单选题 In some ways, the United States has made spectacular progress. Fires no longer destroy 18,000 buildings as they did in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, or kill half a town of 2,400 people, as they did the same night in Peshtigo, Wisconsin. Other than the Beverly Hill Supper Club fire in Kentucky, in 1977, it has been four decades since more than 100 Americans died in a fire.
But even with such successes, the United States still has one of the worst fire death rates in the world. Safety experts say the problem is neither money nor technology, but the indifference of a country that just will not take fires seriously enough.
American fire departments are some of the world"s fastest and best equipped. They have to be. The United States has twice Japan"s population, and 40 times as many fires. It spends far less on preventing fires than on fighting them. American fire-safety lessons are aimed almost entirely at children, who die in disproportionately large numbers in fires but whom, contrary to popular myth, start very few of them.
Experts say the fatal error is an attitude that fires are not really anyone"s fault. That is not so in other countries, where both public education and the law treat fires as either a personal failing or a crime. Japan has many wood houses, of the estimated 48 fires in world history, that burned more than 10,000 buildings, Japan has had 27. Penalties for causing a severe fire by negligence can be as high as life imprisonment.
In the United States, most education dollars are spent in elementary schools. But the lessons are aimed at too limited an audience, just 9 percent of all fire deaths are caused by children playing with matches.
The United States continues to rely more on technology than laws or social pressure. There are smoke detectors in 85 percent of all homes. Some local building codes now require home sprinklers. New heaters and irons shut themselves off if they are tipped.

单选题 The reason why so many Americans die in fires is that ______.

单选题 Although the fire death rate has declined, the United States ______.

单选题 It can be inferred from the passage that ______.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 答案见短文的第五段：most education dollars are spent in elementary schools，然而the lessons are aimed at too limited an audience，just 9 percent of all fire deaths are caused by children playing with matches，这里使用了too limited和just 9 percent，它暗示了成年人也应该受到这方面的教育。故选项A正确。

单选题 In what aspects should the United States learn from Japan?

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 答案见第四段和第六段。在第四段段首提到了attitude(态度)，同时还提到了日本对于发生火灾的不同处理方法：在日本Penalties for causing a severe fire by negligence can be as high as life imprisonment。然而美国的做法则全然不同(见第六段)：The United States continues to rely more on technology than laws or social pressure.可见选项C为正确答案。