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  3. Even during the horse and carriage days, traffic in big cities was often heavy. Police officers had to be stationed full time di

Even during the horse and carriage days, traffic in big cities was often heavy. Police officers had to be stationed full time di

admin2013-12-04  29
问题     Even during the horse and carriage days, traffic in big cities was often heavy. Police officers had to be stationed full time directing traffic at busy intersections.
    The world’s first traffic light came into being before the automobile was in use, and traffic consisted only of pedestrians, carriages and wagons. On December 10, 1868, the first traffic lights were installed outside the British Houses of Parliament in London, by the railway engineer J. P. Knight. They resembled railway signals of the time, with signaling arms and red and green gas lamps for night use. The gas lantern was turned with a lever at its base so that the appropriate light faced traffic. Unfortunately, it exploded on 2 January 1869, injuring the policeman who was operating it.
    The modern electric traffic light is an American invention. As early as 1912 in Salt Lake City, Utah, policeman Lester Wire invented the first red-green electric traffic lights. On 5 August 1914, the American Traffic Signal Company installed a traffic signal system. It had two colors, red and green, and a buzzer, based on the design of James Hoge, to provide a warning for color changes. The design by James Hoge allowed police and fire stations to control the signals in case of emergency. The first four-way, three-color traffic light was created by police officer William Potts in Detroit, Michigan in 1920.
    Timers on traffic lights were first seen in Taipei, China, and then brought to the U.S. after an engineer discovered its use. Though uncommon in most American urban areas, timers are still used in some other Western Hemisphere countries. Timers are useful for drivers to plan if there is enough time to attempt to cross the crossroad before the light turns red and the amount of time before the light turns green.
    The colors of the traffic lights are psychologically associated with the message they are meant to transmit. Red is classically seen as a color representing danger or caution.(There are countless phrases and idioms that use "red" as a message of the bad or unknown—"in the red" and "seeing red.")Green, on the other hand, is a reassuring color in most cultures—the color of nature and growth; of harmony, freshness, and fertility. Green has a strong emotional correspondence with the idea of safety, and was intuitively chosen to guide pedestrians responsibly through an intersection.
Which of the following statements about timers is true?
选项 A、They were invented by an American engineer.
B、They are widely used in most American cities.
C、They are quite necessary for directing traffic.
D、They help drivers make decisions at the crossroads.
答案D
解析 第四段最后一句说倒计时信号灯能够帮助司机确定在变成红灯之前是否有足够的时间穿过十字路口，或者还有多长时间会变成绿灯。说明它们能够帮助司机在十字路口处做出决定，是加速通行还是减速等候。
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