首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
The (Non) Risks of Mobile Phones Do mobile phones cause explosions at petrol stations? That question has just been exhaustiv
The (Non) Risks of Mobile Phones Do mobile phones cause explosions at petrol stations? That question has just been exhaustiv
admin
2013-07-11
64
问题
The (Non) Risks of Mobile Phones
Do mobile phones cause explosions at petrol stations? That question has just been exhaustively answered by Adam Burgess, a researcher at the University of Kent, in England. Oddly, however, Dr.Burgess is not a physicist, but a sociologist. For the concern rests not on scientific evidence of any danger, but is instead the result of sociological factors: it is an urban myth, supported and propagated by official sources, but no less a myth for that. Dr. Burgess presented his findings this week at the annual conference of the British Sociological Association.
Mobile phones started to become widespread in the late 1980s, when the oil industry was in the middle of a concerted safety drive, Dr. Burgess notes. This was, in large part, a response to the Piper Alpha disaster in 1988, when 167 people died in an explosion on an Oil platform off the Scottish coast. The safety drive did not apply merely to offshore operations, employees at some British oil-company offices are now required to use handrails while walking up and down stairs, for example. So nobody questioned the precautionary ban on the use of mobile phones at petrol stations. The worry was that an electrical spark might ignite explosive fumes.
By the late 1990s, however, phone makers having conducted their own research realised that there was no danger of phones causing explosions since they could not generate the required sparks. But it was too late. The myth had taken hold.
One problem, says Dr. Burgess, is that the number of petrol-station fires increased in the late 1990s, just as mobile phones were proliferating. Richard Coates, BP’s fire-safety adviser, investigated many of the 243 such fires that occurred around the world between 1993 and 2004. He concluded that most were indeed caused by sparks igniting petrol vapour, but the sparks themselves were the result of static electricity, not electrical equipment. Most drivers will have experienced a mild electric shock when climbing out of their vehicles. It is caused by friction between driver and seat, with the result that both end up electrically charged. When the driver touches the metal frame of the vehicle, the result is sometimes a spark.
A further complication was the rise of the internet, where hoax memos, many claiming to originate from oil companies, warned of the danger of using mobile phones in petrol stations. Such memos generally explain static fires quite accurately, but mistakenly attribute them to mobile phones. Official denials, says Dr. Burgess, simply inflame the suspicions of conspiracy theorists.
Despite the lack of evidence that mobile phones can cause explosions, bans remain in place around the world, though the rules vary widely. For Dr. Burgess, such concerns are part of a broader pattern of unease about mobile phones. There is a curious discrepancy, he notes, between the way that such phones have become indispensable, and the fact that they are also vaguely considered to be dangerous. The safety of mobile phones would appear to be not so much the province of the hard science of physics, as of the soft science of sociology.
According to the experts, explosions at petrol stations______.
选项
A、were in fact not caused by sparks
B、were unrelated to electrical equipment
C、resulted from vehicle drivers’ carelessness
D、should be the focus of sociology instead of physics
答案
B
解析
本题考查具体细节。第四段第三句提到专家的结论是,大部分火灾确实是由火花引起,但是火花本身是由静电而不是电气设备引起。由此可知[B]是正确项,同时也排除了[A]。该段提到司机只是为了解释静电的产生过程。排除[C]。[D]将末段末句中的“移动电话的安全问题”偷换成“加油站的爆炸”,前者才可能是社会学而非物理学关注的对象。排除[D]。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/1e4O777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
ThingstobeTaughtinEverySchoolⅠ.Introduction:Importanceofstudents’abilitytodealwiththerealworld.A.Speake
The______isamajorriverofNorthAmerica.
WhichofthefollowingstatementsisNOTtrue?
HowtoDevelopanOutlineⅠ.ApreliminaryoutlineA.Definition:a/an【1】______listoftopicsandsubtopicscoveredint
Crimehasitsowncycles,amagazinere-portedsomeyearsbefore.Policerecordsthat【M1】______werestudiedforfiveyearsov
Americanthisyearwillswallow15,000tonsdrugsofaspirin,oneofsafestandmosteffectiveinventedbyman.【M1】______
Why,youmaywonder,shouldspidersbeourfriends?Becausetheyprotectsomanyinsects,andinsectsinclude【M1】______someof
In1896aGeorgiacouplesuingfordamagesintheaccidentaldeathoftheirtwoyearoldwastoldthatsincethechildhadmade
MannersnowadaysinmetropolitancitieslikeLondonarepracticallynon-existent.Itisnothingforabig,strongschoolboytoe
Law-and-orderisthelongest-runningandprobablythebest-lovepolitical(1)_____issueinU.S.history.Yetitispainfullya
随机试题
在考生文件夹下打开文档WORD.DOCX,按照要求完成下列操作并以该文件名(WORD.DOCX)保存文件。按照参考样式“word参考样式.jpg”完成设置和制作。具体要求如下:将文档“附:统计数据”后面的内容转换成2列9行的表格,为表格设置样式;将
患儿女,6个月,因生后至今不能抬头,来院。系GPz,双胎之小,34孕周,产重2kg,出生时否认窒息抢救史,新生儿期无高胆红素血症史。双胎之大生后2个月因肺炎夭折。体检:头围40cm,神清,目光呆滞,不能追视,对玩具无反应,前囟1cm×1cm,平软,张力不高
履行《安全生产法》所规定的职责,不允许存在超越法律之上的或逃避、抗拒《安全生产法》所规定的监督管理,这体现了安全生产监督监察具有( )。
会计的最基本职能是()。
咨询员在摄入性谈话中,除()之外,不能讲任何题外的话。
党员的党龄,从支部大会通过他为预备党员之日算起。()
2000年该兵团棉花产量是()。2001~2006年该兵团棉花的平均产量是()万吨。
唐朝时。从中国传到大食的手工技术是()。
“眉开眼笑”、“怒目而视”等词汇涉及的是
1984年10月中共十二届三中全会至1987年中共十三大召开前夕,我国经济体制改革在以下哪些方面取得了重要进展
最新回复
(
0
)