4. What
does the last paragraph of the passage imply?
A. Airline
profits in America
will be under even greater pressure.
B. The
population of obsess people will increase rapidly.
C. American
airlines will charge more for fuels.
D. Fast
food restaurants will be forced to change their menus.
B
A device that stops drivers from
falling asleep at the wheel is about to undergo testing at Department of
Transport laboratories and could go on sale within 12 months.
The system, called Driver Alert,
aims to reduce deadly road accidents by 20% - 40% that are caused by tiredness.
Driver Alert is based on a
computerized wristband. The device, worn by drivers, gives out a sound about
every four minutes during a car journey. After each sound the driver must
respond by squeezing the steering wheel (方向盘). A sensor in the wristband detects this pressing action and
measures the time between the sound and the driver’s response.
Tiredness is directly related to a
driver’s response time. Usually a watchful driver would take about 400
milliseconds to respond, but once that falls to more than 500 milliseconds, it
suggests that the driver is getting sleepy.
In such cases the device gives out
more regular and louder sounds, showing that the driver should ou0en a window
or stop for a rest. If the driver’s continues to slow down, the sounds become
more frequent until a nonstop alarm warns that the driver must stop as soon as
possible.
The device has been delivered to
the department’s laboratories for testing. If these tests, scheduled for six
months’ time, are successful, the makers will bring the product to market
within about a year.
