Car Thieves Could Be Stopped Remotely

Speeding off¹ in a stolen car, the thief thinks he has got a great catch². But he is in a nasty surprise³. The car is fitted with a remote immobilizer, 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 trucks⁴ and specialist vehicles used on construction sites. But remote immobilization technology could soon start to trickle down to ordinary cars⁵, 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 incorporates⁶    5    miniature cellphone, a microprocessor and memory, and a GPS⁷ satellite positioning receiver.    6   the car is stolen, a coded cellphone signal will tell the unit to block the vehicle’s engine management system and prevent the engine    7    restarted.

There are even plans for immobilizers    8   shut down vehicles on the moves⁸, though there are fears over the safety implications of such a system.

In the UK, an array of⁹ technical fixes¹⁰ 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 Berkshire¹¹ that is funded in part    10   the motor insurance industry.

He says it would only take him a few minutes to    11   a novice how to steal a car, using a bare minimum of tools¹². But only if the car is more than 10 years old.

Modern cars are a far tougher proposition¹³, as their engine management computer will not

  12   them to start unless they receive a unique ID code beamed out¹⁴ by the ignition key. In the UK, technologies like this    13   achieve a 31 per cent drop in vehicle-related crime¹⁵ since 1997.

But determined criminals are still managing to find other ways to steal cars. Often by getting hold of the owner’s keys in a burglary. In 2000, 12 per cent of vehicles stolen in the UK were taken by using the owner’s keys, which doubles the previous year’s figure.

Remote-controlled immobilization system would   14   a major new obstacle in the criminal’s 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.

词汇：    

immobilizer n．使车辆不能调动的装置
cellphone n．移动电话，手机
ignition / ɪɡˈnɪʃən / n．点火
trickle / "trɪkl / v．慢慢移动
immobilization / ɪˌməʊbəlaɪ"zeɪʃn / n．使车辆不能调动
burglary / "bɜ:ɡlərɪ / n．夜窃行为；盗窃

注释：

1. speed off：超速驾驶

2. catch：捕获物，猎获物

3. nasty：very unpleasant or annoying使人不愉快的；烦人的

4. fleets of trucks：卡车队。 Fleet：a group of vessels or vehicles owned or operated as a unit车队

5. trickle down to ordinary cars：慢慢地用到普通汽车上。 trickle：to move or proceed slowly or bit by bit慢慢地或一点一点地移动或前进

6. incorporate：to cause to merge or combine together into a united whole混合，合并到某一整体中

7. GPS：Global Positioning System全球定位系统

8. vehicles on the move：在行驶中的车辆

9. an array of：一群；一批

10. technical fixes：技术装置

11. Berkshire：a county of south-central England贝克郡，位于英格兰中南部

12. a bare minimum of tools：极少的工具。 bare：just sufficient；mere刚刚充足的；仅仅

13. Modern cars are a far tougher proposition：现代车远没有这么简单（偷盗现代车要困难得多 )。Proposition：a matter to be dealt with；a task任务，要处理的事务。

14. beam out：to emit or transmit发送，传送

15. drop in vehicle-related crime：涉及车辆犯罪案的下降。 drop：decrease下降

空10

A:about B:to C:by D:on

Men Too May Suffer from Domestic Violence

　　Nearly three in 10 men have experienced violence at the hands of¹ an intimate partner during their lifetimes, according to one of the few studies to look   1    domestic violence and health among men.
　　“Many men actually do experience domestic violence, although we don’t hear about it   2    ,” Dr. Robert J. Reid of the University of Washington in Seattle , one of  the study"s authors ，told Reuters Health. “ They often don"t tell    3    we don"t ask. We want to get the message out² to men who    4    experience domestic violence that they are not alone and there are resources available to    5    .”
　　The researchers asked study participants about physical abuse and non-physical    6   , such as threats that made them    7    for³ their safety, controlling behavior (for example, being told who they could associate with and where they could go)，and constant name-calling.
　　Among men 18 to 54 years old, 14.2 percent said they had experienced intimate partner    8    in the past five years, while 6.1 percent reported domestic violence in the previous year.
　　Rates were lower for men 55 and    9    ，with 5.3 percent reporting violence in the past five years and 2.4 percent having experienced it in the past 12 months.
　　Overall, 30.5 percent of men younger than 55 and 26.5 percent of older men said they had been victims of    10    violence at some point in their lives. About half of the violence the men    11    was physical.
　　However, the physical violence men reported wasn’t as harsh as    12    suffered by women in a previous study；20 percent to 40 percent of the men rated it as severe, compared to 61 percent of    13   
　　Men who reported experiencing domestic violence had more emotional and mental health problems   14   those who had not, especially older men, the    15    found.

词汇：

intimate /"ɪntɪmət/ adj.亲密的

name-calling  n.辱骂

abuse /ə"bjuːz/ n.伤害

注释：
1. at the hands of：出自某人之手,从某人那里
2. get the message out：传达这样一个信息
3. fear for：为……担忧

空10

A:normal B:necessary C:domestic D:foreign

A Life with Birds