Question

    The woman was terrified. What could she do? She dialed 999.The emergency call operator (接线员) Robert Naylor answered the call immediately.

“Please help me! It’s in my bathroom!” the woman shouted.

Her voice suddenly got louder. “It’s moving!” she screamed.

“What is it that’s moving?” Robert asked calmly.

“A spider (蜘蛛)!” the woman yelled back at him.

Robert believes that a significant number of the calls he answers are not emergencies. The actual figure across the country is close to 75%.

Firstly, there are “silent calls”. The emergency number is dialed, but when an operator answers, no one actually speaks. Often it’s a small child or even a pet, who has been playing with a phone and has accidentally rung the emergency number. More commonly these days, they are pocket calls from mobile phones. “We sometimes hear some odd conversations!” Robert says. “But we have to listen to decide whether it’s a real emergency or not”.

Then there are “joke calls”, often from teenagers. An operator answers the phone and the caller immediately hangs up. Robert believes these are declining, as there are far fewer public payphones these days.” “People are less tempted to make a call when they’re doing it from their own mobile phone and they know we have their number!”

The police always follow up both types of call and there is often no other way than visiting the address where the call came from. It’s a huge waste of money; the average cost of responding a silent or joke call is around £250.

The vast majority of the non-emergency calls, though, are like those from the woman above.

A situation like this isn’t an emergency, at least not one that people like Robert are meant to be dealing with. But this example is far from the worst that people like Robert experience all over the world on a daily basis. What do you think of the following?

● A teenage girl in America called the police because her parents had decorated her room and she didn’t like the color.

● A mother in Italy rang the emergency services when her 16-year-old son refused to get out of bed.

● A Brazilian teenage boy rang and asked the police to remove a video of him from YouTube. In the video, the boy was falling of his bike. He told the police it was “really embarrassing”.

There are many other examples, from complaints about the wrong pizza delivery to people who want to know today’s date. And most of these are from adults. These calls waste more than time and money. “If someone makes a joke call and the police manage to find them, then they can expect a fine of up to £5,000 and, in some cases, a prison sentence, “warns Robert.” But for people whose emergencies aren’t really serious, we simply try to deal with their calls as quickly as possible,” he continues. “The person often quickly realizes their situation isn’t really an emergency and ends up apologizing for calling us. But if someone refuses to listen, then we have to hang up. Someone with a real emergency is probably waiting to speak to us.”

1.The beginning of the passage ________.

A.starts a story B.introduces the topic

C.lists questions D.raises an argument

2.What does the underlined word “declining” probably mean?

A.Losing importance. B.Turning worse.

C.Getting useless. D.Becoming less.

3.Why are there so many non-emergency calls?

A.Operators give excellent service.

B.Callers do not take any responsibilities.

C.Dealing with non-emergency calls costs little.

D.Many do not consider it an improper behavior.

4.Which of the following is the best title for this passage?

A.Who is to blame? B.Types of call

C.Is it an emergency? D.Emergency service

Answer

1.B

2.D

3.D

4.C

【解析】

本文是一篇说明文。主要介绍了人们因为一些小事经常给999打电话的情况，而像Robert这样的接线员不得不接起这些电话来判断这些电话是紧急还是非紧急的。

1.推理判断题。根据文章前六段的内容可知，文章开头陈述了一个女人在浴室发现了一直蜘蛛继而拨打了999电话，想要说明像罗伯特这样的接线员接到的电话都不是紧急情况，这样电话所占比率高达75%，因此这篇文章的开头引出了本文主题。故选B。

2.词义猜测题。根据第八段的Robert believes these are declining, as there are far fewer public payphones these days.” “People are less tempted to make a call when they’re doing it from their own mobile phone and they know we have their number!”（罗伯特认为这些“恶作剧电话”正在下降，因为现在公共收费电话少得多。“当人们用自己的手机打电话时，他们就不那么想打电话了，而且他们知道我们有他们的电话号码!”）可知，从关键词far fewer public payphones和less tempted to make a call可以看出，打“恶作剧电话”的人变少了（becoming less），故选D。

3.推理判断题。根据第七段的内容和最后一段的There are many other examples, from complaints about the wrong pizza delivery to people who want to know today’s date.(还有很多其他的例子，从对送错披萨的抱怨到想知道今天日期的人)可推知，人们因为小事给999打电话说明有那么多非紧急电话的原因是许多人并不认为这是一种不当的行为。故选D。

4.主旨大意题。通读全文及第八段的But we have to listen to decide whether it’s a real emergency or not(但我们必须倾听来决定这是否是一个真正的紧急情况)以及But for people whose emergencies aren’t really serious(但是对于那些紧急情况不是很严重的人来说)和Someone with a real emergency is probably waiting to speak to us.( 可能会有真正紧急的人等着和我们说话)可知，本文主要讲述了人们因为一些小事经常给999打电话的情况，而像Robert这样的接线员不得不接起这些电话来断定电话是紧急还是非紧急的，因此，“紧急吗？”可以是文章最好的标题。故选C。