In the past industries had more freedom than they have now, and they did not need to be as careful as they must today. They did not need to worry a lot about the safety of the new products that they developed. They did not have to pay much attention to the health and safety of the 
people who worked for them. Often new products were dangerous for the people who used them; often conditions in the work place had very bad effects on the health of the workers.
Of course sometimes there were real disasters which attracted the attention of governments and which showed need for changes. Also scientists who were doing research into the health of workers sometimes produced information which governments could not ignore. At such times, there were inquiries into the causes of the disaster or the problems. New safety rules were often intr
oduced as a result of these inquiries; however，the new rules 
came too late to protect the people who had died or become seriously ill.
Today many governments have special departments which protect customers and workers. In the U.S., for example, there is a department which tests new airplanes and gives warnings about possible problems. It also makes the rules that aircraft producers must follow. Another department controls the foods and drugs that companies sell. A third department looks at the places where people work, and then reports any companies that are breaking laws which protect the health and safety of workers.
小题1:
According to Paragraph 1, compared with today, industries in the past __________.
A．were controlled less strictly
B．were worse off
C．affected more peoples health
D．put out more unhealthy products.小题2:
It is implied in Paragraph 2 that years ago governments __________.
A．paid much attention to the results of scientific discoveries
B．seldom introduced safety laws before disasters occurred
C．hardly ever looked into the causes of tragedies
D．imposed safety rules as soon as disasters occurred小题3:
The main topic of the passage is __________.
A．industries in the past and at present
B．changes in the development of industries
C．the protection of industrial workers and customers
D．the freedom of industries小题4:
The purpose o
f this passage is to __________.
A．inform
B．criticize
C．entertain
D．persuade
