Directions: In this section, there is a short passage with some questions or incomplete statements. Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions or complete the statements in the fewest possible words on the Answer Sheet.
Motorways are, no doubt, the safest roads in the country. Mile for mile, vehicle for vehicle, you are much less likely to be killed or seriously injured than on an ordinary road. On the other hand, if you do have a serious accident on a motorway, fatalities are much more likely to occur than in a comparable accident elsewhere on the roads.
Motorways have no sharp bends, no roundabouts or traffic lights and thus speeds are much greater than on other roads. Though the 70 mph limit is still in force, it is often treated with the contempt that most drivers have for the 30 mph limit applying in built-up areas in Britain. Added to this is the fact that motorway drivers seem to like travelling in convoys with perhaps barely ten metres between each two vehicles. The resulting horrific pileups (involving maybe a hundred vehicles) when one vehicle stops for some reason—mechanical failure, driver error and so on—have become all too familiar through pictures in newspapers or on television. How many of these drivers realize that it takes a car about one hundred metres to brake to a stop from 70 mph? Drivers also seem to think that motorway driving gives them complete immunity from the caprices(反复无常)of the weather. However wet the road is, whatever the visibility in mist or fog, on they plough at ludicrous speeds oblivious of police warnings or speed restrictions until their journey comes to a premature conclusion.
Perhaps one remedy for this motorway madness would be better driver education. At present, learner drivers are barred from motorways and are thus, as far as this kind of driving is concerned, thrown in at the deep end. However, much more efficient policy is required, for it is the duty of the police not only to enforce the law but also to protect the general public from its own folly.
1. What are the general ideas of Para. 1 and Para. 2?
2. At which speed can the drivers drive on the motorways?
3. “______always result in horrific pileups.”
4. What does the sentence “Drivers also seem to ... of the weather” mean?
5. How to remedy the madness of this motorway?
