中国的高铁有多长？
How big is China's high-speed rail?
Name: ________________ Date: ________
如果把中国所有的高铁线路连成一条线，会有多长？答案是：比地球一圈还长。到2025年底，中国的高铁已经超过了五万公里，而地球赤道一圈只有四万公里左右。
放在全世界来看，这个数字也很惊人。今天，全世界的高铁线路里，大约百分之七十在中国。
可是，中国的高铁开始得并不早。2008年8月，北京到天津的城际铁路才正式通车。这是中国第一条时速三百五十公里的高铁，速度可以达到每小时三百五十公里。
变化最大的一条路，也许是北京到上海。2007年，从北京坐火车去上海，还要十个小时左右。很多人会买一张卧铺票，在车上睡一晚，第二天早上才到。2011年，京沪高铁开通了。这条线路有一千三百多公里，现在最快的车四个多小时就能到。早上在北京吃完早饭，中午就能在上海吃午饭。
高铁也改变了很多人过日子的方式。有人住在一个城市，在另一个城市上班，周末坐高铁回家。每年春节，几亿人回老家过年，高铁成了很多人的第一选择。现在，在人口超过五十万的城市里，百分之九十七都通了高铁。
第一次坐中国高铁的外国人，常常会说起几件小事。车站大得像机场。进站不用纸票，一张证件就够了。车开得那么快，车厢里却很安静，很多人在座位上看书、睡觉，或者用电脑工作。
当然，高铁也有人批评。修高铁花了很多钱，也欠了很多债，一些线路坐的人并不多。可是不管怎么说，对今天的很多中国人来说，“出远门”的意思已经变了：一千公里以外的城市，也只是几个小时的事。
Key words
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 高铁 | gāotiě | high-speed rail; bullet train |
| 只有 | zhíyǒu | only; only if; unless |
| 答案 | dá’àn | answer; solution |
| 地球 | dìqiú | the earth; globe |
| 底 | dǐ | bottom; base |
| 超过 | chāoguò | to exceed; to surpass |
| 公里 | gōnglǐ | kilometer |
| 数字 | shùzì | number; digit; figure |
| 大约 | dàyuē | approximately; about |
| 正式 | zhèngshì | formal; official; officially |
| 速度 | sùdù | speed; velocity; pace |
| 达到 | dádào | to reach; to achieve; to attain |
English (for the teacher)
If you joined every high-speed rail line in China into one, how long would it be? The answer: longer than a trip round the Earth. By the end of 2025, China had more than fifty thousand kilometres of high-speed rail, while the equator is only about forty thousand kilometres round.
Even on a world scale, the number is astonishing. Today, about seventy percent of all the high-speed lines in the world are in China.
Yet China's high-speed rail didn't start early. It was only in August 2008 that the intercity railway from Beijing to Tianjin officially opened. It was China's first high-speed line built for three hundred and fifty kilometres an hour.
Perhaps the route that changed most was Beijing to Shanghai. In 2007, the train from Beijing to Shanghai still took about ten hours. Many people bought a sleeper ticket, slept a night on board and arrived the next morning. In 2011, the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway opened. The line is over thirteen hundred kilometres long, and the fastest trains now get there in just over four hours. Have breakfast in Beijing in the morning, and you can be eating lunch in Shanghai at noon.
High-speed rail has also changed the way many people live. Some live in one city, work in another and take the train home at the weekend. Every Spring Festival, hundreds of millions of people go back to their home towns for New Year, and for many of them the high-speed train is the first choice. Today, ninety-seven percent of cities with more than five hundred thousand people are on the high-speed network.
Foreigners riding a Chinese high-speed train for the first time often mention a few little things. The stations are as big as airports. You don't need a paper ticket to get in; your ID card or passport is all it takes. The train goes so fast, yet the carriage is quiet, with people in their seats reading, sleeping or working on laptops.
Of course, high-speed rail has its critics too. Building it cost a great deal of money and ran up a lot of debt, and some lines carry few passengers. But whatever you say, for many Chinese people today, “making a long trip” means something different: a city a thousand kilometres away is just a matter of a few hours.