Listen to this news report on driving and age and choose the option a, b or c which best completes the sentences below. 0 is an example.
0 Example:
In the accident the reporter talks about the driver was
a) 68 years old.
b) a young girl.
c) reversing.
1 The man interviewed
a) hardly ever has problems to stay focused when driving.
b) sometimes mistakes the car pedals.
c) thinks old age is sometimes a serious problem.
2 This man
a) doesn’t drive unless he has to.
b) drives as much as when he was younger.
c) usually drives around 20,000 km (clicks) a month.
3 The interviewer
a) says the minimum age to get a driving licence is 16.
b) says the maximum age to get a driving licence is 80.
c) wants the minimum age to get a driving licence to be 18.
4 The man interviewed
a) knows his ideas are unpopular.
b) thinks drivers in their 60’s and 70’s are really dangerous.
c) thinks older people are usually the victims of accidents.
5 The first woman interviewed
a) considers elderly people know their limits.
b) says no senior drivers are involved in accidents.
c) thinks adults who drink are the real problem.
6 The second woman interviewed knows … who voluntarily gave up driving.
a) one person
b) two people
c) three people
7 The person with the … problem was angry about having to give up driving.
a) vision
b) leg
c) heart
Hi I'm Marcy Markusa. The question of how to best monitor the abilities of senior drivers is top of mind again, after a recent accident where an 86 year old man seriously injured a young girl. He was backing up in a parking lot. It’s a touchy subject because for many seniors, being able to drive is critical to their independence. We asked reporter Christopher Read to talk to senior drivers about senior drivers. Let’s listen to what he found out.
Do you think the issue of older drivers deserves as much scrutiny as it tends to get?
In some cases, yes. I know some older drivers for some reason don’t stay focused and when they do that, they forget that the brake pedal isn’t the gas pedal and invariably they get into trouble.
Do you mind me asking, how old are you?
Seventy-seven.
How has your driving ability changed with age?
I wanna do it less. I travelled a lot in my time, sometimes 20,000 clicks a month and now, I only like to drive where I’m going if there’s a decent reason.
In our society we can’t get a licence until we’re sixteen, which you know is a kind of ageism, which is accepted, so why not do the reverse, you know, set an age at which everyone’s licence is automatically re-tested, like they do it in Ontario at 80, what do you think about that?
Well I feel a little bit like a traitor here but I do believe that when we get up around the 60’s and 70’s we should be tested because it’s not just our lives at stake here, we can do some very, very bad harm.
The attention should be on teenage drivers who are drinking or coming from parties. If you watched the news, the list of accidents, it was least with senior drivers.
Has your driving ability changed with age do you think?
No. But I recognize my age and if it’s stormy or late at night, I don’t go out. I think that older drivers have to recognize the weather and the conditions.
Do you know people in your own life who have had to get re-tested or who have had their licence taken away?
Yes, because of ill health. I have a friend who gave up her licence herself. She didn’t do it because of the doctor, because she lost her peripheral vision and so she just gave up her licence. I had another friend who had to give up her licence because her legs, they said her legs weren’t working properly for her to control a car. And I had another friend that had to give it up because of heart problems.
And how did they take that?
Two of them were fine and the other one was very angry. The person with the heart problem was the one that was angry about it.
KEY:
1C 2A 3A 4A 5A 6A 7C
