自行车共享计划的推出使得他们的自行车租赁量大幅减少。但总体来说，自行车商店对花旗自行车还是持积极态度的。
本文整体难度较小，多为信息定位题，考生切记忌主观臆断，一定要有据可依，做题时回到原文找对应信息，做到心中有数。
[题目解析]
56.【B 】 Whether local bike shops will suffer. (细节定位题)
定位到第一段前两句
57.【C】 It saw its bike sales on the rise.(细节定位题)
根据大写人名Gotham定位在第一段的第三行
58. 【B】 Its customers have been drawn away by Citi Banks.(细节定位题)
根据大写名词Frank’s Bike Shop定位到原文第二段第三行
59. 【A】 Inexperienced riders might break biking rules.(细节定位题)
根据题干关键词定位到文章第五段第三句
60. 【D】 Approving.(态度题)
根据题干关键词定位在最后一段。