If you haven’t heard or seen anything about Road Rage in the last few months, you’ve probably been avoiding the media. There have been countless stories about this new and scary phenomenon, considered a type of aggressive driving. You have most likely encountered aggressive driving or Road Rage recently if you drive at all.
While drunk driving remains a critical problem, the facts about aggressive driving are surely as disturbing. For instance, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Association, 41,907 people died on the highway last year. Of those deaths, the agency estimates that about two-thirds were caused at least in part by aggressive driving behavior.
Why is this phenomenon occurring more than ever now, and why is it something that seemed almost nonexistent a few short years ago? Experts have several theories, and all are probably partially correct. One suggestion is extreme overcrowding. In the last decade, the number of cars on the roads has increased by more than 11 percent, and the number of miles driven has increased by 35 percent. However, the number of new road miles has only increased by 1 percent. That means more cars in the same amount of space; and the problem is severe in urban areas. Also, people have less time and more things to do. With people working and trying to fit extra chores and activities into the day, stress levels have never been higher. Stress creates anxiety, which leads to short tempers. These factors, when combined in certain situations, can spell Road Rage.
You may think you are the last person who would drive aggressively, but you might be surprised. For instance, have you ever yelled out loud at a slower driver, sounded the horn long and hard an another car, or sped up to keep another driver from passing? If you recognize yourself in any of these situations, watch out!
Whether you are getting angry at other drivers, or another driver is visibly upset with you, there are things you can do to avoid any major conflict. If you are easily influenced by Road Rage, the key is to release your emotion in a healthy way. If you are the target of another driver’s rage, do everything possible to get away from the other driver safely, including avoiding eye contact and getting out of their way.
1. The first sentence in Para. 1 implies that ______.A.Road Rage has received much media coverage in the last few months |
B.the media created the term“RoadRage”only a few months ago |
C.one may be angered by media reports and wants to avoid them |
D.people not interested in the media know little about recent happenings |
A.relieve | B.cause | C.spread | D.prevent |
A.Talking while driving. | B.Driving at high speed. |
C.Shouting at another driver. | D.Sounding the horn when passing |
A.tell people how to deal with Road Rage |
B.inform people how aggressive drivers could be |
C.show people how to control themselves when angry |
D.warn people against eye contact with another driver |
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【推荐1】On June 23, 2010, a Sunny Airlines captain with 32 years of experience stopped his flight from departing. He was deeply concerned about a power part that might run out of all electrical power on his trans-Pacific flight. Regardless of his concerns, Sunny Airlines pressured him to fly the airplane over the ocean at night. When he refused to put the safety of his passengers at risk, Sunny Airlines' Security removed him out of the airport, and threatened to arrest his crew if they did not cooperate.
Besides that, five more Sunny Airlines pilots also refused to fly the aircraft, expressing their own concerns about the safety of the plane. It turned out the pilots were right: the power part was faulty and the plane was removed from service and finally fixed. Eventually a third crew operated the flight, hours later. In this whole process, Sunny Airlines pressured their highly experienced pilots to ignore their safety concerns and fly passengers over the Pacific Ocean at night in a plane that needed maintenance. Fortunately for all of us, these pilots stood strong and would not be frightened.
Don't just take our word. Please research this yourself and learn the facts at www.SunnyAirlinePilot.org. Once you review this shocking information, please keep in mind that while their use of Corporate Security to remove a pilot from the airport is a new procedure, flight crews' lacking confidence is becoming common at Sunny Airlines, with recorded events occurring on a weekly basis.
The flying public deserves the highest levels of safety. No airlines should maximize their gains by pushing their employees to move their airplanes regardless of the potential human cost. Sunny Airlines' pilots are committed to resisting any practices of damaging your safety for profits. We've been trying to deal with these problems behind the scenes for quite some time; now we need your help. Go to www.SunnyAirlinePilot.org to get more information and find out what you can do.
