Texting pedestrians aren' t just an annoyance to their fellow walkers, but something dangerous to themselves. "I was checking emails while walking to work this morning," said Wolbert van den Hoorn. "But it has a serious influence on the safety of people who type or read text while walking. " Anecdotes back him up. A tourist from Taiwan walked off a port near Melbourne last month while checking Facebook-bringing an abrupt, and icy end to a penguin-watching visit. Another shopper in the U.S. was too addicted to his mobile phone to notice the fountain ahead, walking straight into it. And as mobile-phone use has grown-to about 77% of the world's population, the study says-so has the number of phone-related accidents. The number of U. S. emergency-room visits linked to phone use on the move doubled to as many as l,500 between 2005 and 2010, an Ohio State University study recently showed. Authorities world-wide have taken note. Signs on Hong Kong's subway system advise passengers in three languages to keep their eyes off their phones. Police and transport authorities have also warned the danger in Singapore, where the Straits Times newspaper ranked it as "No.2 Bad Habit", due to the rising number of road deaths. Some U.S. states, including New York and Arkansas, are even considering bans on this act. The Australian study used 26 volunteers, a third of whom admitted having hit objects while texting. They were fitted with different equipment in different parts of their body, and asked to walk 8.5 meters three times-once without a phone, once while reading a text and once while writing a text-while eight cameras captured the action. Volunteers using the phone walked slower and with shorter steps (and slowest of all when typing), and, more seriously, they locked their arms and elbows in-like "robots", in the researchers' words. That forced their heads to move more, throwing them off balance. "In a pedestrian environment, inability to maintain a straight path would be likely to increase potential for hits, falls and... What is New York and Arkansas' attitude to texting pedestrians? A) Considering forbidding their acts. B) Ranking it as "No.l Bad Habit". C) Setting up signs to warn them. D) Equipping them with advanced machines.
A
Cats like climbing trees and there are logical reasons behind this behavior. Interestingly, due to some of their physical features, cats will meet trouble getting down from the trees after climbing up, which may seem unusual. There are several reasons why cats climb trees, mostly to do with defensive purposes. Cats, as predators , like to understand their environment well. As they are small animals, their scope of vision is considerably smaller. Cats often climb trees to get a better view of their surroundings to help them see any potential dangers. While cats are predators, they are also easy to get attacked from larger animals, such as dogs or even other cats. A tree often provides a safe hiding place. In the wild, cars climb up trees to give them a resting or napping place that is out of predators' range. It also helps disguise their presence. Some cats may climb trees for fun, on occasion, or possibly to work on improving their climbing abilities. Small cats frequently test out their claw skills by trying to climb up anything and everything, from bookcases to trees to a person's leg. Climbing practice is good for cats; it can improve their strength and flexibility and teach them an important defensive skill. If a cat has gotten up a tree and cannot get down, the owner may wonder why its remarkable climbing abilities only work in one direction. A cat's claws curve inward, allowing it to grip onto surfaces while going up head first. Unfortunately, this useful climbing curve does nothing to help the animal get back down again. Eventually, most trapped cats will either jump out of the tree or realize that they can get down by going tail first. Either way, a cat up a tree is usually nothing to worry about; they are intelligent animals and will figure out how to get down sooner or later. According to the text small cats like to climb a person's leg to _ . A) Show love to the person B) Test out their claw skills C) Avoid the attack from the dog D) Get food from a person's hand.
B
Q: Have you ever run into a careless cell phone user on the street? Perhaps they were busy talking, testing or checking updates on WeChat without looking at what was going on around them. As the number of this new "species" of human has kept rising, they have been given a new name -- phubbers . Recently, a cartoon created by students from China Central Academy of Fine Arts put this group of people under the spotlight. In the short film, phubbers with various social identities bury themselves in their phones. A doctor plays with his cell phone while letting his patient die, a pretty woman takes selfie in front of a car accident siteand a father loses his child without knowing about it while using his mobile phone. A chain of similar events eventually leads to the destruction of the world. Although the ending sounds overstated, the damage phubbing can bring is real. Your health is the first to bear the effect and result of it. "Constantly bending your head to check your cell phone could damage your neck," Guangming Daily quoted doctors as saying. "The neck is like a rope that breaks after long-term stretching." Also, staring at cell phones for long periods of time will damage your eyesight gradually, according to the report. But that's not all. Being a phubber could also damage your social skills and drive you away from your friends and family. At reunions with family or friends, many people tend to stick to their cell phones while others are chatting happily with each other and this creates a strange atmosphere, Qilu Evening News reported. It can also cost you your life. There have been lots of reports on phubbers who fell to their death, suffered accidents, and were robbed of their cell phones in broad daylight. For what purpose does the author give the example of a cartoon in Para. 2? A) To inform people of the bad effects of phubbing. B) To advertise the cartoon made by students. C) To indicate the world will finally be destroyed by phubbers. D) To warn doctors against using cell phones while treating patients.
A: A
If you look outside, you probably will see some kind of insect. If your first instinct is to kill it, take a moment to think about all of the benefits insects provide to the environment. Entomologists, scientists who study insects, estimate that there are more than 800,000 species of insects found throughout the world. Only a few hundred of these insects are considered harmful. Mosquitoes, for example, are considered harmful. They bite humans and other animals, and their bites can cause skin pain and spread disease. Desert locusts also are considered harmful because they destroy crops causing billions of dollars in damage each year. However, the number of helpful insect species far outweighs the number of harmful species. Some insects make up a vital part of the food chain. Many different birds, reptiles, fish and even plants eat insects. There are also about 500 insects that people in various parts of the world eat. These insects are considered delicious food and prized for their high protein, mineral, and vitamin content. Other insects produce valuable commercial products such as silk, wax, and honey. Of all the insects, perhaps the most important are those that travel from flower to flower and pollinate the plants they visit. Agriculture around the world would be very different without the bees, butterflies, moths, flies and wasps that pollinate many crops. In fact, nearly one-third of the food you eat depends on plants that are pollinated by insects! While it is true that some species of insects harm or annoy us, _ . You may be destroying one of the hundreds of thousands of insects that provides many benefits to human beings. According to the passage, insects are eaten in some parts of the world because _ . A) they are nutritious B) they are available to cook C) they are easy to breed D) they are free
A