Directions: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.
Last month, 25 people died and 130 were injured in a train crash near Los Angeles. The cause was a cell phone. In three hours of work before the crash, one of the engineers received 28 text messages and sent 29 more. He sent his last message 22 seconds before impact, just after passing a signal that would have alerted him to the disaster ahead.
Scientists call this 1 "inattention blindness". The mind, captured by the world inside the phone, becomes blind to the world outside it. Millions of people move among us in this half-absent state. 2 , they’re living in another world.
In many ways, mobile phones are wonderful. Through the phone, you can 3 the confines of your environment. The problem is that physically, you’re still living in that environment. Like other creatures, you’ve evolved to function in the natural world, one setting at a time. Nature has never tested a species’ ability to function in two worlds at once.
So how is this multitasking experiment going Not so well. In the nationwide survey, 45 percent of Americans said they’ve been hit or nearly hit by a driver on a cell phone. Studies show that the more tasks you dump on drivers, the worse they 4 .
Our performance on the two-worlds test, like all 5 experiments, can be measured in death. The Federal Railroad Administration reports seven cell-phone-related railway accidents in the last three years, five of them fatal.
Today, we’re so 6 to mobile devices that we rely on them even to translate the physical world. Misled by with Global Positioning System devices, people are driving cars into rivers, trees, and sand piles. Twice this year in Bedford Hills, N.Y., drivers have caused train crashes by steering onto the track because their GPS mistook it for a road. Warning signs, pavement markings, and 7 train-signal masts failed to stop them. They trusted the dashboard (仪表盘), not the 8 .
If we don’t want this two-worlds experiment to be regulated nature’s way, then we’d better regulate it ourselves. Here are a few 9 rules of the road. Multitasking is a glorious gift. We can’t ban it, nor should we. Want to phone your spouse or your office while walking Fine. The only life at stake is yours. Want to turn on your car radio or music player Fine. Listening is easier than talking, and you can mentally or 10 shut it off when necessary. Want to chat with your passenger Fine again. Studies indicate that passenger conversations are less distracting than phone calls, apparently because you’re sharing the same environment.
A. reflective I. mentally
B. evolutionary J. windshield
C. accident K. perform
D. phenomenon L. primarily
E. physically M. addicted
F. confront N. compartment
G. escape O. proposed
H. assure Directions:Answer Sheet 2