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  3. In January commuters voted Birmingham New Street one of Britain’s worst railway stations. Each day nearly 150,000 people move th

In January commuters voted Birmingham New Street one of Britain’s worst railway stations. Each day nearly 150,000 people move th

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问题     In January commuters voted Birmingham New Street one of Britain’s worst railway stations. Each day nearly 150,000 people move through a structure built for half as many. But by next year it will be transformed, with 400 tonnes of undulating steel cladding and a vaguely eyeball appearance. The station will have "the wow factor" , boasts Sir Albert Bore, the leader of Birmingham city council. It will also show how much attitudes to railway stations have changed.
    Railway stations are the chief exception to the rule that Britain invests too little in infrastructure. Of the 17 big termini managed by Network Rail, the owner of Britain’s tracks, 11 are being redeveloped or have recently been completed. Five other stations, including Reading and Northampton, are being spruced up by local councils and Network Rail.
    Some simply need to be expanded: the number of train journeys has risen by 35% since 2005. But the design of New Street suggests aspirations well beyond more easeful travel. The building would not look out of place in Dubai and is striking, if slightly incongruous, in the grey West Midlands. City planners wanted something monumental, like Grand Central station in New York, says Sir Bernard Zissman, chairman of the independent design panel.
    " Twenty or thirty years ago business people were more likely to arrive in a city by car," explains Jon Neale of Jones Lang LaSalle, a property specialist. Town planners duly carved out motorways and roundabouts to entice them. In 1962 a local politician claimed that a new design for Birmingham, involving an inner ring road, would make it "one of the finest city centres in Europe".
    Cities now measure their appeal by their stations. Businesses cluster around them: at King’s Cross, a once-nasty part of north London, a postcode has been created for all the new buildings around the station, which was redeveloped in 2013. John Lewis, an upmarket department store, will open in the mall above New Street along with 60 other shops. The council hopes it will pull in visitors to the city.
    Such ambition recalls the stations of the 19th century. Those structures "spoke to the corporate sensibility of a city," says Tristram Hunt, an MP and historian, by combining commerce with the sheen of civic pride. The first New Street station, built in 1851, had the largest single-span roof in the country at the time. It was torn down by enthusiastic town planners in the 1960s. Now some of its original lustre may return.
It can be learned from the second paragraph that______.
选项 A、five of the railway stations have been torn down
B、the government has spent much on railway stations
C、Network Rail owns railroads and highways in the UK
D、the UK government is generous to public construction
答案B
解析 题目已经明确定位到第二段。选项[A]对应该段最后一句：Five other stations…其中关键信息是are being spruced up“正在修整”，短语spruce up的意思是“打扮整齐，装修”，与该项的torn down“拆毁”意思不同，故该项错误。选项[B]对应原文首句：Railwaystations are the chief exception to the rule that Britain invests too little in infrastructure．该句指出“英国对基础设施投入太少，火车站却是个例外。”由此可见该句“政府在火车站上投入很多”的表述正确；同时可以说明选项[D]“英国政府对公共建设很大方”的表达错误。选项[C]对应该段第二句，文章提到Network Rail是the owner of Britain’s tracks，其中tracks=railroads“铁路”，但该项的highways原文并未提及，故该项属于过度夸大。综上，该题答案为[B]。
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