Questions 1-3
Choose
THREE
letters
A-F
.
Which
THREE
are mentioned by the writer of the passage?
A.
Coding behaviour in terms of a predefined set of categories
B.
Designing an interview as an easy conversation
C.
Working with well-organised data in a closed set of analytical categories
D.
Full of details instead of loads of data in questionnaires
E.
Asking to give open-ended answers in questionnaires
F.
Recording the researching situation and applying note-taking
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TEST 5 – Going Nowhere Fast
THIS is ludicrous! We can talk to people anywhere in the world or fly to meet them in a few hours.
We can even send probes to other planets. But when it comes to getting around our cities, we depend on
systems that have scarcely changed since the days of Gottlieb Daimler.
In recent years, the pollution belched out by millions of vehicles has dominated the debate about
transport. The problem has even persuaded California that home of car culture - to curb traffic growth. But
no matter how green they become, cars are unlikely to get us around crowded cities any faster. And
persuading people to use trains and buses will always be an uphill struggle. Cars, after all, are popular for
very good reasons, as anyone with small children or heavy shopping knows.
So politicians should be trying to lure people out of their cars, not forcing them out. There's certainly
no shortage of alternatives. Perhaps the most attractive is the concept known as personal rapid transit (PRT),
independently invented in the US and Europe in the 1950s.
The idea is to go to one of many stations and hop into a computer-controlled car, which can whisk
you to your destination along a network of guideways. You wouldn't have to share your space with
strangers, and with no traffic lights, pedestrians or parked cars to slow things down, PRT guideways can
carry far more traffic, nonstop, than any inner city road.
It's a wonderful vision, but the odds are stacked against PRT for a number of reasons. The first cars
ran on existing roads, and it was only after they became popular – and after governments started earning
revenue from them-that a road network designed specifically for motor vehicles was built. With PRT, the
infrastructure would have to come first-and that would cost megabucks. What's more, any transport system
that threatened the car's dominance would be up against all those with a stake in maintaining the status quo,
from private car owners to manufacturers and oil multinationals. Even if PRTs were spectacularly
successful in trials, it might not make much difference. Superior technology doesn't always triumph, as the
VHS versus Betamax and Windows versus Apple Mac battles showed.
But "dual-mode" systems might just succeed where PRT seems doomed to fail. The Danish RUF
system envisaged by Palle Jensen, for example, resembles PRT but with one key difference: vehicles have
wheels as well as a slot allowing them to travel on a monorail, so they can drive off the rail onto a normal
road. Once on a road, the occupant would take over from the computer, and the RUF vehicle the term comes
from a Danish saying meaning to "go fast" - would become an electric car.
Build a fast network of guideways in a busy city centre and people would have a strong incentive not
just to use public RUF vehicles, but also to buy their own dual-mode vehicle. Commuters could drive onto
the guideway, sit back and read as they are chauffeured into the city. At work, they would jump out, leaving
their vehicles to park themselves. Unlike PRT, such a system could grow organically, as each network
would serve a large area around it and people nearby could buy into it. And a dual-mode system might even
win the support of car manufacturers, who could easily switch to producing dual-mode vehicles.
Of course, creating a new transport system will not be cheap or easy. But unlike adding a dedicated
bus lane here or extending the underground railway there, an innovative system such as Jensen's could
transform cities.
And it's not just a matter of saving a few minutes a day. According to the Red Cross, more than 30
million people have died in road accidents in the past century-three times the number killed in the First
World War-and the annual death toll is rising. And what's more, the Red Cross believes road accidents will
become the third biggest cause of death and disability by 2020, ahead of diseases such as AIDS and
tuberculosis. Surely we can find a better way to get around?
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