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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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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