8 . Pity the poor traffic policeman. He’s the last guy you want to see when you’re speeding down the highway. But according to a major research by scientists in Canada and California, that policeman just might be saving your life or the life of someone else.
The researchers have found that a traffic ticket reduces a driver’s chance of being involved in a disastrous accident greatly. The effect doesn’t last long, however. Within months, the lead foot is back on the pedal and the risk of killing yourself or someone else is back up to where it was before that policeman stared you in the eye and wrote out that expensive ticket. It is back to business as usual for most motorists.
Traffic tickets save thousands of lives every year. Yet traffic laws are applied infrequently, almost as if by whim (心血来潮), partly because people just don’t like traffic policemen, and there are lots of other things for the government to spend money on than applying highway safety laws.
Researches looked at the month prior to a disastrous accident, and the number of traffic convictions (定罪), and then the same month in the year before. They found there were fewer tickets in the month before a disastrous accident than there were a year before, which suggests there’s a protective effect of having a ticket.
The scientists also turned up some surprising results. “Most of the crashes did not involve alcohol,” they reported. “The relative risk reduction associated with traffic convictions was remarkably consistent among women and men, regardless of age, prior driving record, and other personal data. Men, however, were involved in far more disastrous accidents than women and the most accident-prone (有倾向的) age was between 30 and 50.”
They also pointed out that most crashes could have been prevented by a small difference in driver behavior. So the next time you see that policeman in your rear-view mirror, give him or her a broad smile.
1. How will the drivers probably behave months after having traffic tickets?
| A．Drive more attentively than before. | B．Return to where accidents happened. |
| C．Escape a spot check for alcohol. | D．Drive as fast as they did before. |
2. Which statement about traffic laws is correct?
| A．They have saved thousands of lives so far. |
| B．They are not favored by traffic policemen. |
| C．They are carried out consistently and sufficiently. |
| D．They are not the priority of the government’s budget. |
3. What can be learned from paragraph 4?
| A．Traffic tickets can guarantee safe driving. |
| B．It is necessary to reduce traffic convictions. |
| C．Disastrous accidents will decline with more traffic tickets given. |
| D．Tickets’ protective effect can be found before disastrous accidents. |
4. What can be inferred from the research?
| A．Its results applied to both men and women. |
| B．None of the traffic crashes involved alcohol. |
| C．Women aged 30 to 50 caused more disastrous accidents. |
| D．Drivers were used to looking at the mirrors while driving. |