1. After the captain refused to fly the aircraft, he was ________.A.asked to find another pilot |
B.forced to leave the airport |
C.arrested for disobeying the order |
D.made to help the Airlines fix the plane |
A.To help Sunny Airlines make higher profits. |
B.To introduce Sunny Airlines' pilot training programs. |
C.To review plans for improving Sunny Airlines' service. |
D.To expose problems with Sunny Airlines' security practices. |
A.It was too old for any more flight service. |
B.Its problem was found and finally repaired. |
C.It was removed from the airport for a week-long checkup. |
D.Its problem remained and no crew would operate the flight. |
A.security guards | B.managers |
C.pilots | D.passengers |
【推荐2】In the traffic lights,red means "stop",green means "go",and yellow means "hurry": Why those colors, though? Why not blue,purple,and brown?The following are transponded from others WeChat.
●Red is an inherited symbol from railroads
Red symbolizes danger in many cultures,which makes sense,considering it has the longest wavelength of any color,meaning you can see it from a greater distance than other colors.Red has meant "stop" since long before cars existed,with railway signals use of red dating bake to the days when mechanical arms lifted and lowered to indicate whether the rail ahead was clear.So that one's simple.
●Green meant "caution" at first
Green's role in lights has actually changed dramatically over time.Its wavelength is next to (and shorter than) yellow's,meaning it's still easier to see than any color other than red and yellow.Back in the early days of railway lights,green originally meant "caution",while the "all-clear" light was,well,clear or white.Trains,of,course,take an unlimitedly long time to stop,and legend has it that several disastrous collisions happened after an engineer mistook stars in the night horizon for an all-clear.Thus,green became "go",and for a long time,railways used only green and red to signal trains.
●Yellow means "caution" because it's almost as easy to see as red
From the earliest days of motoring up until the mid-1900s,not all stop signs were red-many were yellow, because at night it was all but impossible to see a red stop sign in a poorly lit area.The yellow stop-sign craze began in Detroit in 1915,a city that five years later installed its first electric traffic signal,which happened to include the very first amber traffic light,at the corner of Michigan and Woodward Aves.
1. What are the earliest traffic signals designed for from the passage?A.Cars. | B.Trains. |
C.Motorcars. | D.Not mentioned. |
A.Green means "go" all the time. |
B.Red is the easiest color to be noticed. |
C.All yellow things need dealing with carefully. |
D.All the three colors were once used as "caution". |
A.What is your favorite color? |
B.Why are "Red,Yellow,Green" used as traffic signals? |
C.How can we figure out the wavelength of colors? |
D.What color can green,yellow and red make? |
A.A diary. | B.A scientific magazine. |
C.A newspaper. | D.The Internet. |
【推荐3】“Smombies” are very real and a growing cause for concern. Tired of having to constantly warn both locals and tourists to pay more attention to their surroundings to avoid serious accidents, authorities of a small German town have come up with a more positive solution — embedding (嵌入) traffic lights in the pavement to make them visible to people constantly looking down at their phones while walking.
The seemingly ridiculous safety measure was put in place. Authorities in Augsburg decided to act, installing ground level traffic lights at two tram (有轨电车) stops last Tuesday. The lights flash red every time a tram is approaching, or when the regular traffic light turns red. “We realized that the normal traffic light isn’t in the line of sight of many pedestrians these days,” said Tobias Hermes, a city administration official. “So we decided to have an additional set of lights — the more we have, the more people are likely to notice them.”
Some Augsburg residents appear to be quite happy with the idea. “I think it makes sense,” said Jack Smith, “One always sees young people these days running over red lights. This makes it more obvious that you need to stop.” Others, however, found the need for ground traffic lights disturbing and even frightening. “I find it scary that smart phone users are so engrossed that they need to install lights in the ground so that they notice the tram coming,” one person told the local paper.
But do this kind of pavement-embedded lights actually work? Well, if one interviewed teenager is to be believed, not really, “To be honest I didn’t even notice it,” he said, “Maybe it’d be useful at night, but yeah, I didn’t realize it was there until just now.”
The word “smombie” — a mashup of the words smart phone and zombie — was born in Germany. It was voted “youth word of the year” in 2017, but the serious consequences of this behaviour are no laughing matter.
