学术综合英语unit3

Do Traffic Tickets Save Lives?

Study Shows Traffic Tickets Could Save Drivers’ Lives

Lee Dye Pity the poor traffic cop.He’s the last guy you want to see in your rearview mirror when you’re speeding down the highway. Why isn’t he out looking for murderers instead of nailing drivers for minor infractions of the law?

交通罚单能救命吗？

研究显示交通罚单能救司机的命

李·戴哎，这可怜的交警。他是你在高速公路上疾驰时最不愿意在后视镜里看见的人。他为什么不去抓那些杀人犯，却在这儿为了一点儿芝麻大的交通违规对司机们穷追不舍？

Well, according to a major research project by scientists in Canada and California, that cop just might be saving your life. Or the life of someone else.

然而，根据加拿大和加利福尼亚科学家们的一项重要研究，那位警察也许恰恰是在救你的命，或者救别的什么人的命。

The researchers have found that a traffic ticket reduces a driver’s chance of being involved in a fatal accident by a whopping 35 percent, at least for a few weeks. The effect doesn’t last long, however. Within three to four months, the lead foot is back on the pedal and the risk of killing yourself or someone else is back up to where it was before that cop stared you in the eye and wrote out that expensive citation.

研究者们发现一张交通罚单能让司机至少在几周内遭遇重大车祸的概率降低35%。但是这个作用不会持续很长。三四个月后，那只脚又会回到油门儿上去，置自己或别人于死地的危险率又和警察瞪着你开出巨额罚单前一样高了。

The bottom line, according to the research published in the June 28 issue of The Lancet, is that traffic tickets save lives. Maybe thousands of lives, every year. Yet traffic laws are enforced sporadically, almost as if by whim, partly because people just don’t like traffic cops, and there are lots of other things for the government to spend money on than enforcing highway safety laws.

根据6月28日发表在《柳叶刀》上的研究，最根本的一点就是交通罚单能救命。它很可能每年能救成千上万条命。然而交通法规只是零星地被实施，就像心血来潮似的，部分原因是人们不喜欢罚单，而且除了实施高速公路安全法，政府部门还有很多其他地方要花钱The Grim Statistics

That attitude needs to be changed, according to Donald A. Redelmeier of the University of Toronto and Robert J. Tibshirani of Stanford University. Both men are medical researchers, and this isn’t the first time they’ve taken a hard look at highway safety. Their 1998 study caused a stir when they link ed cell phone usage to traffic accidents. Now they’re back, saying traffic tickets are good for your health.

无情的统计数据

多伦多大学的热德尔美尔和斯坦福大学的提波施拉尼认为这种态度需要改变。他们俩都是医学研究者，这已不是他们第一次盯着高速公路安全问题了。他们俩1998年的研究引起了轰动，当时他们认为打手机与交通事故有关联。现在他们又来了，说交通罚单对我们的健康有好处。

They were prodded into this project by some very grim statistics. Each year, more than a million persons die in traffic accidents worldwide. If that many people died of SARS in a year, the public response would probably border on hysteria, but we have come to accept traffic fatalities as a