时间:2019-01-08 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2008年(七月)


英语课

Traffic-safety experts are getting creative when it comes to foiling speeding drivers who zoom 1 dangerously through city neighborhoods. Most towns don't have enough police officers to actually catch many speeders, so they try to slow everyone down through what's called traffic calming.
 
Communities use lots of approaches to calming traffic, including traditional speed signs and some extra reminders 2


Some communities put up additional traffic lights or signs to force drivers to slow and stop more often. But this can lead to long, infuriating backups of cars.


Traffic circles or zig-zag obstacle courses are other calming devices. They break up straight stretches of road, which are an open invitation to speeding. The traffic islands have the desired effect, but drivers tend to crash into their raised curbs 3 and flower beds.
 
Here's what the fake road obstacles look like from a distance in Peoria, Ill


Many towns have tried speed bumps, or raised ridges 4 in the road. If you ignore them, they produce a teeth-rattling bounce that can ruin shock absorbers and axles. The humps slow down, give a good jolt 5 to, and irritate safe drivers, too, including those in emergency vehicles.


The latest, somewhat sneaky, speed-reducing innovation is . . . an optical illusion! The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is testing fake speed bumps! These are flat sheets of thermoplastic, laid across a street and embedded 6 with designs that, from a distance, look like three-dimensional pyramids, sticking up from the pavement. Who wouldn't slow down for that? And they cost a fraction of real humps in the road.
 
One of the newest strategies for slowing speeding drivers is to lay out speed bumps that are actually illusions


But there's one problem with these bumpy 7 illusions: As the police traffic coordinator 8 in Phoenix 9, Ariz., told the Associated Press, They were great . . . until people found out what they were!


Once they do, determined 10 speeders pay them no more mind than they would a pretty landscape scene, painted on the street.


 


 



n.急速上升;v.突然扩大,急速上升
  • The airplane's zoom carried it above the clouds.飞机的陡直上升使它飞到云层之上。
  • I live near an airport and the zoom of passing planes can be heard night and day.我住在一个飞机场附近,昼夜都能听到飞机飞过的嗡嗡声。
n.令人回忆起…的东西( reminder的名词复数 );提醒…的东西;(告知该做某事的)通知单;提示信
  • The film evokes chilling reminders of the war. 这部电影使人们回忆起战争的可怕场景。
  • The strike has delayed the mailing of tax reminders. 罢工耽搁了催税单的投寄。
v.限制,克制,抑制( curb的第三人称单数 )
  • In executing his functions he is not bound by any legal curbs on his power. 在他履行职务时,他的权力是不受任何法律约束的。 来自辞典例句
  • Curbs on air travel were being worked out and would shortly be announced. 限制航空旅行的有关规定正在拟定中,不久即将公布。 来自辞典例句
n.脊( ridge的名词复数 );山脊;脊状突起;大气层的)高压脊
  • The path winds along mountain ridges. 峰回路转。
  • Perhaps that was the deepest truth in Ridges's nature. 在里奇斯的思想上,这大概可以算是天经地义第一条了。
v.(使)摇动,(使)震动,(使)颠簸
  • We were worried that one tiny jolt could worsen her injuries.我们担心稍微颠簸一下就可能会使她的伤势恶化。
  • They were working frantically in the fear that an aftershock would jolt the house again.他们拼命地干着,担心余震可能会使房子再次受到震动。
a.扎牢的
  • an operation to remove glass that was embedded in his leg 取出扎入他腿部玻璃的手术
  • He has embedded his name in the minds of millions of people. 他的名字铭刻在数百万人民心中。
adj.颠簸不平的,崎岖的
  • I think we've a bumpy road ahead of us.我觉得我们将要面临一段困难时期。
  • The wide paved road degenerated into a narrow bumpy track.铺好的宽阔道路渐渐变窄,成了一条崎岖不平的小径。
n.协调人
  • The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下,负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
  • How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室?
n.凤凰,长生(不死)鸟;引申为重生
  • The airline rose like a phoenix from the ashes.这家航空公司又起死回生了。
  • The phoenix worship of China is fetish worship not totem adoration.中国凤崇拜是灵物崇拜而非图腾崇拜。
adj.坚定的;有决心的
  • I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
  • He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。
学英语单词
abridged scientific literacy instrution
acetylene welding set
amaurosis fugax
aminoacylhydrazine
amnisos
anodic coating
anterior pit
anticipative object
aquatic products
arsenohauchecornite
assumption of
beta blackout
bread-crust bomb
c-frame forging hammer
camera gun
Catholic Churches
cladonia tundra
claudet
compass deviation
composting material
cruck
Cucumis melo L. var. conomon Makino
defaultable
dependances
discrete product
duoscopic receiver
duration of flood tide
effective ionic radius
elect to do
electric propulsion switchboard
empirical validation
environmental complexity
final utility
floor finish
flotation analysis
flux creep
forge furnace
formal litigation of a case
fukue (gotosi)
full load efficiency
fusellal tissue
genetically engineered microorganism ecology
glass silvering
gross payload
heating of machine
high fluid potential belt
hypothetical construct
in the very flush of youth
integrating measuring instrument
internet peering bandwidth
interstitial absorption
isocapnia
issuing administration
junk sciences
Kenneth Bancroft Clark
kerf
kinboshi
local linear interpolation
main working load
McNaughton rules
micklewhite
modular system program
nocardorubin
nosewise
NPPNG
obstetrical delivery
one-third-octave
oospararenite
ordering department
orlicks
Overland Common Point Cargo
paleosols
pannus pan
PDQ
penal reform
Permo-Pennsylvanian
picnicker
plaster bandage
preresolves
Price Skimming
pseudo-balance
Quebrachos
radiation balance
rednose
refloorings
regulant
reservoir simulation
salembere
scale of brokerages
sea tourist area
separable topological space
separate data processing
spherical antenna
terins
toll-cable network
tripartita
two-stroke cycle single-acting
vectorial combination
water-line model
withycombes
writers' paralyses
zanon