China's long-awaited rules on school bus safety finally came into force on Tuesday, including a list of ways aimed at reducing the risk of accident.
Among the biggest changes is that buses carrying students will be given priority(优先权) in traffic, while companies and drivers will need licenses to offer school transport services.
Officials have spent more than four months making the rules, during which time the country has been shocked by several big crashes because of overcrowded school buses.
The latest accident happened on Monday in Yangchun, Guangdong province, in which three kindergarten pupils were killed and 14 others injured.
Rules and funding
In the new rules, a school bus is considered as a vehicle with more than seven seats that is transporting children receiving the State's nine-year compulsory education (ages 6 to 15) to or from school. This can also be for preschoolers(学龄前儿童) if a parent is unable to take them to or from kindergarten(幼儿园).
School buses must also operate in routes marked in the map by governments to ensure safety.
Punishment
Companies and bus drivers who fail to meet the rules face the punishment.
Drivers against the rules will be fined 200 yuan ($32) and vehicles will be taken away from its owner if they have been used as an unlicensed school bus.
小题1:New safety rules for school buses can ________.
A.make the students have a school bus |
B.make fewer accident |
C.make the school bus bigger |
D.punish the parents |
小题2:The accident happened usually because ________.
A.there were more students than there should be in the bus |
B.the road is not wide enough |
C.there were not any rule at first |
D.companies and drivers faced no punishment |
小题3:Which of the following is Not true?
A.When a truck and a school bus meet, the school bus can go first. |
B.The students (ages 3—5) mustn’t take school bus according to the rules. |
C.Those who break the rules will be fined two hundred yuan. |
D.The school bus has at least 7 seats. |
小题4:The passage mainly talks about ________.
A.the accident in Guangdong |
B.the school bus safety rules |
C.how to punish the drivers |
D.what a school bus is like |
小题5:A school bus must go _______.
A.different ways every day |
B.after other buses |
C.with all the students |
D.the same way all the days |