Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct, For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.
Manchester May Get High-speed Rail Before Leeds, HS2 Minister Suggests
Manchester may get high-speed rail before Leeds, the new minister for HS2 has suggested.
In his first speech in the job, Andrew Stephenson said the next step for government was to “bring forward legislation to bring high-speed rail into Manchester as soon as practical”. There was no mention of Leeds in relation to HS2 when 【小题1】 (address) the New Statesman’s northern powerhouse-themed conference in Manchester.
The plan now is to split those two spurs into two stages, with legislation for the Manchester leg going through parliament (议会) first, a transport department press officer confirmed. This is to integrate it with Northern Powerhouse Rail, the new east-west line across the Pennines, 【小题2】 includes 50 miles of HS2 track, including a tunnel from Manchester Airport to Manchester Piccadilly.
Judith Blake, the Labour leader of Leeds city council, insisted she 【小题3】(not, concern). She said she had been on a conference call last week with Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, in which he said he was “100% committed” to both east and west HS2spurs. Shapps said it was 【小题4】(efficient) for HS2 legislation to be split into smaller chunks than one big “hybrid bill”.
But she accepted that the eastern spur was trickier, as it went through more “highly populated" areas.We have always known that the eastern leg has some refinement to do,” she said, “noting that no agreement has yet been reached whether 【小题5】(spend) billions turning Manchester’s Piccadilly into a multi-level station either.”
Stephenson, a Mancunian former insurance broker who 【小题6】(represent) Pendle in east Lancashire since 2010, said he was thrilled to become the first minister for “HS2, Northern Powerhouse Rail and Transpennine route upgrade”.
“HS2 is not simply a project that the north and Midlands benefit 【小题7】. It is a project for the north and Midlands,” Stephenson said in his speech. “The critics who say that HS2 will only benefit London are simply wrong. They ignore the voices in towns and cities across the north, all the businesses and passengers 【小题8】(cry) out for investment and change. They ignore people in my own constituency of Pendle.”
He said, “Too many times I have heard stories of unacceptable treatment of those 【小题9】(impact) by this line. There will be disruption. We can’t deny that. 【小题10】 we must manage this work efficiently and effectively while always being sympathetic to those affected.”
