Zebra crossings - the alternating dark and light stripes on the road surface - are meant to remind drivers that pedestrians may be trying to get across. Unfortunately, they are not very effective. A 1998 study done by the Department of Traffic Planning and Engineering at Sweden's Lund University, revealed that three out of four drivers maintained the same speed or even speeded up as they were approaching a crossing. Even worse? Only 5% stopped even when they saw someone trying to get across.
Now a mother-daughter team in Ahmedabad , India has come up with a clever way to get drivers to pay more attention ---A 3-D zebra crossing with an optical illusion (视错觉) .
Artists Saumya Pandya Thakkar and Shakuntala Pandya were asked to paint the crosswalks by IL&FS, an Indian company that manages the highways in Ahmedabad. The corporation was looking for a creative solution to help the city's residents to cross the busy accident-prone (易出事故的) roads safely. Thakkar and Pandya, who had previously seen images of 3-D zebra crossings that gave drivers the illusion of logs(原木)of wood on the streets in Taizhou, China, decided to test if a similar way would work in India.
Sure enough, in the six months that the 3-D crosswalks have been painted across four of the city's most dangerous highways, there have been no accidents reported! The artists say that while it may appear that the zebra crossing could cause the drivers to brake suddenly and endanger the vehicles behind, such is not the case. Because of the way the human eye works, the illusion is only visible from a distance. As they get closer, the painting looks just like any other ordinary zebra crossing. The creators hope that their smart design will become increasingly common throughout India and perhaps even the world. So let's look forward to it.
32. What can we learn from the first paragraph?
A. Most drivers will slow down at zebra crossings
B Common zebra crossings don't function well
C Drivers have to stop when approaching zebra crossings
D. About 95% of the drivers choose to speed up when approaching zebra crossings
33. Why do drivers seeing the 3-D zebra crossings slow down?
A. Because the drivers consider the safety of pedestrians
B Because the drivers mistake them for logs of wood on the streets
C. Because the drivers are afraid of being fined for breaking the traffic rules
D. Because the drivers don't want to brake suddenly and endanger the vehicles behind
34. The last paragraph is mainly about____
A. the theory of the 3-D zebra crossings
B. the popularity of the 3-D zebra crossings
C. the shortcoming of the 3-D zebra crossings
D. the positive effect of the 3-D zebra crossings
35. What is the author's attitude towards the 3-D zebra crossings?
A. Cautious B. Doubtful C. Approving D. Disapproving