【高级听力】（文末附视频）​Never Use Your Phone When Pumping Gas

Never Use Your Phone When Pumping Gas

《文 末 附 视 频》

This may not be a word-for-word transcript.

Get this: The average person spends about 4 hours a day on their phone. That means in a single week, our eyes are glued to the screen for over an entire day. While there’s nothing wrong with a little screen time every now and then, there are some places where your phone should stay in your pocket. No, I’m not just talking about behind the wheel – that’s obvious. No texting, vlogging, nose-picking, or anything else that involves your eyes not being on the road. But have you ever been texting your BFF as you got in the car and forgot you left your coffee on the roof? (If I had a nickel…)

Imagine something like that, and you might have an idea why so many gas stations have signs up warning customers to stay off their phones as they’re pumping gas. Wait, I thought it was because the device can shoot out radio waves or sparks and catch the gas on fire? Swing and a miss – that’s a common misconception. They put these signs up to keep distracted drivers from pulling away from the pump with the nozzle still attached. When that happens, you risk gas leaking out all over the place, and then there’s the chance of it lighting up. Not to mention, gas fumes are toxic and can really wreak havoc on a person’s health! 

Fortunately, this isn’t as much of a threat as it perhaps used to be. Most modern gas pumps feature breakaway nozzles that will seal the pump if they’re pulled on too hard. This prevents any gasoline from escaping, thus turning a significant hazard into nothing more than a minor embarrassment for the driver and a major inconvenience for the gas station owner and employees. It happens a lot more than you might think. A gas station owner in Maryland said they go through about one nozzle a month after losing them to distracted drivers. Some people will drive for miles, never realizing that their car has suddenly sprouted a tail. 

Serious accidents are rare, but the potential for danger exists all the same. And either way, the driver, or at least their insurance company, is still responsible for any equipment they break. If the driver’s lucky, they’ll only need to pay for the breakaway mechanism to be replaced. If the nozzle gets damaged, though, things can get much more expensive, like up to 400 bucks. Gas station owners might also demand compensation for any business they lost the whole time the pump was out of order. Sure, a few hundred bucks isn’t the worst thing that distracted driving can cost you. But it’s a hefty price to pay just because you forgot to take the nozzle out of your car as you were checking your likes on that cute selfie you posted today. So, just wait until you get where you’re going before you whip the phone out. Oh yeah, and make sure your car isn’t attached to anything you don’t want to bring with you.

Now, if you’ve ever been on a plane, you’ve probably been told to turn off your devices before takeoff. At the very least, most airlines require you to switch your phone to airplane mode. That handy little button disables most wireless functions, turning your tablet into not much more than an expensive glowing clipboard. There’s also a good chance you never took this ban too seriously. It’s not like your email is going to turn the engines off or throw the plane’s radar out of whack, right?

Well, no, it won’t, but they didn’t just pull this No Phone rule out of their hats. For starters, the signals produced by wireless devices can interfere with the plane’s electronics. While the effects are minimal, they can mess with some of the aircraft’s more sensitive instruments, such as the altimeter. This can be dangerous if the plane is taking off or landing in less-than-ideal conditions. Now, I’ve never landed a plane before, but if Windows Flight Simulator is any indication, then the maneuver isn’t exactly what you’d call simple. If my flight’s coming in on a foggy night, I want to know the people in the cockpit have full use of every tool at their disposal.

This phone interference isn’t too much of a problem anymore thanks to modern technology, but it was a major concern in the 1990s. That’s back when the cellphone was just starting to become mainstream. Devices from that era were notorious for their ability to interfere with nearby electronics, and that was a risk airlines weren’t willing to take. I mean, when you’re in a giant pressurized aluminum tube hurtling through the sky at 500 miles per hour, “risk” is something you like to keep entirely out of your vocabulary, especially when it’s avoidable.

There’s also the issue of radio waves interfering with a plane’s communication. Again, it’s nothing too dramatic. Radio transmissions aren’t going to dissolve into static because you were streaming the big game. But that doesn’t mean cell signals have no effect. Pilots will often hear a repeated clicking sound when their passengers are on the phone. It may not seem like much, but it’s an unwanted distraction and can make it hard to understand transmissions from the ground control or other planes in the area. Flying might be one of the safest ways to travel, but if distracted driving is terrible, then distracted flying has to be worse. 

The third reason why you’re asked to turn off your phone on the plane has to do with your wireless carrier. You see, cell towers were designed around some basic assumption about where their users are going to be located. Thousands of feet in the air close to the speed of sound was not one of them. Wireless networks rely on an extremely complicated system of computers to make sure your call is routed through the correct tower. The system works fine at average highway speeds, but most airliners aren’t cruising along at a leisurely 50 mph. (Add one more zero to that, and then you’ll be in the ballpark.) That’s why they can pass through the radius of several towers in a matter of minutes.

With over a hundred passengers on a typical flight, it’s not that hard for one plane to disrupt service in the area around it. Multiply that number by 2,000 (the number of takeoffs and landings some of the world’s busiest airports see in a day), and you’ll understand why it’s the FCC instead of the FAA that restricts the use of cellphones on aircraft.

While this is more of an inconvenience than a hazard, the danger factor goes up when it comes to emergency services. If you live in North America, you know to dial 911 when you need help ASAP. But what happens if you can’t get through or the call drops? Suddenly, service interruptions don’t seem so trivial, do they? The good news is, these risks are all fairly remote, and there’s never been a major accident caused by someone using their phone on a plane. But the possibility does still exist, and it’s always best avoided.

Speaking of emergencies, here’s another No Phone Zone you’ve probably heard of but might be surprised by the reasons behind it. Let’s say your community softball team got a little overzealous one day, and you managed to sprain your wrist sliding headfirst into home base. Nice try at an epic dive, but now you gotta go to the hospital. The doctors have a look at you, don’t think there’s any serious irreversible damage, and inform you that you’ll have full use of your hand in about a month. You decide it might be a good idea to let your family know that you’re OK, so you reach for your phone with your one working hand. That’s when you notice a large sign saying No Cellphones. Uh-oh, what do you do? If you’re like most people, you ignore and start dialing away. But you might want to think twice about that. Sure, you’re probably fine having your phone out in the waiting room. But if the staff catches you sneaking in a call or text elsewhere, chances are they’ll sternly remind you of the sign you just blatantly ignored. And that’s because studies have shown that electronic devices can tamper with some of the more sensitive hospital equipment.

Back in 2007, researchers in the Netherlands tested the effects cellphones had on 61 different medical devices. Almost half the cases resulted in the device malfunctioning in some way. Monitoring equipment reported incorrect information, and others stopped working entirely. Not only were some of the errors dangerous, but modern medicine relies on doctors having accurate information about their patients. Even a relatively minor mishap can spell disaster if it isn’t caught in time. The scientists concluded that 3 feet was far enough away to be safe. Although they do recommend keeping mobile phones out of the room entirely just to be on the super safe side. 

So, next time you’re filling up your car, getting on a plane, or apologizing to the team for your knucklehead attempt at softball glory, make sure to turn your phone off before you do. Come on, you already spend 28 hours a week on that thing – it might be nice to have a little break from it!

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