2026考博英语外刊阅读第4期丨China EV crash highlights assisted

同学们，八月是考博英语复习的关键期。外刊阅读是提升阅读速度和理解深度的“黄金钥匙”。本期精选2025年《纽约时报》的一篇文章，助力同学们攻克考博英语阅读理解。

杂志简介：

《纽约时报》（The New York Times）是美国最具影响力的权威报纸之一，创立于1851年，总部位于纽约市。该报的语言严谨规范，句子结构接近学术论文水平，是英语学习者提升阅读、写作和词汇量的绝佳素材。研究表明，长期阅读《纽约时报》能显著提升词汇量，并帮助学习者掌握专业术语和复杂句式。此外，其文章涵盖政治、经济、科技等多元话题，适合不同水平的英语学习者进阶训练。

本期内容

Assisted Driving Tech in Focus After Fatal Electric Car Crash in China

1、阅读全文

【1】China’s Xiaomi, a consumer electronics giant turned automaker, said it is cooperating with a police investigation into a fatal crash involving one of its electric vehicles while the driver was using the car’s autonomous driving features.

【2】A Xiaomi SU7 sedan drove into a concrete guardrail on an expressway in eastern China late on Saturday night at around 60 miles per hour, according to a post on Xiaomi’s official social media account. On Tuesday, local media published reports about the collision and ensuing fire, which killed three college students, along with pictures of the charred remains of the vehicle.

【3】Xiaomi said the driver deployed the company’s Navigate On Autopilot, an assisted driving feature, while going around 70 miles per hour on the expressway. Seconds before the collision, the car warned that there were obstacles ahead and started to decelerate but it was too late. The company said it called the police and emergency services.

【4】The fatal crash took place one year after the launch of Xiaomi’s SU7 electric vehicle, marking a major shift for a company that had gained a cultlike following for its smartphones and home appliances. And the SU7, which bears a resemblance to the Porsche Taycan at a fraction of the price, has been a breakthrough success in China’s cutthroat electric vehicle market. It sold more than 200,000 units in its first year.

【5】The ability of a company with no automotive experience to build and sell a car capable of gaining market share so quickly is a testament to the advantages of China’s supply chain of batteries and key components for electric vehicles. It is also a warning to the automotive industry that the competition is no longer limited to traditional car brands, but to almost any company adept at manufacturing electronic products efficiently and inexpensively.

【6】Xiaomi’s stock has fallen nearly 9 percent on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange this week. Last week, the company raised about $5.5 billion by selling new shares to fund an expansion in the electric vehicle business.

【7】China has aggressively promoted assisted driving or driverless technology in a bid to establish global leadership in the emerging field. Many Chinese makers of electric vehicles include these advanced features on their mass-production cars. When there are fatal accidents involving the technology, information about the crashes is quietly removed from the Chinese internet.

【8】Xiaomi promotes its assisted driving capabilities on the company’s official website. It says that the car can automatically accelerate or decelerate, change lanes, enter and exit a highway and avoid construction. However, it cautions that these “intelligent assisted driving” features cannot “completely replace” a driver controlling the vehicle.

【9】Xiaomi said the car involved in the crash was a standard model of its SU7. That model is not equipped with mounted laser-based sensors known as lidar, an acronym for light detection and ranging systems.

【10】Wang Yinglai, an automobile expert at the Zhejiang Consumer Council, told state-run media that a car driving on the highway would have more difficulty detecting stationary or slow-moving objects in front without that laser-based sensor.

【11】On the Chinese social media service Weibo, a woman with the surname Wang who the platform verified as the mother of one of the victims, said Xiaomi has not contacted the family since the tragedy.

【12】“My home has collapsed after my daughter’s accident,” Ms. Wang wrote. “We just want an explanation.”

【13】 China’s Southern Metropolis Daily, a newspaper run by the ruling Communist Party, reported that a father of one of the other victims said his daughter and a classmate burned to death in the crash. He, too, said the company had not contacted him.

2、开始做题

1. What was the driver doing when the Xiaomi SU7 sedan crashed?

A. The driver was manually controlling the car at a low speed.

B. The driver was using the car’s autonomous driving features.

C. The driver was adjusting the car’s entertainment system.

D. The driver was talking on the phone.

2. How did Xiaomi’s SU7 perform in the market in its first year?

A. It sold less than 100,000 units.

B. It failed to gain any market share.

C. It sold more than 200,000 units.

D. It was only popular in a few regions.

3. What is the main idea of the article?

A. The development of China’s electric vehicle supply chain.

B. The success of Xiaomi in the smartphone market.

C. A fatal electric car crash involving Xiaomi’s assisted driving technology.

D. The competition between traditional car brands and tech companies.

对答案

1.【答案】B

【考查点】细节事实题。

【解题思路】根据题干关键词the driver 和Xiaomi SU7 sedan crashed定位到文章第一段China’s Xiaomi, a consumer electronics giant turned automaker, said it is cooperating with a police investigation into a fatal crash involving one of its electric vehicles while the driver was using the car’s autonomous driving features.（中国消费电子巨头转型汽车制造商的小米公司表示，其正在配合警方对一起涉及其电动汽车的致命车祸展开调查，事发时司机正在使用该车的自动驾驶功能。）可知，事故发生时司机正在使用该车的自动驾驶功能，故选项B正确。选项A、C、D在文中均未提及，故排除。

2.【答案】C

【考查点】细节事实题。

【解题思路】根据题干关键词market和in its first year定位到文章第四段最后一句“It sold more than 200,000 units in its first year.”（该车上市第一年销量就超过20万辆。）可知，选项C正确。选项A、B、D均与文章所述内容不符，故排除。

3.【答案】C

【考查点】主旨大意题。

【解题思路】文章标题就提到了Assisted Driving Tech in Focus After Fatal Electric Car Crash in China（中国一起致命电动车车祸后，辅助驾驶技术成为焦点），接着围绕小米电动车在开启辅助驾驶功能时发生致命车祸这一事件展开，详细描述了事故过程、小米公司的回应、小米车辆市场的表现、行业影响等内容。由此可知，文章中心内容是涉及小米辅助驾驶技术的一起致命电动车车祸，故选项C正确。选项A、B、D均不是文章的主要内容，故排除。