1. What can be inferred about “smombies”?A.They are fond of walking. |
B.They concern others very much. |
C.They look at phones while walking. |
D.They hate locals and tourists. |
A.Disturbed. | B.Frightened. |
C.Encouraged. | D.Addicted. |
A.Positive. | B.Negative. |
C.Indifferent. | D.Interested. |
A.Ground traffic lights for people looking at smart phones. |
B.Effective ways to educate people to obey traffic rules. |
C.The meanings of ground traffic lights. |
D.The serious problem of traffic safety. |
【推荐1】What defines an eco-house? There are two features to take into consideration. Firstly, the energy efficiency and carbon emissions associated with running the house, and then the type of construction materials used, their associated emissions and the raw materials required.
At Baufritz, we have won awards relating to the sustainability of our houses. This is because as a company we had decided to put environmental stewardship at the core of our values way back in the 1960s. So how do we do it?
Heating is the biggest emissions factor for any house. It is really rather simple to solve this problem — make a house extremely energy efficient and this will no longer be a factor. Ultra low energy houses have become known as Passive houses, where a certain set of design characteristics help to improve efficiencies. You need a very high level of insulation in the walls and roof. Glass should be suitably positioned to optimize solar gaintucmrr (heat from the sun). The house needs to be very well engineered so no heat is lost through cracks or poorly fitted windows and doors. At Baufritz we manufacture Kit houses, and use Modern Manufacturing Methods in our factory to engineer our houses in such a way that leaks are minimized.
We have also developed “HOIZ” insulation. Manufactured from natural wood waste products, HOIZ is placed between the inside and outside layers of our timber framed houses to create the highest level of insulation. Our windows and doors use triple glazing to minimize heat loss. Overheating is one of the biggest challenges Passive houses face and our architects use some very clever ventilation systems to manage internal environmental conditions. All houses still have energy-consuming appliances, but with the addition of solar for both electricity generation and water heating, the carbon footprint of the homes we produce are further reduced.
Embedded carbon in building manufacturing materials such as concrete, as well as a historic tendency to send materials to landfills, results in a high carbon footprint and natural resource exploitation. Baufritz addresses this problem in a number of ways. Our primary manufacturing material is wood. We source from sustainable certified forests where felled trees are replanted. In fact, we believe all building materials should be as natural as possible. We say no to PU construction foams, chemical insulation materials, toxic adhesives and laminate flooring. A house constructed using only natural materials creates a healthy living environment for its residents. As all our houses are manufactured in our state-of-the-art factory, waste is kept to an absolute minimum. At the end of their life-cycle, our houses can also be recycled. Today, demolition(拆除)firms clearing the site for the new build are able to recycle nearly all of the building materials, therefore closing the manufacturing loop.
My house is old, so why is this relevant? There are still lots of things which can be done. Improve your insulation. When your appliances expire, replace based on efficiency. Consider heat pumps instead of gas boilers and explore solar to deliver electricity and water heating. By designing and building houses to ultra low energy standards, and by using natural sustainably sourced materials and recycling the waste products from our manufacturing processes, we are able to deliver Carbon Neutral Houses. This means that the total carbon footprint throughout the life-cycle of each house is zero, which is why we call ourselves eco-house pioneers. All houses are prefabricated at our state-of-the-art factory in Erkheim, Germany, and then assembled on site.
1. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT associated with the sustainability of eco-houses?A.The raw materials used. |
B.Energy efficiency of the house. |
C.Carbon emissions released by house designers. |
D.Construction materials used and their emissions. |
A.fail to optimize solar gain |
B.need to be carefully engineered to trap heat |
C.use more energy-consuming appliances than Kit houses |
D.could have less comfortable environmental conditions inside them |
A.House recycling is an additional service provided free by Baufritz. |
B.Building materials are obtained from factories to ensure their quality. |
C.Man-made materials are applied to reduce their impact on the environment. |
D.The houses are all manufactured in their factory so as to reduce costs and waste. |
A.argue for the necessity of eco-houses |
B.advertise Baufritz, an eco-house builder |
C.explain the underlying values of eco-houses |
D.expand people’s knowledge of what eco-houses are |
【推荐2】When people get old and have difficulty working fulltime, they retire and begin a new, more relaxing lifestyle. But what about old industrial buildings? Can they start a new?
China seems to find a good solution for them. In recent years, many abandoned factories, railway yards, warehouses and mills(磨坊) have been transformed into cultural and tourist sites.
