高考英語閱讀訓練（050）

Which is safer ── staying at home, traveling to work on public transport, or working at 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 that 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 was caused by tons of ammonium nitrate, which is safe unless stored in a 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 r

【高考英語閱讀訓練050】相關文章：

韓信傳閱讀訓練03-03

高考階段訓練計劃09-05

成人高考專升本英語閱讀題鞏固練習08-16

《陳涉世家》閱讀訓練02-27

和凝傳閱讀訓練02-26

足球訓練高考作文11-25

《大腦》說明文閱讀訓練及答案06-15

12月英語六級長篇閱讀訓練題及答案解析01-03

高考英語作文02-04

高考英語作文01-06