閱讀理解

  What causes traffic jams? That's easy:too many cars.No, wrong.Think again.What causes much of the jamming on our streets are traffic lights.

  Think of all the hours in your life wasted as your car journey is stopped by lights to let non-existent traffic through, and then ask yourself this:who is the better judge of when it's safe to go-you, the driver at the time and the place, or lights programmed by an absent regulator (控制器) ? Traffic lights exist as a “ease” for a man-made problem-the priority rule(優(yōu)先通行法則).This rule gives superior rights on main-road traffic at the expense of minor-road traffic and pedestrians.To interrupt the priority streams, lights are “needed”.

  Before 1929 when the priority rule came into force, a sort of first-come, first-served rule had been common.All road users had equal rights, so a motorist arriving at a crossing gave way to anyone who had arrived first.Motorists had a simple responsibility for avoiding accident, and a duty of care to other road users.

  In other walks of life the common-law principle of single queuing applies, but the law of the road, based on the priority rule that licenses queue-jumping and bad temper, creates battlegrounds where we have to fight for gaps and green time.

  But when lights are out of action-when we're free of outer controls and allowed to use our own judgment-harmonious attitudes become common.We approach slowly and find our way in turn.People are kind to each other, but when lights start working, traffic jams return.

  The traffic lights encourage us to take our eyes off the road to watch the signals, rather than do the safer thing:weigh up what other motorists, cyclists or pedestrians are intending to do.

  Not only do traffic lights help to lengthen journeys pointlessly, but also the UK's large number of 24-hour traffic lights amounts to GPH(嚴(yán)重的全球性危害).About 30 percent of our CO2 output is from traffic.Professor David Hegg, the influential transport expert, admits that 40 percent of that comes from traffic:waiting.Every litre of fuel burnt produces 2.4 kg of our CO2 and other greenhouse gases.Multiply the minutes of forced waiting at controlled lights by the hours in the day and night, by the days in the year, by the number of vehicles, and the environmental effect becomes clear.

(1)

In the writer's opinion, ________ are the better judges to decide when it's safe to drive through.

[  ]

A.

traffic lights

B.

pedestrians

C.

policemen

D.

drivers

(2)

Before 1929, ________

[  ]

A.

the priority rule started to be in use

B.

the pedestrians often gave way to motorists

C.

the motorists often gave way to the pedestrians

D.

whoever came to the crossing first had the right to go past first

(3)

In the passage, the writer seems to disagree with ________

[  ]

A.

the law of road based on the priority rule

B.

the equal rights shared by all road users

C.

the common law of single queuing

D.

the first-come, first-served rule

(4)

In the last paragraph, we can learn ________

[  ]

A.

traffic lights make the joarney shorter

B.

the number of the cars should be lessened

C.

traffic lights help to worsen the environment

D.

40% of the CO2 output is from the traffic waiting

(5)

The purpose of the passage is to ________

[  ]

A.

call out to stop the traffic lights

B.

complain about the heavy traffic

C.

explain how cars pollute the environment

D.

call on drivers to give way to other road users

答案:1.D;2.D;3.A;4.C;5.A;
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相關(guān)習(xí)題

科目:高中英語 來源:2012年普通高等學(xué)校招生全國統(tǒng)一考試重慶卷英語 題型:050

閱讀理解

  To take the apple as a forbidden fruit is the most unlikely strory the Christians(基督教徒)ever cooked up.For them, the forbidden fruit from Eden is evil(邪惡的).So when Colu brought the tomato back from South America, a land mistakenly considered to be eden, ever jumped to be the obvious conclusion.Wrongly taken as the apple of Eden, the tomato was shut o the door of Europeans.

  What made it particularly terrifying was its similarity to the mandrake, a plant that was the to have come from Hell(地獄).What earned the plant its awful reputation was its roots w looked like a dried-up human body occupied by evil spirits.Tough the tomato and the man were quite different except that both had bright red or yellow fruit, the general population consio them one and the same, to terrible to touch.

  Cautious Europeans long ignored the tomato, and until the early 1700s most of the We people continued to drag their feet.In the 1880s, the daughter of a well-known plant expert that the most interestinig part of an afternoon tea at her father's house had been the “introduction this wonderful new fruit-or is it a vegetable?”As late as the twentieth century some writers classed tomatoes with mandrakes as an”evil fruit”.

  But in the end tomatoes carried the day.The hero of the tomato was an American named R Johnson, and when he was publicly going to eat the tomato in 1820, people journeyed for hun of miles to watch him drop dead.”Wha are you afraid of?”he shouted.”I'll show you fools these things are good to eat!” Then he bit into the tomato.Some people fainted.But he sur and, according to a local story, set up a tomato-canning factory.

(1)

The tomato was shut out of the door of early Europeans mainly because ________.

[  ]

A.

it made Christive evil

B.

it was the apple of Eden

C.

it came from a forbidden land

D.

it was religiously unacceptable

(2)

What can we infer the underlined part in Paragraph 3?

[  ]

A.

The process of ignoring the tomato slowed down

B.

There was little pregress in the study of the tomato

C.

The tomato was still refused in most western countries

D.

Most western people continued to get rid of the tomato

(3)

What is the main reason for Robert Johnson to eat the tomato Publicly?

[  ]

A.

To manke imself a hero

B.

To remove people's fear of the tomaoto

C.

To speed up the popularityt of the tomato

D.

To persuade people to buy products fo\rom his factory

(4)

What is the main purpose of the passage?

[  ]

A.

To challenge people's fixed concept of the tomato

B.

To give an explanation to people's dislike of the tomato

C.

To present the change of people's attitudes to the tomato

D.

To show the process of freeing the tomato from religious influence

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