Using data from 31 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in mainland China from 2006 to 2019, we employ a double difference (DID) model and a spatial double difference (SDID) model to estimate the impact of the High-speed Railway (HSR) on the income gap between urban and rural residents, as well as its spatial spillover effects. Our research reveals several key findings. Firstly, the introduction of high-speed railways helps to narrow the income gap between urban and rural residents within local areas, but its spatial effects can lead to an increase in the income gap in neighboring provinces. Secondly, from a spatial perspective, intermediate variables such as industrial structure, education, science and technology, and foreign trade can also contribute to balancing the income gap between urban and rural residents, although the impact of population mobility is not significant. Thirdly, further analysis of the spatial effects demonstrates that education plays a significant role in balancing the income gap both within the local province and neighboring provinces. Additionally, adjustments in industrial structure, advancements in science and technology, and foreign trade have stronger spillover effects in reducing the income gap among neighboring provinces compared to their impact at a local level.

With the requirements of New English Curriculum Standards, English teaching has shifted towards organising content thematically, focusing not only on the transmission of linguistic knowledge but also on the improvement of students' comprehensive quality during language learning. This evolution undoubtedly raises higher demands on English instruction. Unit-based integrated teaching, as an innovative pedagogical model, is characterised by its holistic, interconnected, progressive, and comprehensive features. It can help students to build a correlated knowledge network facilitates the establishment of connections between disparate pieces of knowledge, deepens students' understanding and enhances their retention, improves their overall linguistic competence and learning ability, so as to foster the comprehensive development of core literacy. Therefore, this article takes the teaching of English in compulsory education as an example, and explores and elaborates on the design and implementation path of integrated teaching of English units under the new curriculum standards from four aspects: teaching objectives, teaching content, teaching process, and teaching evaluation, in order to provide reference for promoting integrated teaching of English units in compulsory education.