As we all know that the biggest safety threat which faces airlines today may not be a terrorist attack with a gun, but the man with the portable computer in business class during the flight. In the last 15 years, pilots have reported well over 100 incidents that could have been caused by electromagnetic (电磁)interference. The source of this interference remains unconfirmed, but increasingly, some experts are pointing the blame at portable device such as portable computers, radio and cassette players as well as mobile phones.
RICA, an organization which advises the aviation(航空)industry, has recommended that all airlines should ban such devices from being used during"critical "stages of flights, particularly take-off and landing. Some experts have gone even further, calling for a total ban during all fights. Currently, rules on using these devices are left up to individual airlines. And although many of the airlines prohibit passengers from using such equipment especially during take-off and landing, most are reluctant to enforce a total ban, given that many passengers want to work during flights.
The difficulty is predicting how electromagnetic fields might affect an aircraft’s computers. Some experts know that portable devices send radiation which affects those wavelengths that aircraft use for navigation and communication. But because they have not been able to reproduce these effects in a lab, they really have no idea whether the interference might be dangerous or not.
The fact that aircraft may be vulnerable(易受损的) to interference raises the risk that terrorists may use radio systems in order to damage navigation equipment. As worrying, though, is the passenger who can’t hear the instructions clearly to turn off his radio because the music is too loud. So it still takes time to impose a ban on the use of portable devices during flights. (total words 311)
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It’s a common sight to see food delivery workers riding electric bikes through big cities in China. Most of them seem to be in a hurry, as they run red lights to deliver their meals in time. However, such reckless(鲁莽的)behavior often causes serious problems.
In the first half of this year, food delivery drivers had 76 traffic accidents in Shanghai alone, according to the Shanghai Public Security Bureau. This means that on average, there is a food delivery worker that gets hurt or even dies on the road in Shanghai every 2.5 days.
Other cities also share similar problems. In Nanjing, three people died and 2,473 were injured in road accidents related to food delivery workers in the same period, according to the Ministry of Public Security.
The rise of reckless behavior among food delivery workers is closely related to the growing demand for their service, reported People’s Daily. About 150 million people in China use food delivery services, according to China Radio International (CRI). Such a big market has led to a large demand for food delivery workers, with some companies offering high salaries to attract new workers.
However, food delivery workers are often under high pressure from their employers. They face company fines of 20 yuan for delivering food late and upwards of 200 yuan for receiving complaints, reported CRI. Moreover, the more orders they take, the more commission(佣金)they can earn, leading to some workers checking their mobile phones for new orders while they're riding their bikes.
While most companies have measures requiring delivery workers to follow traffic rules, “there remains a problem of whether these requirements and rules for delivery workers are truly entering their ears, brains and hearts,” Wang Liang, deputy head of the Traffic Police Security Bureau, told news website The Paper.
To solve the problem, some cities have taken action. Shanghai has asked companies to train their workers on traffic rules and safety. Now in Shenzhen, if a delivery worker gets caught breaking traffic rules more than twice, he or she will be banned from driving food delivery vehicles for a whole year.
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From the health point of view, we are living in a wonderful age, immunized from birth against many of the most dangerous diseases and freed from the once deadly illnesses thanks to modern drugs and surgery. But though the possibility of living a long and happy life is greater, every day we witness the unbelievable killings of men, women and children on the roads. It is a never-ending battle which man is losing against the car. Thousands of people the world over are killed each year and we are quietly sitting back and letting it happen.
It has been rightly said that when a man is sitting behind a steering wheel, his car becomes the extension of his personality. There is no doubt that the car often brings out a man’s very worst qualities. People who are normally quiet and pleasant may become unrecognizable when they are behind a wheel. All their hidden frustrations and disappointments seem to be brought to the surface by the act of driving.
The surprising thing is that society smiles gently on the driver and seems to forgive his behavior. Everything is done for his convenience. Cities are allowed to become almost uninhabitable（不宜居住的）because of heavy traffic; towns are made ugly by huge car parks; the countryside is ruined by road networks; and the mass annual deaths becomes nothing but a number, to be conveniently forgotten.
It is high time rules were created to reduce this senseless waste of human life. Here are a few examples of some of the things that might be done. The driving test should be standardized and made far more difficult than it is; all vehicles should be put through strict tests for safety; present drinking and driving laws should be made much stricter; maximum and minimum speed limits should be required on all roads. These measures may sound strict. But surely nothing should be considered as too severe if it results in reducing the annual loss of human life. After all, the world is for human beings, not cars.
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1. Read the passage carefully two or three times. Make sure you understand it.
2. Write a full answer to each question. When several questions are given together, join your answers with the joining words or phrases given in parentheses. Each answer you write must be a complete sentence.
3. Your answer to the questions must follow each other so that all your sentences will form a complete paragraph.
4. Read through your work and correct your mistakes.
5. Count the number of words in your paragraph. Do not go over the word limit. Words like“the”,“a”，etc. count as single words. Words which are joined by a hyphen also count as single words. At the end of your paragraph write the number of words that you have used.
Sweet as honey! 像蜜一样甜！
In 1963 a Lancaster bomber crashed on Wallis Island, a remote place in the South Pacific, a long way west of Samoa. The plane wasn’t too badly damaged, but over the years, the crash was forgotten and the wreck remained undisturbed. Then in 1989, twenty-six years after the crash, the plane was accidentally rediscovered in an aerial survey of the island. By this time, a Lancaster bomber in reasonable condition was rare and worth rescuing. The French authorities had the plane packaged and moved in parts back to France. Now a group of enthusiasts are going to have the plane restored. It has four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, but the group will need to have only three of them rebuilt. Imagine their surprise and delight when they broke open the packing cases and found that the fourth engine was sweet as honey—still in perfect condition. A colony of bees had turned the engine into a hive and it was totally preserved in beeswax!
Answer these questions in not more than 100 words.
1. Was the Lancaster bomber badly damaged when it crashed on a remote island in the South Pacific?
2. How long did the wreck remain undisturbed? How was it rediscovered?（Then…until…）
3. What did the French authorities do with the plane? Who will be having it restored?（…where…）
4. How many engines will they have to have rebuilt? Why is the fourth engine still in perfect condition?（…, but…because）
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