If you go to visit London, you’ll see a lot of buses and cars on the roads. You’ll also see many bikes because more people travel by bike. Why? There are many reasons. It is very cheap to buy a bike, and it is quick too. You often need to wait for a bus for half an hour. When the bus comes, there are so many other buses and cars on the roads, so the bus moves very slowly. I once travelled to work by bus for about four years. I arrived late at work and felt tired. Then one day, two years later, a friend of mine said, “I go to work by bike. Why don’t we travel together?” “But there are so many buses and cars on the roads. I feel frightened (害怕的),” I answered. “Don’t be afraid. If you follow me and we ride slowly, you’ll be fine,” he said. Later, I bought a new bike. We went slowly, but we arrived quickly. I spent 40 minutes going to work by bus, but only half an hour by bike! Now I love riding a bike. And I am healthy. Many people think my idea is good and maybe you’ll see more bikes on the roads in the future.

I have two good friends, Tom and Toby. They are my classmates in primary school. 【小题1】

Tom is in No.1 Junior High School. His school is 8 kilometers away from his home. 【小题2】 Sometimes he takes a bus when his father is busy. It usually takes him half an hour to get to school. He often listens to English stories on the way to school. 【小题3】

Toby is in No. 3 Junior High School. His school is big and beautiful with many modern buildings. Toby’s house is just three streets across the school. As a result, he usually goes to school on foot or by bike. 【小题4】 And he is not alone on his way, because I am also in this school.

After school we three like to play games in the playground. Toby is good at football. 【小题5】 I hope we will always be friends!

①That future is almost here. “I think it’s going to happen. Definitely in ten years…and hopefully much, much faster,” said Sebastian Thrun in 2021. At that time, his young company Kitty Hawk Corporation was working on developing a flying car known as eVTOL, or Electronic Vertical (垂直的) Take-Off and Landing vehicle (车辆).

②Flying to work or school sounds unbelievable. Not only is it fun to fly, but “there would never be traffic again, because the sky is very, very large,” says Thrun. He also thinks eVTOLs could be greener than common cars. “We go much faster, we go in a straight line, we fly on less energy,” he says.

③So far, though, flying cars haven’t taken off as a product. Will their day come? There are still many problems to solve. Their high price means most people won’t be able to afford one. So, some companies are developing them as air taxis that people could pay to ride. The main problem with flying cars is safety. Accidents in the air are dangerous to both the passengers and anyone on the ground beneath. To make eVTOLs safer, many developers are aiming to make them self-flying—no human pilot required.

④Another problem is space. Most aircraft need long runways to take off and land. Lifting straight up and down like a helicopter (直升机) solves this problem. But eVTOLs still need special spaces, called vertiports, for take-off and landing. Finding places to put these could be difficult, especially in crowded cities. But maybe some could go on top of buildings.

⑤What do you think? Would you enjoy riding to school or to visit a friend in a self-flying taxi? Are flying cars a good idea, or should we find other ways to get around in the near future?

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