At eleven in the morning on October 11, the hundred-millionth traveller of the year walked through the inspection lane at the Gongbei-Porta do Cerco crossing between Zhuhai and Macao. It took 284 days to reach that number, fourteen days faster than in 2025. On average, about 353,000 people cross here every day, or more than 240 every minute.
The crossing is the first land port in China to handle 100 million passengers in a single year, and it has ranked first in the country for thirteen years running. Back in 2020 it set a one-day record of 499,000 crossings. A covered walkway links the two halls, carrying a flow of people that would be hard to find anywhere else in the world.
The obvious question is how such crowds are handled. Part of the answer is self-service. Macao began testing automated lanes in October 2005 and opened them fully in February 2006, starting with just 15 lanes for local residents. Twenty years on, there are 185 lanes, open to eligible residents of Hong Kong, the mainland and Taiwan as well as foreign passport holders, and self-service now accounts for nearly 85 percent of all crossings.
Technology keeps narrowing the wait. Iris scanning arrived in 2023, paired with a quick-response code for contact-free checks. In November 2024 Gongbei became one of the first ports in China to trial smart lanes that read a face instead of a card, and it now runs 153 of them. The average inspection takes about twelve seconds.
Most of the travellers are ordinary people living a two-city life: day trippers, cross-border workers, business travellers and schoolchildren. Nearly 700,000 foreign visitors have passed through this year, up 11 percent. What the number really measures is not crowd size but how smoothly two places can be joined.
Words to know:
- crossing (口岸，过境点)
- inspection (查验，检查)
- lane (通道)
- automated (自动的)
- account for (占……比例)
- contact-free (非接触式的)
- trial (试点)
- average (平均的)
长难句拆解 · 分词短语作后置定语 + what 主语从句
例句：At eleven in the morning on October 11, the hundred-millionth traveller of the year walked through the inspection lane at the Gongbei-Porta do Cerco crossing between Zhuhai and Macao.
句首的 At eleven in the morning on October 11 是时间状语，把整件事钉在一个精确的时刻上，新闻导语常用这种写法。主干是 the hundred-millionth traveller walked through the inspection lane，其中 hundred-millionth 是序数词，表示「第 1 亿名」，写作时用连字符把数词和名词连成一个形容词，直接修饰 traveller，比 a traveller who was the hundred millionth 简洁得多。
后面的 at the Gongbei-Porta do Cerco crossing 是地点状语，between Zhuhai and Macao 是介词短语作后置定语，限定这个口岸连接的是哪两个地方。
直译：10 月 11 日上午 11 时，今年第 1 亿名旅客走出拱北—关闸口岸的查验通道。
再看一句：What the number really measures is not crowd size but how smoothly two places can be joined.
主语是 What the number really measures 这个主语从句，what 在从句中作宾语，意思是「这个数字真正衡量的东西」。表语部分用 not… but… 连接两个并列成分：not crowd size 先否定一个常见理解，再用 how smoothly two places can be joined 给出作者真正的判断。注意 but 后面是 how 引导的从句，与前面的名词短语并不对称，这在口语和新闻写作中很常见，阅读时不必强求形式对称，抓住「否定前者、肯定后者」的逻辑即可。
直译：这个数字真正丈量的不是人多，而是两个地方能连接得多么顺畅。
同义替换 · 雅思阅读利器
下面 7 组替换都出自本文，右侧是对应的替换说法，点开核对。
- walked through the inspection lane → passed through the checkpoint on foot（通过查验通道的同义改写）
- fourteen days faster than in 2025 → fourteen days earlier than the year before（提前十四天的替换表达）
- has ranked first in the country → has held the top place nationwide（位居全国首位）
- Part of the answer is self-service → Some of the solution lies in helping people check themselves（答案部分在于自助通关）
- open to eligible residents → available to qualified local people（面向合资格居民的替换）
- Technology keeps narrowing the wait → New tools continue to shorten the time people wait（技术压缩等待的改写）
- up 11 percent → 11 percent higher than before（同比增长的同义表达）
阅读自测 · 3 题
三道题分别对应数字、细节与结论，先不看答案。
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- 简答：How many self-service lanes does the Macao side now have, and how many were there at the start?
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- 判断正误（T / F / NG）：The Gongbei-Porta do Cerco crossing was the first land port in China to handle 100 million passengers in one year.
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- 判断正误（T / F / NG）：The passage says the crossing is popular mainly because it is very large.
参考答案与解析
每题给出答案与判断依据，注意最后提到的干扰项套路。
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- 185 lanes now; 15 at the start. 依据在第三段。原文写 starting with just 15 lanes for local residents，接着说 Twenty years on, there are 185 lanes，一个问起点、一个问现在，答题时两个数字都要给，漏掉任何一个都不完整。注意题干问的是 lanes 的数量，不是年份。
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- T（正确）。第二段写 The crossing is the first land port in China to handle 100 million passengers in a single year，与题干一致。这里的 first 是关键限定词，若把 land port 换成 port of any kind，判断就可能改变，读题时要注意范围词。
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- F（错误）。末段说 What the number really measures is not crowd size but how smoothly two places can be joined，作者明确否定了「规模大」这个解释。题干把作者否定的说法当成文章主旨，属「偷换结论」里最典型的一种——把 not… but… 结构里的前者当成答案。
中文译文
10 月 11 日上午 11 时，今年第 1 亿名旅客走出拱北—关闸口岸的查验通道。走完这 1 亿人次用了 284 天，比 2025 年提前了 14 天。这里日均出入境约 35.3 万人次，相当于每分钟有 240 多人次通过。
这是全国首个年客流突破 1 亿人次的陆路口岸，客流量已连续十三年位居全国首位。2020 年，它还创下单日 49.9 万人次进出境的历史峰值。一条风雨长廊连接两地口岸，这样的人流规模在全世界都属罕见。
最容易被问到的问题是：这么大的客流为什么没有「挤爆」？答案有一部分藏在自助通关里。澳门关闸口岸 2005 年 10 月开始试行自助通道，2006 年 2 月正式投入使用，最初只有 15 条，仅限本地居民使用。二十年后，通道已有 185 条，合资格的中国香港、内地和中国台湾居民以及外籍护照持有人均可使用，自助通关占比已接近 85%。
技术还在不断压缩等待时间。2023 年，口岸上线虹膜通关，配合「电子身份」二维码实现非接触式查验。2024 年 11 月，拱北口岸成为全国首批试点「智能快捷」通道的口岸之一，旅客备案指纹和人像后「刷脸」即可通关，这类通道现已达到 153 条，人均查验用时压缩到约 12 秒。
往来者大多是过着「双城生活」的普通人：一日游旅客、跨境通勤族、商务出行人员和跨境学童。今年已有近 70 万人次外国旅客从这里通过，同比增长 11%。这个数字真正丈量的不是人多，而是两个地方能连接得多么顺畅。