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  3. By 2010 the European Commission predicts transcontinental freight traffic will have risen 50 percent as a result of European exp

By 2010 the European Commission predicts transcontinental freight traffic will have risen 50 percent as a result of European exp

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问题     By 2010 the European Commission predicts transcontinental freight traffic will have risen 50 percent as a result of European expansion, and much of that will have to cross the enormous obstacle of the Alps. Right now the only practical way for most heavy traffic to get through is by truck and. tunnel. And while that could change if safer and cleaner rail lines were opened, the chances are that they won’t happen anytime soon.
    Several private trucking companies have adapted quickly and creatively to the demands of European unification. Some of the bigger truckers trace cargoes with the Global Positioning System and sophisticated computers. And if trucks also bring more road hazards and pollution, at present there is no alternative. Right now only 8 percent of European merchandise moves by rail, compared with more than 40 percent in the United States. Delays are so common that the average speed for freight is about 18 km an hour.     The railways have had trouble outgrowing a heritage of national rivalries and open warfare between Europe’s countries. The result is what another European Commission report calls "a mosaic of badly interconnected national systems. " Language barriers remain a problem, requiring crew changes at some borders. Switching systems and signals differ.
    And efficiency is more of a dream than a goal. Europe’s railroads still have to deal with "phantom trains" that run so late they combine with others and disappear from the railroad’s records. In an era when many companies depend on a "just-in-time" inventories to make a profit, railroads are rarely on time at all.
    Yet there is little official enthusiasm for changing the system. The reality is that governments have helped create the imbalance between road and rail in Europe—and government action will likely be needed to fix it. The French emphasis on using rail to move people instead of goods, for instance, has helped cripple freight service. "All the investments went to passenger traffic," says Denis Doute, director of freight services for the French rail company SNCF. Freight trains have had to find "windows" to run in between passenger trains, unlike those in the United States, which often travel on separate tracks. The further development of the freight network requires massive investments to modernize existing infrastructure and open new ones. However, the political will to fund that kind of investment is lacking, which means the citizens will have to hold their noses for a while longer.
The author’s purpose of writing this passage is to
选项 A、alert the public and the environmental groups about the freight traffic.
B、show the European Commission to the consequence of the blind expansion.
C、elaborate the freight traffic problems and their causes in Europe.
D、appeal to the governments to invest more money in freight traffic.
答案D
解析 作者写本文的目的是[A]引起公众和环保组织对货运的重视。[B]向欧洲委员会表明盲目扩张的后果。[C]阐述欧洲货运的问题及成因。[D]呼吁政府加大对货运的投资力度。作者意图一般都会在第一段或最后一段表现出来。本篇文章谈论的内容是[C]“欧洲货运的问题及成因”，但作者的意图是在最后一段第一句和倒数第二句清楚地表现出来，即呼吁政府加大对货运的投资力度，正确答案是[D]。
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