单选题
Speeding off(超速行驶) in a stolen car, the thief thinks he has got a great catch. But he is in a nasty surprise. The car is fitted with a remote immobilizer(使车辆不能调动的装置), and a radio signal from a control center miles away will ensure that once the thief switches the engine 1 , he will not be able to start it again. For now, such devices 2 only available for fleets of trucks and specialist vehicles used on construction sites. But remote immobilization(使车辆不能调动) technology could soon start to trickle (慢慢地移动) down to ordinary cars, and 3 be available to ordinary cars in the UK 4 two months. The idea goes like this. A control box fitted to the car incorporates 5 iniature cellphone(移动电话，手机), a microprocessor and memory, and a GPS satellite positioning receiver. 6 the car is stolen, a coded cellphone signal will tell the unit to block the vehicles engine management system and prevent the engine 7 restarted. There are even plans for immobilizers 8 shut down vehicles on the move, though there are fears over the safety implications of such a system. In the UK, an array of technical fixes is already making 9 harder for car thieves. The pattern of vehicles crime has changed, says Martyn Randall of Thatcham, a security research organization based in Berkshire that is funded in part 10 the motor insurance industry. He says it would only take him a few minutes to 11 a novice(新手，初学者) how to steal a car using a bare minimum of tools. But only if the car is more than 10 years old. Modern cars are a far tougher(艰苦的) proposition(任务), as their engine management computer will not 12 them to start unless they receive a unique ID code beamed out by the ignition(点火) key. In the UK, technologies like this 13 achieve a 31 percent drop in vehicle-related crime since 1997. But determined criminals are still managing to find other ways to steal cars. Often by getting hold of the owners keys in a burglary (夜窃行为；盗窃). In 2000, 12 percent of vehicles stolen in the UK were taken using the owners keys double the previous years figure. Remote-controlled immobilization system would 14 a major new obstacle in the criminals way by making such thefts pointless. A group that includes Thatcham, the police, insurance companies and security technology firms have developed standards for a system that could go on the market sooner than the 15 expects.