Page 102 - SpringBoard_ELD_Grade8_Flipbook

interpret the text using Close reading
Learning Targets
• Explain ideas and identify evidence through a close reading of the text.
• Make inferences and draw conclusions based on a close reading of the text.
Read and annotate
Read “Cellphones and driving: As dangerous as we think?” and annotate the text as you read.
■ Use the My Notes area to write questions or ideas you have about the article.
■ Underline specific evidence that supports the idea that cellphones cause
accidents.
■ Put a star next to the evidence you think is strongest.
■ Put exclamation marks next to challenging passages or information.
■ Circle unknown words and phrases.
ACtiVitY 3.3
My notes
Article
Cellphones and driving:
A s a g en o
d n r us
as we thi k?
Despite calls for cellphone bans, there’s no conclusive data on handheld devices and safe driving
March 26, 2012 | By Matthew Walberg, Chicago Tribune reporter
1 A bill pending in Springfield would ban all drivers in Illinois from using handheld cellphones in Illinois. An ordinance being considered in Evanston would go further and prohibit motorists in that town from talking on cellphones of any kind—including hands-free.
2 It’s a matter of safety, proponents of both measures say.
3 But two decades of research done in the U.S. and abroad have not yielded
conclusive data about the impact cellphones have on driving safety, it appears.
Nor is there a consensus that hands-free devices make for safer driving than handheld cellphones.
4 In theory, the effect of cellphones on driver performance should be relatively easy to determine: Compare crash data against phone records of drivers involved
in accidents. But phone records are not easily obtained in the United States, forcing researchers in this country to find less direct ways to analyze the danger of cellphone distraction. The issue is further clouded because auto accidents overall have been decreasing, even as cellphones become more common.
ordinance: statute; law
conclusive: definitive; clear consensus: general agreement
Unit 2 • The Challenge of Utopia • Part 3: Cellphones and driving: As dangerous as we think? 79
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