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  3. What would the holidays be without lots of tiny twinkling lights? Less color

What would the holidays be without lots of tiny twinkling lights? Less color

游客2023-12-02  19
问题     What would the holidays be without lots of tiny twinkling lights? Less colorful and festive—but also a lot safer.
    From living rooms to front porches across the country, homeowners are stringing millions of lights on Christmas trees or eaves and decorating their windowsills with electric, battery-operated or traditional candles. But according to the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission, too many are doing so with little regard to the hazards. Last holiday season there were about 200 Christmas tree fires in American homes, caused primarily by faulty lights and resulting in 10 deaths and more than $10 million in property loss, the Commission says. Another 14,000 house fires are started yearly by misplaced or mishandled flame candles, causing 170 deaths and $350 million in property loss. And about 10,000 people are treated at emergency rooms for injuries from falls, cuts or shocks while hanging lights or decorations.
    The biggest causes of holiday fires are "candles and live trees", said Kim Dulic, a Commission spokeswoman. The agency recommends battery-operated candles instead of real or electric, she said, along with fire-resistant artificial trees—or fresh well-watered trees.
    A cut tree is fresh, she said, if the bottom of its trunk is sticky with resin and its needles are hard to pull and don’t break when bent. It is too dry if it sheds a shower of needles when bounced on the ground. A harvested tree should be cut about a half inch from the bottom and put in water within no more than three to six hours, said Rick Dungey, the public relations manager of the National Christmas Tree Association, in Chesterfield, Mo. "If you wait any longer, air molecules get in the trunk and they prevent the tree from siphoning water," Mr. Dungey said, adding that people should water often and never let the water go below the cut end. Once a Christmas tree dries out, it is an accident waiting to happen, said Lorraine Carli, the communications vice president of the National Fire Protection Association, in Quincy, Mass. If ignited, it can be engulfed in seconds.
    The most common cause is electrical—either an overused electrical system or faulty wiring. Brett Brenner, the president of the Electrical Safety Foundation International (ESFI), in Rosslyn, Va., said homeowners should make yearly inspections. "Cracked sockets, frayed or bare wires and loose connections can cause a serious shock or start a fire," he said. Use no more than one extension cord per socket, and string no more than three sets of lights together. Wires should not run under carpets or through windows or doors. He said outdoor outlets should be protected by a ground fault circuit interrupter—a breaker that trips with any interruption or problem with the ground wire. (An interrupter usually needs to be installed when an outlet is near or exposed to water; it generally costs less than $10.)
    John Drengenberg, the consumer affairs director of Underwriters Laboratories, the testing group in Northbrook, III. , said that if lights are certified for indoors only, they must not be used outside; those certified for outdoors, however, can be used inside. No matter the kind, he said, if the bulbs are the screw-in type, there should be no more than 50 per outlet. Outdoor lights, he said, should be hung with plastic clip-on hangers, not metal nails or staples, which can pierce insulation and cause a short. And what about those who don’t take down their outdoor lights until the wisteria is in bloom in May? "You should never leave lights up all year round," Mr. Drengenberg said. "They’re not designed for year-round use."  [br] It can be inferred from Paragraph Five that________.
选项 A、the ESFI inspects household electrical system annually
B、electrical devices for outdoor use are not expensive
C、homeowners do not have the particular electrical knowledge
D、an overloaded electrical system or faulty wiring may lead to disasters
答案 D
解析 推断题。第五段主要提到的是电路方面的问题，第一句中就明确说明，超负荷工作的电路系统和错误的走线是最常见的问题，结合第三句的内容可知，一旦出现这些问题，最容易产生的后果就是火灾，因此[D]为答案，选项中的“overloaded”和原文中的“overused”意思相同。
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