Singing Alarms Could Save the Blind
If you cannot see, you may not be able to1 find your way out of a burning building — and that could be fatal. A company in Leeds could change all that2____1____ directional sound alarms capable of guiding you to the exit.
Sound Alert, a company____2____ the University of Leeds, is installing the alarms in a residential home for____3____ people in Sommerset and a resource centre for the blind in Cumbria.____4____ produce a wide range of frequencies that enable the brain to determine where the____5____ is coining from.
Deborah Withington of Sound Alert says that the alarms use most of the frequencies that can be____6____ by humans. “It is a burst of white noise____7____ people say sounds like static on the radio，” she says. “Its life-saving potential is great.”
She conducted an experiment in which people were filmed by thermal-imaging cameras trying to find their way out of3 a large____8____ room. It____9____ them nearly four minutes to find the door____10____ a sound alarm, but only 15 seconds with one.
Withington studies how the brain____11____ sounds at the university. She says that the____12____ of a wide band of frequencies can be pinpointed more easily than the source of a narrow band. Alarms____13____ the same concept have already been installed on emergency vehicles.
The alarms will also include rising or falling frequencies to indicate whether people should go up____14____ down stairs. They were____15____ with the aid of a large grant from British Nuclear Fuels.
詞匯：
directional / d?'rek??nl; da?- / adj.定向的
exit / 'eks?t / n.出口
install / ?n'st?:l / v.安裝
residential / rez?'den??l / adj.居住的
static / 'st?t?k / n.靜電噪聲
potential / p?'ten??l / n.潛力
thermal-imaging熱效應(yīng)成像
pinpoint / 'p?np??nt / v.精確地確定
concept / 'k?nsept / n.概念，觀念
emergency / ?'m??d??ns? / n.緊急情況
grant / grɑ?nt / n.授予物，準(zhǔn)許
注釋?zhuān)?BR> 1.在謂語(yǔ)動(dòng)詞中，不能并列使用兩個(gè)情態(tài)動(dòng)詞，如may和can就不能并列使用。如果由于表達(dá)需要，要同時(shí)用“可能”和“能夠”，就得說(shuō)(寫(xiě))成may be able to。如：
I may be able to come tomorrow, but I cannot promise.
我可能明天來(lái)，但我不可能作出承諾。
2.that指第一句所表達(dá)的意思。
3.... find their way out of ...：意為“找到從出去的路”。
練習(xí)：
1.A without B with C having D selling
2.A run by B changed by C decorated by D criticized by
3.A slow B deaf C blind D lame
4.A Alarms B Alarm C The alarm D The alarms
5.A noise B sound C music D bell
6.A watched B produced C learnt D heard
7.A where B what C that D how
8.A smoked B smoke-filled C filled with smoke D smoke-filling
9.A has taken B takes C took D will take
10.A on B near C without D from
11.A processes B produces C possesses D proceeds
12.A feature B quality C diagram D source
13.A basis on B base on C basing on D based on
14.A or B and C but D otherwise
15.A developed B determined C discovered D delivered