俄羅斯"斑馬"穿越斑馬線 宣傳交通安全
Traffic police in Moscow offered rides on horses and ponies painted as zebras Friday in an attempt to improve road safety and raise awareness among Russia's notoriously careless drivers.
The police dispatched the fake zebras to several different locations in the Russian capital, where officials in orange vests walked them over zebra crossings and handed out flyers to passing drivers.
Some held up rainbow-coloured umbrellas over the painted animals to protect them from the rain, footage aired on television showed.
Russian roads are notoriously dangerous and drivers still rarely give way to pedestrians.
More than 9,500 people were killed and more than 100,000 injured in road accidents in the first six months of 2010, according to official statistics.
Nearly half of all traffic accidents in the country's big cities are caused by cars hitting pedestrians, and a third of those occur on crossings, according to traffic police figures published last month.
Though police officials said that only safe paint would be used on the animals, animal rights activists still fumed over the idea, accusing the police of "treating animals like garbage."
"Children understand that paints are toxic for animals: they can cause internal swelling," the Interfax news agency quoted president of Vita animal rights group Irina Novozhilova as saying.
上週五，莫斯科交通警察讓路人有幸看到用油漆刷成的“斑馬”，此舉旨在改善道路交通安全，讓俄羅斯那些聲名狼藉的粗心司機提高安全意識。
警察讓這些假斑馬前往首都莫斯科的幾處不同地段，穿橘色坎肩的警官帶着它們走過斑馬線，向過往的司機分發傳單。
從電視上播放的片段可以看到，有些人替這些刷過油漆的動物撐起了五顏六色的雨傘，保護它們不受雨淋。
俄羅斯的道路是出了名的危險，司機也很少給行人讓道。
根據官方數據，在2010年前上半年發生的交通事故中，就有9500多人喪生，10萬多人受傷。
根據交通警察上月發佈的數據，在該國大城市發生的所有交通事故中，近一半是汽車撞上行人造成的，其中有三分之一是在穿越馬路時發生的。
儘管警官說只有安全的油漆纔會在動物身上使用，動物權利積極分子依然對這一主意十分惱火，譴責警方“像對待垃圾一樣對待動物”。
俄羅斯國際文傳電訊社援引維塔動物權利保護組織主席艾琳娜•諾瓦茲羅娃的話說：“孩子懂得油漆對動物是有毒的：它們會導致體內腫脹。”
Vocabulary:
vest: a special piece of clothing that covers the upper part of the body 坎肩；（外面穿的）背心
footage: part of a film showing a particular event （影片中的）連續鏡頭，片段
fume over sth.: to be very angry about something（對……大爲生氣，十分惱火）
