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　　It’s only 34 centimetres tall but, as the highest honour in the world of cinema, an Oscar is worth its weight in gold．

　　Just saying its name draws up images of red carpets, bubbling champagne(冒泡的香槟), beautiful stars and, most importantly of all, success．

　　When the 76th Academy Awards were presented this morning in Los Angeles, US, the winners became headline news across the world just as the first Academy Awards．Organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the first Academy Awards ceremony took place at a Hollywood hotel on May 16, 1929．All the guests knew who had won in advance; the present system of keeping it a secret until the envelope is opened was introduced in 1941．

　　The trophy(奖品)is the figure of a knight(骑士)holding a sword．The first awards were solid bronze but a metal shortage during World War Ⅱ meant the trophies were made of plaster(石膏)for a while．Nowadays, the figures are made of metal and given an outer coating of gold．

　　Officially known as the Academy Award of Merit, it isn’t clear where the nickname(昵称)Oscar came from．One popular explanation is that an Academy librarian said it looked like her uncle Oscar and the name just stuck．

　　The timing of the ceremony has only been disturbed on three occasions．The first was in 1938 when serious floods in Los Angeles delayed the awards by one week．Then in 1968 the ceremony was moved from April 8 to April 10 out of respect for Dr．Martin Luther King, who had been assassinated(暗杀)a few days earlier．Another assassination－a failed attempt on President Ronald Reagan－saw the Oscars delayed by 24 hours in 1981．

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　　A recent study, published in last week’s Journal of the American Medical Association, offers a picture of how dangerous it is to get a lift from a teenage driver．Indeed, a 16-year-old driver with three or more passengers in three times as likely to have a serious accident as a teenager driving alone．

　　The author also found that the death rates for teenage drivers increased dramatically after 10 pm, and especially after midnight．With passengers in the car, the driver was even more likely to die in a latenight accident．

　　Robert Foss, a scientist at the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center, says the higher death rates for teenage drivers have less to do with “really stupid behavior” than with just a lack of driving experience．“The basic problem, ”he says, “is that adults who are responsible for giving out licenses fail to recognize how complex and skilled a task driving is．”

　　Both he and the author of the study believe that the way to mitigate(使缓解)the problem is to have states set up so called graduated licensing systems, in which getting a license is a process with several stages．A graduated license requires that a teenager first prove himself able to drive in the presence of an adult, followed by a period of driving with night of passenger restrictions before graduating to full driving rights．

　　Graduated licensing systems have reduced teenage driver crashes, according to recent studies．