秋季落叶这件小事竟致英国火车频频晚点
It is an announcement experienced travelers know, which often means one thing: delays. Leaves on the line shows no signs of decreasing after a report showed incidents have increased by two thirds since 2010.
Report said the fallen trees and other leaves by the tracks have brought problems for decades. In 2009-2010, there were 11,500 occasions where trees and branches fell onto the lines. But by 2017-2018 the figures have risen to almost 19,000. Last year, more than 1,750 trains were canceled by fallen trees. That would make the travelers upset, though the fallen leaves seemed to be beautiful.
About 50 million leaves are said to fall on the tracks every autumn. Separate figures showed that leaves on the line caused 3,261 hours of delays last year, a rise of 70 per cent in the last decade. Last month, Northern said wet leaves made the trains have difficulty in running smoothly, resulting in several carriages being taken out of service.
Greater London and Kent operator Southeastern introduced a reduced autumn timetable to cope with the issue, leaving travelers with longer waits and crowded services.
There are around six million trees on Network Rail-owned land within 10m either side of the track. Despite spending £40 million a year over the past four years on control—an increase of £15 million—Network Rail still has a large amount of work. It also said the rail company’s bosses could lose their money for over-running engineering work. Senior staff could be forced to hand over a part of their performance-related pay, which came to more than £52 million last year, to pay for rail improvements.
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1.What problem must the train travelers face since 2010?
A More incidents were caused by the fallen leaves.
B The leaves on the line became fewer and fewer.
C They couldn’t see the beautiful fallen leaves in autumn.
D There were no reports on the delay of trains.
解析：选A。细节理解题。根据第一段第二句Leaves on the line shows no signs of decreasing after a report showed incidents have increased by two thirds since 2010.可知自2010年以来因为落叶造成的事故增长了三分之二。故选A。
2.What did the travelers think of the fallen leaves?
A They felt grateful.
B They felt worried.
C They felt hopeful.
D They felt excited.
解析：选B。细节理解题。根据第二段最后一句That would make the travelers upset, though the fallen leaves seemed to be beautiful.可知落叶会让旅客心烦意乱。故选B。
3.What would the travelers find when facing a reduced autumn timetable?
A There were no people waiting at the station.
B They could leave the station very quickly.
C The services in the station became better.
D The trains on the track would become fewer.
解析：选D。推理判断题。根据第四段的内容可知，英国相关铁路运营商推出了缩短的秋季时间表，导致旅客的等待时间更长，服务更拥挤，据此可以推知铁路上运行的火车更少了。故选D。
4.Which of the following is NOT the bad effect caused by the fallen leaves?
A Network Rail has to spend much every year on the control.
B The rail company’s bosses might earn less.
C The rail company would have less engineering work.
D Senior staff had to hand over a part of their bonus.
解析：选C。细节理解题。根据最后一段第二、三、四句的内容可知落叶给铁路网、铁路公司的老板以及高级职工都带来了相关的负面影响，结合选项可知选C。