The 798 Art Zone in Beijing is an iconic example. Built in the 1950s as No. 718 Joint Factory, it was gradually abandoned in the 1990s as production slowed down. In 2006, Beijing’s municipal government invested over 120 million yuan and improved its infrastructure (基础设施) condition, turning the factory complex into a cultural and creative industrial base. Now the art zone holds about 200 galleries, art centers as well as fashionable boutiques (精品店), cafes, and restaurants, which also earns it a place on the bucket list of many tourists, noted The Paper.
Jack Liu is a frequent er of the art zone who visit site very weekend. “In the art zone, you can refresh memories of the development of Chinese manufacturing through it sold buildings,” said the 28-year-old to Teens. “However, in art galleries here you will feel pulled into a fashionable, modern world. It’s amazing.”
Industrial heritage sites, which used to be filled with the rumbling of machines, are now precious pages of the book on the industrial culture of China, noted People’s Daily. Since these heritage sites are rich and diverse in content cities in China also spare no effort to explore new ways and models to protect and use them. For example, a beer museum has been setup inside a century-old plant of the Tsingtao Brewery in Qingdao, Shandong province, bringing people closer to the long history of the brewery. Some abandoned plants in Beijing have also been remade for city explorers to take adventures in.
Just as the elderly need our care and love, these industrial heritages are also expected to be injected with vitality (活力) through protection and development. “It is not only a trend of the innovation-driven development of cities, but a necessity for promoting new drivers of development,” noted Peoples’ Daily.
1. What is China’s solution for old industrial buildings?A.Expanding their space and uses. |
B.Upgrading them to become attractions. |
C.Combining them with new buildings. |
D.Returning them to their original condition. |
A.It was established in Beijing in the 1990s. |
B.It mainly provides space for fashion shows. |
C.It is China’s first cultural and creative industrial base. |
D.It is a successful example of transforming old industrial sites. |
A.To show the popularity of industrial heritage sites. |
B.To explain the importance of remaking old plants. |
C.To introduce the features of industrial heritage sites. |
D.To illustrate how industrial heritage sites can be used effectively. |
A.They deserve to be brought back to life. |
B.They are driven by city development. |
C.They should give way to modern buildings. |
D.They are reminders of a city’s development. |
That’s what researchers from the University of Western Australia found in a new study published in the journal Child Development.
“Parents who frequently put themselves in someone else’s shoes in conversations with their children make it more likely their children will be able to do the same,” said lead author Brad Farrant.
Researchers of the UWA’s Telethon Institute for Child Health Research looked at the influence of how parents interact with their children to learn more about how people develop the ability to take another’s perspective.
The two-year study involved more than 120 Australian children aged between four and six, including children with typically developing language and others delayed in language acquisition(习得).
The children completed tasks which were designed to assess their language skills, ability to infer others’ beliefs and use these to predict others’ behavior, and their ability to shift flexibly between different perspectives.
Among children with typically developing language, the researchers found that mothers who talked more often and in greater detail about people’s thoughts and feelings — commenting on how another person might react to a particular situation as well as their own feelings about the topic — had children with better language skills and better perspective-taking skills.
Children with delayed language acquisition were also delayed in their development of perspective-taking skills. This displays the role played by language as children develop the ability to take another’s perspective.
“Solving the many challenges that the world faces today requires us all to get better at taking the perspective of other people,” said Brad Farrant.
1. According to the text, to help children gain better perspective-taking skills, parents should __________.
A.give their children more chances to express themselves |
B.talk more with their children about people’s feelings |
C.encourage their children to guess other people’s thoughts |
D.spend more time playing with their children |
A.Over one hundred American children took part in it. |
B.All the children had delayed in language acquisition. |
C.The children in the study were around five years old. |
D.Mothers helped their children to complete the tasks. |
A.The surrounding environments. | B.Mother’s perspectives. |
C.Personal characters. | D.Language skills. |
A.stressed the importance of perspective-taking skills |
B.expressed his concern about the world’s challenges |
C.showed how to take the perspective of other people |
D.explained why other people’s opinions are important |
A.parents should talk to their children frequently no matter how old their children are |
B.it was Brad Farrant who wrote the study in Child Development herself |
C.the only way to improve language skill is talking to children more often |
D.parents who are always thinking about others will help their children do the same way |
【推荐1】I may not be on Vine or whatever the kids are using these days, but I’m on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I love being able to stay in touch with people living on the other side of the planet, I like sharing pictures of my cat and I’m even one of those people who shares lots of food pictures. I enjoy seeing people “like” my posts and comments, and my Facebook app is the first thing I look at in the morning-sometimes even before my eyes are fully open.
