Pushbike Danger

Low speed bicycle crashes can badly injure——or even kill——children if they fall onto the ends of the handlebars(車把).So a team of engineers is redesigning it to make it safer

Kristy Arbogast，a bioengineer at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania， began the project with her colleagues.The cases they reviewed about serious abdominal(腹部的) injuries in children in the past 30 years showed that more than a third were caused by bicycle accidents.”The task was to identify how the injuries occurred and come up with seine countermeasures，”she says

By interviewing the children and their parents，Arbogast and her team were able to reconstruct many of the accidents and identified a common cause for serious injuries They discovered that most cases occur when children hit an obstacle at slow speed，causing them to topple f搖擺)over.To maintain their balance the children turn the handlebars through 90 degrees—but their momentum(沖力)forces them into the end of the handlebars.The bike then falls over and the other end of the handlebars hits the ground，pushing it in to their abdomen(腹部).

The solution the group came up with is a handgrip (握柄)fitted with a spring and damping(減速)system. The spring absorbs up to 50 per cent of the forces transmitted(傳遞)through the handlebars in all impact.The group hopes to commercialize the device，which should add only a few dollars to t}le cost of a bike.“But our task has been one of education because up until now.bicycle manufacturers were unaware of the problem，”says Arbogast.

31 The engineers are trying to improve the handlebars because

A they are not beautiful

B they may kill children

C they are likely to crash.

D they affect the speed of the bike

32 How many abdominal injuries in children were caused by bicycle accidents?

A Thirty.

B Ninety.

C 50 percent.

D More than a third.

33 The world “countermeasures” in paragraph 2 means

A “problems”

B “approaches”

C “solutions”.

D “actions”

34 Paragraph 3 mainly discusses

A why the children and their parents were interviewed

B how serious abdominal injuries occur.

C when the children turn the handlebars

D what stops bicycle accidents

35 The advantage of the new handgrip is that

A it can be made cheaply.

B it reduces the impact in bicycle accidents.

C it helps to slow down the speed of the bicycle.

D it sells well at bicycle shops.

參考答案

3l B 文章在開始處就講，兒童騎慢車跌倒時，如果撞在車把兩端，會受重傷甚至喪命。因此，一些工程師才會重新設(shè)計這種欠合理的車把，以使其更安全。前面是因，后面是果。

32 D該題是細(xì)節(jié)題，問的是在自行車事故中有多少例是導(dǎo)致孩子腹部受傷的?第二段講Kristy.Arbogast開始做這個項目是在一項研究有了結(jié)果之后，這項研究的結(jié)果表明在過去的30年里，超過三分之一的兒童腹部受重傷的情況起因于自行車事故。故D為答案。

33 c 該題是詞匯理解題。問“countermeasures”在文中是什么意思。根據(jù)上下文推斷，應(yīng)該是“解決方案”，故c為答案。

34 B 第三段的第一個句子是這一段的主題句，它指出了這一段的中心：受重傷的機(jī)理。故B為答案。

35 B 該題問的是新設(shè)計的車把的優(yōu)點是什么。文章第四段第二個句子講到，“在撞擊過程中，握柄上的彈簧會吸收掉百分之五十沿車把傳遞的沖撞力”，據(jù)此，答案應(yīng)該選B。