Pushbike（自行车） Peril （危险）

　　Low speed bicycle crashes can badly injure--or even kill--children if they fall onto the ends of the handlebars so a team of engineers is redesigning the humble handlebar in a bid to make it safer.
　　Kristy Arbogast, a bioengineer at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, began the project with her colleagues after a study of serious abdominal injuries in children in the past 30 years showed that mol-e than a third were caused by bicycle accidents．”the task was to identify how the injuries occurred and come up with some countermeasures．” she says.
　　By interviewing the children and their parents，Arbogast and her team were able to　reconstruct many of the accidents and identified a common mechanism responsible for serious injures. They discovered that most occur when children hit an obstacle at a slow speed，causing them to topple over. To maintain their balance they turn the handlebars through 90degrees——but their momentum forces them into the end of the handlebars The bike then falls over and the other end of the handlebars hits the ground，ramming it into their abdomen.
　　The solution the group came up with is a handgrip fitted with a spring and damping system. The spring absorbs up to 50 per cent of the forces transmitted through the handlebars in an impact，The group hopes to commercialize the device，which should add only a few dollars to the cost of a bike. “But our task has been one of education because up until now, bicycle manufacturer were unaware of the problem，”says Arbogast.
　　The team has also approached the US Consumer Product Safety Commission to try to persuade manufacturers to adopt the new design A decision is expected later this year．
 
词汇：来源：考试大
handlebar n(常用复数)(自行车等的)车把   
abdominal adj 腹部的      
redesign v 重新设计来源：考试大
bioengineer  n 生物工程师   
reconstruct  vt．重建；重构来源：考试大
countermeasure  n 对策   
abdomen  n 膜，腹部来源：考试大
momentum  n冲力          
handgrip  n握柄来源：考试大
damping  adj  制动的．减速的，缓冲的 
commercialize vt 使商品化来源：考试大
 
练习：来源：考试大
1 According to the passage，SOme engineers are trying to improve the handlebars because
A)they are not noble enough，
B)they may kill children
C)they are likely to crash
D)they make the bike move at a low speed
 
2 In paragraph 2, the author mentions a study of serious abdominal injuries
A)to discuss how abdominal injuries in children occur,来源：考试大
B)to show that more than a third injuries were caused by bicycle accidents.
C)to point out what the countermeasures can be.
D)to tell us why Kristy Arbogast began the project．
 
3 Paragraph 3 mainly discusses
A)why the children and their parents were interviewed
B)when the children tom the handlebars through 90 degrees，
C)what causes the children to topple over
D)how serious injuries occur．
 
4 The passage implies that
A)it is not easy to persuade manufacturers to adopt the new design.
B)the team of engineers has not found any countermeasures来源：考试大
C)children like to ride bicycles at a very low speed．
D)a lot of children were killed in bicycle accidents in the past 30 years．
 
5 The new handgrip works in which of the following ways?
A)It call be commercialized．
B)It reduces the dangerous forces in bicycle accidents来源：考试大
C)It adds a few dollars to the cost of a bike
D)It changes the direction of the handlebars in all impact．