That being said, I haven’t posted a pictures about being pregnant on Facebook or anywhere else. I actively keep an eye out for any of my friends referring to my pregnancy in posts and comments and don’t allow any of them on my timeline. My husband is also of the same mindset, so if we haven’t mentioned it to you, chances are you don’t know anything about my pregnancy.
This has been and will continue to be a very purposeful decision on both our parts. We simply don’t believe that, beyond perhaps a simple birth announcement (maybe even without a picture), our child’s life should end up on Facebook.
This generation of kids is the first one in human history to have their lives shared in a forum as public as the Internet without their permission. Parents all over the world put their kids’ pictures on Facebook. I get the reasoning: Everyone wants to share pictures of their kids with friends and family. More often than not, such photos capture sweet moments and I’m sure grandmas and grandpas the world over are glad to have such easy access to their grandsons and granddaughters. I also take more and more pictures of our kids. After all, they’re lovely, and who doesn’t have a cell phone camera handy at all times?
For my part, I just don’t want my kid on social media until she’s old enough to put herself on there. Family pictures might be one thing, but posting cutesy photos of a baby’s first bath is another. I don’t know where my kid’s pictures might end up some day-surely the last thing a parent could want is for a darling photo of their kid to show up somewhere totally wrong.
1. What’s the author’s attitude to social media?A.She is fond of the idea | B.She seldom posts pictures. |
C.She can’t live without them | D.She prefers Vine to Facebook |
A.Her husband doesn’t allow her to do so. |
B.She is going to give her friends a surprise. |
C.She wants to keep her baby out of the public eye |
D.Her husband doesn’t like posts without pictures |
A.To share sweet moments | B.To bring the family closer |
C.To show off before friends | D.To please the other generation |
A.Family pictures may change social media |
B.Kids may get angry about their parents’ posts |
C.People may show no interest in kids’ pictures |
D.Posting kids’ pictures may put them in danger. |
【推荐2】Rising numbers of older adults are unable to care for themselves, often leading to serious health problems and even death, according to state and local government agencies. So-called self-neglect cases generally involve the inability to perform basic self-care, such as providing oneself with food, personal health, medication and safety.
Seniors who no longer drive, for instance, are often unable to get to medical appointments, worsening health problems that can make them unable to care for themselves. A fall can result in body injuries leaving one bedridden and unable to care for oneself. Failure to pay bills for public services could lead to service cutoffs. Forgetting to pay rent could lead to the loss of a home.
Mr. McCormack, 75 years old, and his wife, 71, both had mental illness and stayed in hospitals from time to time, unable to care for their possessions. Despite repeated visits to their home by local officials, the Mc-Cormacks declined assistance. But after they were found living in their car parked outside their house in December 2017, officials removed them from their home and helped them settle in a nursing home.
Self-neglect cases, like above, involved 144,296 people across the country in 2018, according to a report. The federal government doesn’t have comparable data for previous years, but several state and local service providers say they are seeing the self-neglect problem swell.
The reasons seniors stop caring for themselves vary, including illness, depression and poverty. The loss of the spouse or a neighbor who previously kept an eye on an individual often starts a decline into self-neglect, experts say. And the key to reducing self-neglect cases is providing services to enable seniors to remain in their homes safely, such as reliable transportation for medical appointments and shopping, as well as affordable home help.
1. What does the author intend to do in paragraph 2?A.Give examples of self-neglect cases. | B.Provide some advice for seniors. |
C.Summarize the previous paragraph. | D.Introduce a new topic for discussion. |
A.They longed for help from others. |
B.They took good care of themselves. |
C.They couldn’t afford to go to hospital. |
D.They ended up living in the nursing house. |
A.Self-care Benefits Greatly the Seniors. |
B.Self-Neglect Rises Among the Elderly. |
C.Government’s Encouragement on Self-care. |
D.Many Years’ Investigation on Self-Neglect. |
A.A science fiction. | B.A newspaper. |
C.A guidebook. | D.A fairy tale. |
【推荐3】It appears that the police now have a device that can read license plates and check if a car is unregistered, uninsured or stolen. We already know that National Security Agency can dip into your Facebook page and Google searches. And it seems that almost every store we go into these days wants your home phone number and ZIP code as part of any deal.
