Forget Cyclists, Pedestrians are Real Danger

We are having a debate about this topic. Here are some letters from our readers.

■Yes, many cyclists behave dangerously. Many drivers are disrespectful of cyclists. But pedestrians are probably the worse offenders.

People of all ages happily walk along the pavement with eyes and hands glued to the mobile phone, quite unaware of what is going on around them. They may even do the same thing while crossing a road at a pedestrian crossing or elsewhere. The rest of us have to evade (避让) them or just stand still to wait for the unavoidable collision.

The real problem is that some pedestrians seem to be, at least for the moment, in worlds of their own that are, to them, much more important than the welfare of others.

——Michael Horan

■I love the letter from Bob Brooks about cyclists (Viewpoints, May 29). I am afraid they seem to think they own the roads.

I was walking across Altrincham Road one morning when a cyclist went round me and on being asked what he was doing he shouted at me.

The government built a cycle lane on the road but it is hardly used.

The police do nothing. What a laugh they are!

The cyclists should all have to be made to use the cycle lanes and wear helmets, fluorescent (发荧光的) jacket and lights at night and in the morning they should pay some sort of tax and be fined for not wearing them.

——Carol Harvey

■Cyclists jump on and off pavements (which are meant for pedestrians), ride at speed along the pavements, and think they have a special right to go through traffic lights when they are on red.

I was almost knocked down recently by a cyclist riding on the pavement when there was a cycle lane right next to him.

Other road users, including horse riders, manage to obey the rules so why not cyclists?

It's about time they had to be registered and insured, so when they do hit a pedestrian or a vehicle, or cause an accident, at least they can be treated and there might be an opportunity to claim.

——JML

Write to Viewpoints of the newspaper.

1. Michael Horan wrote the letter mainly to show that _______.

A. drivers should be polite to cyclists

B. road accidents can actually be avoided

C. some pedestrians are a threat to road safety

D. walking while using phones hurts one's eyes

2. Carol Harvey suggests that cyclists should _______.

A. be provided with enough roads

B. be asked to ride on their own lanes

C. be made to pay less tax for cycling

D. be fined for laughing at policemen

3. The underlined word "they" in the third letter refers to ______.

A. accidents    B. vehicles

C. pedestrians    D. cyclists

4. The three letters present viewpoints on _______.

A. real source of road danger

B. ways to improve road facilities

C. measures to punish road offences

D. increased awareness of road rules

In its early history, Chicago had floods frequently, especially in the spring, making the streets so muddy that people, horses, and carts got stuck. An old joke that was popular at the time went something like this: A man is stuck up to his waist in a muddy Chicago street. Asked if he needs help, he replies, "No, thanks. I've got a good horse under me."

The city planner decided to build an underground drainage (排水) system, but there simply wasn't enough difference between the height of the ground level and the water level. The only two options were to lower the Chicago River or raise the city.

An engineer named Ellis Chesbrough convinced the city that it had no choice but to build the pipes above ground and then cover them with dirt. This raised the level of the city's streets by as much as 12 feet.

This of course created a new problem: dirt practically buried the first floors of every building in Chicago. Building owners were faced with a choice: either change the first floors of their buildings into basements, and the second stories into main floors, or hoist the entire buildings to meet the new street level. Small wood-frame buildings could be lifted fairly easily. But what about large, heavy structures like Tremont Hotel, which was a six-story brick building?

That's where George Pullman came in. He had developed some house-moving skills successfully. To lift a big structure like the Tremont Hotel, Pullman would place thousands of jackscrews (螺旋千斤顶) beneath the building's foundation. One man was assigned to operate each section of roughly 10 jackscrews. At Pullman's sign each man turned his jackscrew the same amount at the same time, thereby raising the building slowly and evenly. Astonishingly, the Tremont Hotel stay open during the entire operation, and many of its guests didn't even notice anything was happening. Some people like to say that every problem has a solution. But in Chicago's early history, every engineering solution seemed to create a new problem. Now that Chicago's waste water was draining efficiently into the Chicago River, the city's next step was to clean the polluted river.

5. The author mentions the joke to show ______.

A. horses were fairly useful in Chicago

B. Chicago's streets were extremely muddy

C. Chicago was very dangerous in the spring

D. the Chicago people were particularly humorous

6. The city planners were convinced by Ellis Chesbrough to_______.

A. get rid of the street dirt

B. lower the Chicago River

C. fight against heavy floods

D. build the pipes above ground

7. What can we conclude about the moving operation of the Tremont Hotel?

A. It went on smoothly as intended.

B. It interrupted the business of the hotel.

C. It involved Pullman turning ten jackscrews.

D. It separated the building from its foundation.

8. The passage is mainly about the early Chicago's ______.

A. popular life styles and their influences

B. environmental disasters and their causes

C. engineering problems and their solutions

D. successful businessmen and their achievements

Have your parents ever inspected your room to see if you cleaned it properly? Imagine having your entire houses, garage, and yard inspected at any time -- with no warning. Inspections were a regular part of lighthouse (灯塔) living, and a keeper's reputation depended on results. A few times each year, an inspector arrived to look over the entire light station. The inspections were supposed to be a surprise, but keeper sometimes had advance notice.

Once lighthouses had telephones, keepers would call each other to warn that the inspector was approaching. After boats began flying special flags noting the inspector aboard, the keeper's family made it a game to see who could notice the boat first. As soon as someone spotted the boat, everyone would do last-minute tidying and change into fancy clothes. The keeper then scurried to put on his dress uniform and cap. Children of keepers remember inspectors wearing white gloves to run their fingers over door frames and windowsills looking for dust.

