For those who make journeys across the world, the speed of travel today has turned the countries into a series of villages. Distances between them appear no greater to a modern traveler than those which once faced men as they walked from village to village. Jet planes fly people from one end of the earth to the other, allowing them a freedom of movement undreamt of a hundred years ago.

Yet some people wonder if the revolution in travel has gone too far. A price has been paid, they say, for the conquest (征服) of time and distance. Travel is something to be enjoyed, not endured (忍受). The boat offers leisure and time enough to appreciate the ever­changing sights and sounds of a journey. A journey by train also has a special charm about it. Lakes and forests and wild, open plains sweeping past your carriage window create a grand view in which time and distance mean nothing. On board a plane, however, there is just the blank blue of the sky filling the narrow windows of the airplane. The soft lighting, in­flight films and gentle music make up the only world you know, and the hours progress slowly.

Then there is the time spent being ‘processed’ at a modern airport. People are conveyed like robots along walkways; baggage is weighed, tickets produced, examined and produced yet again before the passengers move to another waiting area. Journeys by rail and sea take longer, yes, but the hours devoted to being ‘processed’ at departure and arrival in airports are luckily absent. No wonder, then, that the modern high­speed trains are winning back passengers from the airlines.

Man, however, is now a world traveler and cannot turn his back on the airplane. The working lives of too many people depend upon it; whole new industries have been built around its design and operation. The holiday maker, too, with the limited time to spend, patiently endures the busy airports and the limited space of the flight to gain those extra hours and even days, relaxing in the sun. Speed controls people's lives; time saved, in work or play, is the important thing — or so we are told. Perhaps those first horsemen, riding free across the wild, open plains, were enjoying a better world than the one we know today. They could travel at will, and the clock was not their master.

The United States is a nation of car owners. Ninety-five percent of households own a car, and 85 percent of people get to work in one. This lifestyle contributes to congestion on our roads and damages the environment. As autonomous vehicles begin to hit the streets over the next decade or so, it's believed that all this will change.   

Autonomous vehicles will most likely decrease the number and severity of crashes, allow cars to travel more closely together and improve cooperation between vehicles, all of which tend to reduce traffic jams and increase capacity.

However, this future is not assured. To realize the full potential benefits of driverless cars, we will have to act soon to encourage a culture in which transportation is shared. Many people in the automobile industry assume that driverless vehicles will automatically be shared, but there is little evidence that this is true. Most estimates suggest that driverless cars will eventually be only slightly more expensive than traditional cars, which means they'll be within reach of many consumers, so users are not willing to share rides.

If most people are going to buy-in to a shared-ride culture, they need to get a significant benefit. Saving a few dollars off the fare isn't likely to promote the movement dramatically. A better benefit would be knowing that you're going to reach your destination more quickly. The way to guarantee quick passage is to redesign our roads to give priority to ride-sharing autonomous vehicles like building priority lanes. The cost of travel will also be varied based on how efficiently a vehicle uses the roads. Autonomous vehicles carrying multiple people should get higher priority than those carrying one or none at all.

Decision-makers must push for incentives that encourage the most efficient use of our limited roadway infrastructure(基础设施). The autonomous future is rapidly approaching; it is critical that we act now, while the impacts of autonomous vehicles on traffic jams and emissions are still largely within our control.

An airline is a company offering air transport for passengers and goods. At first, the airline industry grew slowly. 【小题1】 After the war, it started to take off, thanks in part to many returning pilots. By the 1990s, air travel had become common and various airlines had been set up.

【小题2】 Some airlines, for example, buy their planes and staff their planes with pilots and other workers who are trained to work specifically for them. Others lease(租用) their planes and workers from other companies. Choosing which way to run an airline can depend on a company’s size, finance, etc.

Although the business patterns may differ, airlines have much in common. When an airline carries passengers, it establishes many regular routes along with a regular schedule. Passengers can walk to the ticket-selling halls in the airline to buy tickets. 【小题3】

Goods-carrying airlines also typically follow a regular schedule through many set routes that are planned to efficiently move packages from one place to another. But different from passenger-carrying airlines, they’re more likely to be equipped with trucks.Why?【小题4】 The transportation usually can’t be done without trucks.

Whether sending people or goods, air travel is a rapid and efficient way and has made great progress. Compared with before, prices dropped, making it a reasonably affordable way of travel. 【小题5】 Besides, air travel becomes safer for people and goods.