单选题
Which is safer--staying at home, traveling to work
on public transport, or working in the office? Surprisingly, each of these
carries the same risk, which is very low: However, what about flying compared to
working in the chemical industry? Unfortunately, the former is 65 times riskier
than the latter! In fact, the accident rate of workers in the chemical industry
is less than that of almost any of human activity, and almost as safe as staying
at home. The trouble with the chemical industry is that when
things go wrong they often cause death to those living nearby. It is this which
makes chemical accidents so newsworthy. Fortunately, they are extremely rare.
The most famous ones happened at Texas City (1947), Flixborough (1974), Seveso
(1976), Pemex (1984) and Bhopal (1984). Some of these are
always in the minds of the people even though the loss of life was small. No one
died at Seveso, and only 28 workers at Flixborough. The worst accident of all
was Bhopal, where up to 3,000 were killed. The Texas City explosion of
fertilizer killed 552. The Pemex fire at a storage plant for natural gas in the
suburbs of Mexico City took 542 lives, just a month before the unfortunate event
at Bhopal. Some experts have discussed these accidents and used
each accident to illustrate a particular danger. Thus the Texas City explosion
was caused by tons of ammonium nitrate, which is safe unless stored in great
quantity. The Flixborough fireball was the fault of management, which took risks
to keep production going during essential repairs. The Seveso accident shows
what happens if the local authorities lack knowledge of the danger on their
doorstep. When the poisonous gas drifted over the town, local leaders were
incapable of taking effective action. The Pemex fire was made worse by an
overloaded site in an overcrowded suburb. The fire set off a chain reaction of
exploding storage tanks. Yet, by a miracle, the two largest tanks did not
explode. Had these caught fire, then 3,000 strong rescue team and fire fighters
would all have died.
单选题
Which of the following statements is true? ______
A. Working at the office is safer than staying at home.
B. Travelling to work on public transport is safer than working at the
office.
C. Staying at home is safer than working in the chemical industry.
D. Working in the chemical industry is safer than traveling by
air.
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】
单选题
Chemical accidents are usually important enough to be reported as news
because ______.
A. they are very rare
B. they often cause loss of life
C. they always occur in big cities
D. they arouse the interest of all the readers
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】
单选题
According to the passage, the chemical accident that caused by the
fault of management happened at ______.
A. Texas city
B. Flixborough
C. Seveso
D. Mexico City
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】
单选题
From the passage we know that ammonium nitrate is a kind of ______.
A. natural gas, which can easily catch fire
B. fertilizer, which can't be stored in a great quantity
C. poisonous substance, which can't be used in overcrowded areas
D. fuel, which is stored in large tanks
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】
单选题
From the discussion among some experts we may conclude that ______.
A. to avoid any accidents we should not repair the facilities in chemical
industry
B. the local authorities should not be concerned with the production of the
chemical industry
C. all these accidents could have been avoided or controlled if effective
measure had been taken
D. natural gas stored in very large tanks is always safe