单选题 Drunken driving, sometimes called America"s socially accepted form of murder, has become a national epidemic. Every hour of every day about three Americans on average are killed by drunken drivers, adding up an incredible 350,000 over the past decade. A drunken driver is usually defined as one with a 0.10 blood alcohol content or roughly three beers, glasses of wine or shots of whisky drunk within two hours. Heavy drinking used to be an acceptable part of the American alcohol image and judges were lenient in most courts, but the drunken slaughter has recently caused so many well-publicized tragedies, especially involving young children, that public opinion is no longer so tolerant.
Twenty states have raised the legal drinking age to 21, reversing a trend in the 1960s to reduce it to 18. After New Jersey lowered it to 18, the number of people killed by 18 to 20-year-old drivers more than doubled, so the state recently upped it back to 21.
Reformers, however, fear raising the drinking age will have little effect unless accompanied by educational programs to help young people to develop "responsible attitudes" about drinking and teach them to resist peer pressure to drink.
Tough new laws have led to increased arrests and in many areas already, to a marked decline in fatalities. Some states are also penalizing bars for serving customers too many drinks.
As the fatalities continue to occur daily in every state, some Americans are even beginning to speak well of the 13 years" national prohibition of alcohol that began in 1919, which President Hoover called the "noble experiment". They forget that legal prohibition didn"t stop drinking, but encouraged political corruption and organized crime. As with the booming drug trade generally, there is no easy solution.
单选题 Which of the following sentences best concludes the main idea of this passage?
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 本文主要讲的是酒后驾车在美国很泛滥,成为美国社会一个难以解决的社会问题。D项最能概括本文大意。
单选题 Which of the following four drivers can be defined as an illegal driver?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 根据第三段第一句可知,美国的二十个州已经把合法饮酒的年龄提高到21岁,改变了60年代把合法饮酒年龄降到18岁的风潮。所以“16岁的男孩饮酒后开车是非法的”。故选A。
单选题 In reformers" opinion, ______ is the most effective way to stop youngsters from drinking alcohol.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 根据第四段可知,专家认为通过教育措施来培养年轻人对饮酒负责任的态度并教导他们如何去抵抗同伴饮酒的压力是更为有效的。故选C。
单选题 The rule that only people above 21 years of age can drink ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 根据第三段最后一句中可知,60年代以前合法饮酒的年龄是2l岁。
单选题 What is the author"s attitude toward all the laws against drunken driving?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 根据最后一段最后一句可知,作者对针对酒后驾车的法律所能起到的作用持悲观态度。