聽力原文:
Transport infrastructure
運輸基礎設施
Life in the slow lane
羊場小道上的生活
The government trumpets its ambitions for roads, railways and airports. In fact, infrastructure is getting worse
政府吹噓他們有關公路和鐵路以及航空運輸的野心，事實上，（英國的）基礎設施正在淪落
重點詞匯：
1 lane（尤指鄉間的）小徑，小路
2 trumpet 宣揚；鼓吹；吹噓
聽力原文:
IF YOU want to get rich, goes a Chinese saying, first build a road. George Osborne, Britain's chancellor, seems to agree. He seldom misses a chance to put on a hard hat and proclaim the virtues of more roads and railways. His idea of a "Northern Powerhouse" would boost the north of England with a big new transport network that better connects the region. Certainly, if people are not stuck in traffic jams or can work in peace on a train they can get more done, leading to higher productivity and increased wages.
重點詞匯：
1 chancellor (德國或奧地利的)總理, (英國的)財政大臣, (英國大學的)名譽校長, (美國某些大學的)校長
2 hard hat 安全帽（建筑工人等戴）
3 proclaim 宣布；聲明；公布
4 Powerhouse 權勢集團；強國
5 virtues [不可數名詞](formal) behaviour or attitudes that show high moral standards 高尚的道德；正直的品性；德行; [可數名詞] a particular good quality or habit 美德；優秀品質；良好習慣.
聽力原文:
Yet for all the rhetoric, in recent years British infrastructure has been deteriorating. Roads are more clogged: the percentage of journeys on main routes that are classed as "on time" has fallen by six percentage points since 2010. Trains are getting more crowded, too: a quarter of trains arriving in London in rush hour are overcrowded, up from a fifth in 2010. Commuters are putting up with creaky carriages: in 2005-15 the average age of the rolling stock rose from 15 to 20 years. The number of local buses has fallen by 2.5% since 2010, even though the population has grown by 3%. The World Economic Forum ranks the quality of Britain's overall infrastructure 24th in the world, down from 19th in 2006, and behind Iceland and America (which is 13th). It is unlikely that things will improve soon. When the coalition government came to power in 2010, Britain was already one of the lowest spenders on infrastructure in Europe. But as Mr Osborne tries to balance the books, public-sector investment is projected to fall from 3.2% of GDP in 2010 to just 1.4% in 2020.
重點詞匯：
1 rhetoric 華而不實的言語；花言巧語
2 deteriorate變壞；惡化；退化
3 clog（使）阻塞，堵塞
4 commuter (經很遠的路程)上下班往返的人;通勤
5 creaky 嘎吱作響的
6 carriage（火車的）客車廂
7 class 動詞 歸類
8 put up with sb/sth 忍受9 rolling stock: the engines, trains, etc. that are used on a railway/railroad （鐵路上運行的）全部車輛（包括機車、車廂等）
10 project 動詞 規劃；計劃；擬訂方案
注釋：2010年大選的時候，保守黨并不占絕對優勢，保守黨爭取了民主自由黨的支持才成為執政黨的，所以保守黨領袖卡梅倫和自由民主黨領袖克萊格聯姻執政，卡梅倫為首相，克萊格為副首相。
聽力原文:
A small infrastructure budget is not necessarily a bad thing, if the money is used wisely. This often means spending on unsexy things-improving traffic lights and so forth-rather than big, expensive undertakings. In 2006 Sir Rod Eddington, an Australian businessman, published a government-backed review of Britain's infrastructure provision, warning against grands projets for having cost-benefit ratios that are often worse than otherless-exciting transport projects. Politicians like to be photographed at big digs, but the returns from such projects are hard to predict.
重點詞匯：
1 not necessarily used to say that sth is possibly true but not definitely or always true 不一定；未必，
2 and so forth | and so on 等等，
3 undertaking（重大或艱巨的）任務，項目，事業；企業
4 provision （法律文件的）規定，條款
5 grand adj 宏大的，宏偉的; （最）重要的; 豪華的; n. 一千美元; 大鋼琴;
6 dig 考古發掘
聽力原文:
Sometimes there is no option but to build big. On many London Underground lines-which already run as many as 30 trains an hour-it is hard to make incremental improvements; the only sensible way to create new capacity is to build a new line, as the government is doing now with Crossrail, an east-to-west London link. Still, it has mostly ignored the recommendations of the Eddington review, says John Van Reenen of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics, instead focusing its energy on larger, shinier projects.
重點詞匯：
1 incremental 增加的;遞增的
2 sensible 明智的；理智的；合理的；切合實際的
注釋：倫敦目前正在進行的一項耗資280億美元的鐵路項目――Crossrail工程竣工后，會使該市的公共交通系統得到很大改善。 Crossrail鐵路將把希思羅機場與倫敦東部和中西部地區連接在一起，在60分鐘內運送150萬名乘客。這條鐵路預計將于2017年竣工，它會并入倫敦現有鐵路網，其中包括倫敦地鐵。
聽力原文:

The addition of a third runway at Heathrow airport, for example, would cost over 20 billion pounds ($28 billion). Transport for the North, the infrastructure arm of the powerhouse idea, envisages building an 18-mile road tunnel, perhaps Europe's longest, under the Pennine hills, and constructing other expensive new highways. The tunnel alone could cost up to ?
6 billion. Meanwhile, 1.5 billion pounds is likely to be spent improving a few miles of road between Cambridge and Huntingdon. Government figures suggest that since 2011 the expected cost of the average public infrastructure project has roughly doubled. As a result less money is available for smaller upgrades. Funding for local roads has been cut by 20% in real terms since 2010. Analysis by the RAC Foundation, an independent think-tank, found that the number of potholes being filled in per year has increased fourfold since 2005,suggesting that costly, long-term repair is being sacrificed in favour of patching up. Government support for local bus services is down by 20% in five years.
重點詞匯：

1 envisage 想象；設想；展望
2 think-tank (尤指政府的)智囊團，智庫
3 pothole 路面坑洼，路面坑洞
4 pennine奔寧山
5 in real terms 實際上，實際中的
6 RAC： Royal Automobile Club.
The RAC is a British organization which provides services for car owners.
（英國）皇家汽車俱樂部 修理；
7 patching up（尤指）臨時修補

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