Do you ever get to the train station and realize you forgot to bring something to read? Yes, we all have our phones, but many of us still like to go old school and read something printed.

Well, there’s a kiosk (小亭) for that. In the San Francisco Bay Area, at least.

“You enter the fare gates (检票口) and you’ll see a kiosk that is lit up and it tells you can get a one-minute, a three-minute, or a five-minute story,” says Alicia Trost, the chief communications officer for the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit — known as BART. “You choose which length you want and it gives you a receipt-like short story.”

It’s that simple. Riders have printed nearly 20,000 short stories and poems since the program was launched last March. Some are classic short stories, and some are new original works.

Trost also wants to introduce local writers to local riders. “We wanted to do something where we do a call to artists in the Bay Area to submit stories for a contest,” Trost says. “And as of right now, we’ve received about 120 submissions. The winning stories would go into our kiosk and then you would be a published artist.”

Ridership on transit (交通) systems across the country has been down the past half century, so could short stories save transit?

Trost thinks so.

“At the end of the day all transit agencies right now are doing everything they can to improve the rider experience. So I absolutely think we will get more riders just because of short stories,” she says.

And you’ll never be without something to read.

1.1. Why did BART start the kiosk program?

A To promote the local culture.

B To discourage phone use.

C To meet passengers’ needs.

D To reduce its running costs.

解析：选C。 C 推理判断题。根据文章中的“Do you ever get to the train station and realize you forgot to bring something to read … Well, there’s a kiosk for that.”和“You choose which length you want and it gives you a receipt-like short story.”可知，针对到火车站后才想起忘记带书来看的情况，在旧金山湾区有一个小亭子，乘客可选择一分钟、三分钟或五分钟的故事来阅读，因此BART推出这个项目是为了给需要阅读的乘客提供阅读材料。故选C。

2.2. How are the stories categorized in the kiosk?

A By popularity.

B By length.

C By theme.

D By language.

解析：选B。B 细节理解题。根据第三段“You enter the fare gates and you’ll see a kiosk that is lit up and it tells you can get a one-minute, a three-minute, or a five-minute story,”和“You choose which length you want and it gives you a receipt-like short story.”可知，乘客可以按照故事的长度打印。故选B。

3.3. What has Trost been doing recently?

A Organizing a story contest.

B Doing a survey of customers.

C Choosing a print publisher.

D Conducting interviews with artists.

解析：选A。A 细节理解题。根据第五段“We wanted to do something where we do a call to artists in the Bay Area to submit stories for a contest,”可知，Trost呼吁旧金山湾区的艺术家，让他们为比赛提交故事。故选A。

4.4. What is Trost’s opinion about BART’s future?

A It will close down.

B Its profits will decline.

C It will expand nationwide.

D Its ridership will increase.

解析：选D。D 观点态度题。根据倒数第二段“At the end of the day all transit agencies right now are doing everything they can to improve the rider experience. So I absolutely think we will get more riders just because of short stories,”可知，她认为所有的交通机构现在都在尽一切努力改善乘客的体验，仅仅因为短篇小说，就会吸引更多的乘客，因此乘客将会增加。故选D。