Rail passengers are being forced to pay thousands of pounds more in fares as a result of poor advice from the national telephone helpline and individual stations, a consumer organization reveals today. Research by Which? found that in some cases passengers are being charged almost double the cheapest price because of errors made by staff.

Which? asked 25 questions of both station staff and the National Rail Enquiries (NRES) helpline. Only half of the 50 questions were answered correctly. If customers had followed all the advice given, they would have been £1,263.60 worse off.

Bad advice was given for the cheapest fare for a single journey between London and Grantham. For a ticket bought on the day of travel, both NRES and a King’s Cross station clerk quoted GNER’s £44.50 fare, ignoring a Hull Trains service which leaves 10 minutes earlier and costs just £20.

Some of the most costly misinformation was given for journeys where season tickets should have been recommended. Passengers making a return journey between Swindon and Penzance twice in a week could buy a ticket from one company for £70 which would cover all the travel. But both NRES and station staff quoted £67 for each journey, making £134. However, the NRES website proved to be a much more reliable source of information.

Which? also checked “the earlier you book, the cheaper the ticket” claims by five companies and found this was not always the case. On some services, prices went up and down at random.

Ithiel Mogridge, 52, gave one example of poor advice: “Last Christmas I found my brother a ticket on the thetrainline.com to travel from Blackburn to Yate. While the direct route was £51, this one involved a change in Newport and cost just £21．I emailed the details to him and his partner. They went to Blackburn station, where the clerk insisted the fare was £51.”

Malcolm Coles, editor of which. co. uk, said: “Staff training needs to be improved. In the meantime, we’ve designed a checklist, available at which.co.uk/railadvice.”

1．According to the passage, “Which?” is a _____.

       A．national telephone helpline                B．department under the British Rail

       C．consumer organization                    D．website under the National Rail Enquiries

2．When the author said that customers “would have been £1,263.60 worse off”, he was telling us that customers would have _____.

       A．saved £1,263.60 if they had followed the advice

       B．spent £1,263.60 more than the lowest price

       C．used £1,263.60 for the survey of 25 questions

       D．been cheated of £1,263.60 from the poor advice

3．The phrase at random in paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to “_____”.           

A．casually           B．purposefully         C．exactly            D．inevitably

4．The passage is mainly concerned with the phenomenon that _____.

A．train passengers get bad advice on fares

B．rail passengers are ill-treated by station staff

C．booking clerks and the telephone helpline offer reliable information

D．rail passengers can get cheaper tickets if they book earlier

閱讀下面對(duì)話，掌握其大意，并根據(jù)所給首字母的提示，在標(biāo)有題號(hào)的右邊橫線上寫出一個(gè)單詞的完整、正確的形式，使對(duì)話通順。

W: Why do you look so u  1  , Jim?                                  1．         

M: I don't know what to say. It's a long story.

W: Do you m  2   telling me?                                       2．         

M: It's all right. I hate myself. Yesterday, when Tom asked to borrow my bike to go to the post office, I refused him.

W: Why?

M: It's a p  3   from my mother. She bought it for my birthday.             3．         

W: No w  4   you refused Tom.                                      4．         

M: That's not the only reason. I refused to lend him my bike partly because last week when I asked Tom to lend me some money, I was refused by Tom.

So I had to go w  5   food for one day.                                 5．        

W: If so, he refused you money and you refused him your bike.

 Why do you f  6  so sorry?                                          6．        

M: In fact, I've come to r   7   that it was mainly my mistake.               7．         

This morning, I got to know that Tom didn't lend me money

because he h  8   didn't have any money with him.                        8．        

He is from a poor family and he always has to go without breakfast.

W: Now you know that. What do you d   9  to do?                        9．        

M: I think I will have a talk with Tom and do a  10  I can to help him.         10．        

W: Good idea.

Rosa didn't remember the exact date of the storm, but she knew it was _______ Sunday because everybody was at________ church.

A．不填；the         B．a(chǎn)；不填          C．不填；a          D．the；不填

--Thanks for your timely help．

--You should thank Tom         me． He sent me here in his car．

A．except for          B．regardless of        C．rather than                  D．in spite of

Drinking too much, the doctor said,         his poor health．

A．devoted to            B．based on         C．a(chǎn)rose from          D．contributed to

The driver jumped out of the car         it caught fire and didn't get hurt．

A．the moment         B．in case                  C．a(chǎn)s if               D．by the time

Only as this basic and often troublesome fear begins to disappear ____________discover a new meaning in competition.

A. we did               B. did we            C. can we             D. we can

It was a good concert；______________I enjoyed the last song

A. in need         B. in particular            C. in other words       D. in the meantime

The camera has a lot of small buttons, ____________ makes it rather awkward to use.

A. that             B. what              C. as                   D. which

Everyone can learn a foreign language well         he has enough patience and will power．

A．unless           B．a(chǎn)s long as           C．otherwise          D．therefore