1 . A self-driving Uber vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian in a late-night accident in Tempe, Arizona, police said on Monday. The accident is believed to be the first pedestrian death involving the technology of autonomous vehicles.
The gray SUV had an operator in the driver’s seat and was traveling at about 40 miles per hour in autonomous mode when it struck a woman who was walking across the street late Sunday night, Tempe police said. The pedestrian was rushed to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead from her injuries.
“The City of Tempe has been supportive of autonomous vehicle testing because of the innovation and promise that the technology may offer in many areas, including transportation options for disabled residents and seniors,” Tempe Mayor, Mitchell said in the statement. “Testing must occur safely. All indications we have had in the past show that traffic laws are being obeyed by the companies testing here. Our city leadership and Tempe police will pursue any and all answers to what happened in order to ensure safety moving forward.”
Self-driving cars have been praised by technology companies as the wave of the future. Autonomous cars are already being in more than 30 cities around the world, with companies investing more than $80 billion into research and development.
“Everyone recognized that someone was going to die in a crash involving an autonomous vehicle eventually,” Bryant Walker Smith, a law professor at the University of South Carolina who studies risks in automated driving systems, told NBC News. “As good as that technology tries to be, mistakes can happen, or it may be one of the small fraction of crashes. I just think everybody kind of hoped that one wouldn’t come this soon.”
Smith added that because federal and state agencies don’t have the resources to monitor individual vehicles, the responsibility for safety falls on the individual companies running the technology.
The National Transportation Safety Board announced that a four-person team has been sent to Tempe to investigate the crash.
1. Which of the following is true about the accident?| A．The woman was dead on the spot. |
| B．The accident is under investigation. |
| C．The driver was arrested for speeding. |
| D．It is the first accident caused by autonomous vehicles. |
| A．The autonomous vehicle can make transportation safer. |
| B．A large profit will be brought by the autonomous vehicles. |
| C．The autonomous vehicles will help disabled residents and seniors. |
| D．Companies invest more than $80 billion into research and development. |
| A．The driver. | B．The pedestrian. |
| C．The individual companies. | D．The federal and state agency. |
| A．Tempe is in favor of autonomous vehicle testing. |
| B．Autonomous vehicles have a lot of disadvantages. |
| C．Companies should take action to improve self-driving cars. |
| D．A self-driving Uber car caused a pedestrian’s death in Arizona. |
2 . Mr. Peter Johnson, aged twenty-three, fought for half an hour to escape from his trapped car yesterday when it landed upside down in three feet of water. Mr. Johnson took the only escape way — through the boot(行李箱).
Mr. Johnson’s car had finished up in a ditch(沟渠) at Romney, Kentucky, after skidding on ice and hitting a bank. “Fortunately, the water began to come in only slowly,” Mr. Johnson said, “I couldn’t force the doors because they were jammed against the walls of the ditch and dared not open the windows because I knew water would come flooding in.”
Mr. Johnson, first tried to attract the attention of other motorists by sounding the horn(喇叭) and hammering on the roof and boot but failed. Then he began to use his own efforts to escape.
Later he said, “It was really a half penny that saved my life. It was the only coin I had in my pocket and I used it to unscrew(旋松) the back seat to get into the boot. I hammered hard with a hammer trying to make someone hear, but no help came.”
It took ten minutes to unscrew the seat, and a further five minutes to clear the boot. Then Mr. Johnson found a wrench(扳手) and began to work on the boot lock. Fifteen minutes passed by. “It was the only chance I had. Finally it gave, but as soon as I unlocked the boot, the water and mud poured in.
His hands and arms cut and hurt，Mr. Johnson got to Beckett Farm nearby, where he was looked after by the farmer’s wife, Mrs. Lucy Bates. Trembling in a blanket, he said, “That thirty minutes seemed like hours.” Only the car wheels could be seen, the police said last night. The vehicle had sunk into two feet of mud at the bottom of the ditch.
1. What happened to Mr. Johnson in the story?| A．He was lost in the ditch. | B．He was rescued by the police. |
| C．Water came flooding into his car. | D．His car was trapped in the ditch. |
| A．luckily the door was taken away in the end | B．at last the wrench went broken |
| C．the lock came open after all his efforts | D．the chance was lost at the last minute |
| A．the ditch was along a quiet country road |
| B．the accident happened on a clear warm day |
| C．the police helped Mr. Johnson get out of the ditch |
| D．Mr. Johnson had a tender wife and was well attended |