Despite the serious nature of inspections, they resulted in some funny moments. Betty Byrnes remembered when her mother did not have time to wash all the dishes before an inspection. At the time, people did not have dishwashers in their homes. In an effort to clean up quickly, Mrs. Byrnes tossed all the dishes into a big bread pan, covered them with a cloth and stuck them in the oven. If the inspector opened the oven door, it would look like bread was baking. He never did.

One day, Glenn Furst's mother put oil on the kitchen floor just before the inspector entered their house. Like floor wax, the oil made the floors shiny and helped protect the wood. This time, though, she used a little too much oil. When the inspector extended his hand to greet Glenn's mother, he slipped on the freshly oiled surface. "He came across that floor waving his arms like a young bird attempting its first flight," Glenn late wrote. After he steadied himself, he shook Glenn's mother's hand, and the inspection continued as though nothing had happened.

9. What does Paragraph I tell us about the inspection at the light station?

A. It was carried out once a year.

B. It was often announced in advance.

C. It was important for the keeper's fame.

D. It was focused on the garage and yard.

10. The family began making preparations immediately after ______.

A. one of the members saw the boat

B. a warning call reached the lighthouse

C. the keeper put on the dress uniform and cap

D. the inspector flew special flags in the distance

11. Mrs. Byrnes put the dishes in the oven because this would ______.

A. result in some fun

B. speed up washing them

C. make her home look tidy

D. be a demand from the inspector

12. The inspector waved his arms ______.

A. to try his best to keep steady

B. to show his satisfaction with the floor

C. to extend a warm greeting to Glenn's mother

D. to express his intention to continue the inspection

You have probably heard of the Mozart effect. It’s the idea that if children or even babies listen to music composed by Mozart, they will become more intelligent. A quick Internet search reveals plenty of products to assist you in the task. Whatever your age there are CDs and books to help you taste the power of Mozart’s music, but when it comes to scientific evidence that it can make you more clever, the picture is more mixed.

The phrase “the Mozart effect” was made up in 1991, but it was a study described two years later in the journal Nature that sparked（激发）real media and public interest about the idea that listening to classical music somehow improves the brain. It is one of those ideas that sound reasonable. Mozart was undoubtedly a genius himself; his music is complex and there is a hope that if we listen to enough of it ,we’ll become more intelligent.

The idea took off, with thousands of parents playing Mozart to their children, and in 1998 Zell Miller, the Governor of the state of Georgia in the US, even asked for money to be set aside in the state budget so that every newborn baby could be sent a CD of classical music. It was not just babies and children who were exposed to Mozart’s music on purpose, even an Italian farmer proudly explained that the cows were played Mozart three times a day to help them to produce better milk.

I’ll leave the debate on the impact on milk yield to farmers, but what about the evidence that listening to Mozart makes people more intelligent? More research was carried out but an analysis of sixteen different studies confirmed that listening to music does lead to a temporary improvement in the ability to handle shapes mentally, but the benefits are short-lived and it doesn’t make us more intelligent.

13. What can we learn from paragraph 1?

A. Mozart composed many musical pieces for children.

B. Children listening to Mozart will be more intelligent.

C. There are few products on the Internet about Mozart’s music.

D. There is little scientific evidence to support Mozart effect.

14. The underlined sentence in paragraph3 suggests that    ________.

A. people were strongly against the idea

B. the idea was accepted by many people

C. Mozart played an important part in people’s life

D. the US government helped promote the idea

15. What is the author’s attitude towards the Mozart effect?

A. Favorable    B. Objective    C. Doubtful    D. Positive

Blue is the most attractive eye colour according to a new research.

Blue eyes like those belonging to sexy star Angelina Jolie are the most appealing colour according to a pool of 3,000 18－24­year­olds by Fresh Look One Day Colour. Angelina，her partner Brad Pitt and his ex­wife Jennifer Aniston all have blue eyes and all been named in a top twenty of the world's most desirable eyes.

The survey found that young folk with blue eyes is generally seen as being more flirtatious，sexy and kind.

And when asked if they would change the colour of their eyes if they could，only one in ten blue­eyed people wanted to，significantly less than people with other colour eyes.

One in three people who didn't have blue eyes wanted a change.

One quarter of respondents have considered wearing coloured contact lenses to change their eye colour temporarily—and blue is the most wanted colour.

Green was the second most popular colour for those wanting a new look，with respondents saying green­eyed people were usually mysterious and creative.

People with brown or hazel eyes were perceived to be more trustworthy than people with other eye colours.

People with grey eyes were generally thought to be more intelligent than other people，and they were also described as usually being shy.

Blue was the most common eye colour among respondents，with 41 percent of those who answered the survey having baby blue peepers and 39 percent having brown or hazel eyes.

The survey also found that 18 percent of people don't know what colour eyes their partner has.

16. According to the new research，when considering changing their eye colour，the number of the people who will choose ________ ranks the second.

A. brown    B. green    C. grey    D. hazel

17. According to the study result，if you were a manager and you wanted to find a most reliable person，you'd better hire one who has ________ eyes.

A. green    B. blue    C. brown    D. grey

18. Which of the following is the best title of the passage?

A. Who have the most charming eyes in the world?

B. Blue—the most attractive eye colour.

C. A survey result on eye colours.

D. Different eye colours in the world.