communicating with to overthrow their use of text and start using emoji while talking to me.
(38) ________ (communicate) with emoji was a way more difficult than I expected. There were people who were annoyed with me. There were people who gave up after a few back-and –forths. There were missed messages, (39) ________ (mix) messages, and messed up plans. There were people who immediately just called my phone to get the conversation (40) ________ (move) faster. And there was my mother who doesn’t have an iPhone and texts me often.
Section B
morning, and it’s even worse when there’s (41) ________ no reason for it. There’s a lot of interesting science behind traffic, though, and while understanding it might not make sitting in it any better, it can teach you how to avoid some of the mistakes we all make behind the wheel.
1. The way we merge (合并) causes problems
Whether you’re merging from the left or the right, (42) ________ are good that you’re doing it wrong and causing all sorts of problems. When most people see that they need to merge, their first (43) ________ is to do it right away. They brake, slow down, speed up, and change lanes in between oncoming traffic. According to the Minnesota department of Transportation, that’s completely wrong. Sudden (44) ________ causes traffic to back up, a problem that’s made worse by sudden lane changes and other cars braking to (45) ________ the merging traffic.
So what should you do? Exactly what you probably blame drivers for doing: waiting until the last minute. If you do that, traffic will fall into a more natural pattern called a ―zipper merge‖, meaning there are no surprises, no sudden braking, and a smoother transition from one lane to another, which cuts down on backups. This does, of course, rely on other drivers to let you in at the last minute and be polite enough not to cut you off, which causes all sorts of other problems.
2. You are causing the traffic Jams you hate
Traffic jams have long been chalked up to (取决于) the (46) ________ of traffic on the roads, but it turns out that even heavy traffic can (47) ________ smoothly if people maintain a (48) ________ speed. The problem is that we can’t. Researchers have found that just one person even slightly stepping on their brakes can have a terrible effect on the traffic around them.
On even (49) ________ busy road, it can be only a few minutes for traffic to a complete halt behind someone who (50) ________ their brakes to let another driver merge. The standstill usually occurs several minutes after the braking, well after the person that causes the problem in the first place has gone on his way.
III. Reading Comprehension
Section A