So when Edward Snowden — now cooling his heels in Russia — revealed the extent to which the NSA is spying on Americans, collecting data on phone calls we make, it's not as if we should have been surprised. We live in a world that George Orwell predicted in 1984. And that realization has caused sales of the 1949, dystopian (反乌托邦)novel to spike dramatically upward recently — a 9,000% increase at one point on Amazon. com.
Comparisons between Orwell’s novel about a tightly controlled totalitarian (极权主义的)future ruled by the everywhere-present Big Brother and today are, in fact, quite similar. Here are a few of the most obvious ones.
Telescreens — in the novel, nearly all public and private places have large TV screens that broadcast government propaganda (宣传), news and approved entertainment. But they are also two-way monitors that spy on citizens’, private lives. Today websites like Facebook track our likes and dislikes, and governments and private individuals hack into our computers and find out what they want to know. Then there are the ever-present monitoring cameras that spy on the ordinary people as they go about their daily routine.
The endless war — In Orwell’s book, there's global war that has been going on seemingly forever, and as the book's hero, Winston Smith, realizes the enemy keeps changing. One week we’re at war with Eastasia and friends with Eurasia. The next week, it's just the opposite. There seems little to distinguish the two opponents, and they are used primarily to keep the people of Oceania, where Smith lives, in a constant state of fear, thereby making disagreement unthinkable — or punishable. Today we have the so-called war on terror, with no end in sight, a generalized societal fear, suspensionof certain civil liberties, and an ill-defined enemy who could be anywhere, and anything.
Newspeak — the fictional, stripped-down English language, used to limit free thought. OMG (Oh my God), RU (Are you) serious? That's so FUBAR (Fucked Beyond Ail Recognition). LMAO (Laugh My Ass Off).
Memory hole — this is the machine used in the book to change or disappear embarrassing documents. Paper shredders (碎纸机) had been invented, but were hardly used when Orwell wrote his book, and the concept of wiping out a hard drive was years in the future. But the memory hole foretold both technologies.
So what’s it all meant? In 1984, Winston Smith, after an intense round of “behavioral modification” — read: torture— learns to love Big Brother, and the difficult world he was born into. Jump forward to today, it seems we’ve willingly given up all sorts of freedoms, and much of our right to privacy. Fears of terrorism have a lot to do with this, but dizzying advances in technology, and the ubiquity of social media, play a big part.
There are those who say that if you don't have anything to hide, you have nothing to be afraid of. But the fact is, when a government agency can monitor everyone’s phone calls, we have all become suspects. This is one of the most frightening aspects of our modern society. And even more frightening is the fact that we have gone so far down the street, there is probably no turning back. Unless you spend your life in a wilderness cabin, totally off the grid, there is simply no way the government won’t have information about you stored away somewhere.
What this means, unfortunately, is that we are all Winston Smith. And Big Brother is the modern surveillance state.
1. What caused 1984 to sell well on Amazon.com?A.The similarities between the world we live in and that of 1984. |
B.The surprise at how Americans are spied on by the government. |
C.The fact that authorities have access to our personal information. |
D.The worry that our government agencies can monitor our phones. |
A.When Orwell wrote 1984, paper shredders didn't exist. |
B.The war with Eastasia makes people in Oceania fearful. |
C.Telescreens are used to broadcast and spy on citizens’ privacy. |
D.Winston Smith loves Big Brother due to the fears of terrorism. |
A.Addiction to social media. |
B.The phone calls being monitored. |
C.A round of “behavioral modification”. |
D.Willingness to abandon freedom and privacy. |
A.it is impossible for us to return to our initial path |
B.it’s very difficult for us to change the current situation |
C.we are walking along the street too far to go back home |
D.the government can find out which street we are going down |
A.We are all Winston Smith. |
B.Big Brother is watching you. |
C.We’re living “1984” today. |
D.The NSA is spying on Americans. |
A.Optimistic. | B.Concerned. | C.Angry. | D.Indifferent. |