The man in the ticket office said: "Would you like to buy accident insurance?"

"No," I said, after thinking about the question. "No, I believe not. I'm going to be traveling by rail all day today. However, tomorrow I won't travel. Give me insurance for tomorrow."

The man was confused. He said: "But this is accident insurance, and if you are going to travel by rail today--"http://video.etiantian.com/security/104d2c0fa7522f9415e175ce29951902/47726b37/ett20/resource/3dc337d3de1bd845346ba0abbe3b7a92/images/image001.gifDanger of Lying in Bed (难度中)" TITLE="The Danger of Lying in Bed (难度中)" />

"If I am going to travel by rail I won't need insurance. Lying at home in bed is the thing I'm afraid of!"

I had been looking into this matter. Last year I traveled twenty thousand miles, almost entirely by rail. The year before, I traveled over twenty-five thousand miles, half by sea and half by rail. And the year before that I traveled something like ten thousand miles, all by rail. I have traveled nearly sixty thousand miles during the past three years, AND I HAVE NEVER BEEN IN AN ACCIDENT.

For a while I said to myself every morning: "I have escaped an accident so far, and so the chances are greater that I will be in one this time. I will be wise, and buy accident insurance." And each night I went to bed in one piece, without a broken bone.

I read of railway accidents every day. The newspapers were filled with reports, but somehow an accident never came my way. I found that I had spent a good deal of money for insurance, and had nothing to show for it. I became suspicious, and I began to look for someone who had won in the insurance lottery. I found plenty of people who had bought insurance, but no one who had ever had an accident or made a penny. I stopped buying accident insurance and realized: THE DANGER LIES NOT IN TRAVELING, BUT IN STAYING AT HOME!

I looked up statistics, and was amazed to find that despite the newspaper headlines about railroad disasters, fewer than three hundred people had died in those disasters in the last year. The Big Chief Railroad was the most dangerous. It had killed forty-six people, which is twice that of any other railroad. But Big Chief is a very large railroad, and does more business than any other railroad in the country. So the large number of people killed is not a surprise.http://video.etiantian.com/security/104d2c0fa7522f9415e175ce29951902/47726b37/ett20/resource/3dc337d3de1bd845346ba0abbe3b7a92/images/image002.gifDanger of Lying in Bed (难度中)" TITLE="The Danger of Lying in Bed (难度中)" />

Big Chief runs eight trains each way every day, which is 16 in all. Every day, 6,000 people ride the Big Chief. That adds up to about one million people in six months. That number is equal to the population of our Capital City. So, while the Big Chief Railroad kills from 13 to 23 persons of its million passengers in six months, over 13,000 people in Capital City die in their beds! My hair stood on end! "This is terrible!" I said. "The danger is not in traveling on the railroad, but in lying on those deadly beds. I will never sleep in bed again!"

So my advice to all people is this: Do not stay at home any more than you have to. But when you must stay at home for a while, buy insurance and sit up at night. You can't be too careful.

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