PART 3: READING 1. Fill in the blank with a word/ phrase in the box. Traffic congestion in many (1) around the world is severe. One possible solution to this (2) is to impose heavy taxes on car drivers and use this money to make public transport better. One of the first benefits of such a measure is that the heavy taxes would (3) car owners from using their cars because it would become very (4) to drive. This would mean that they would begin to make use of public (5) instead, thus reducing traffic problems and (6) as well. Another benefit would be that much more use would be made of public transport if it was improved. It is often the case that public transport in cities is very poor. For (7) , we often see old buses and (8) that people would rather not use. High taxes would generate enough money to make the necessary changes. 2. Read the passage and answer the questions. The first traffic control device appeared near the British House of Parliament at the intersection of George and Bridge Streets. The device was made in response to the desire by a Select Committee to use railway signals on highways. The device had lights and it used arms which extended outwards. It was operated manually by a police officer. The signal was 22 feet high and crowned with a gas light. The light was called semaphore and had arms that would extend horizontally that commanded drivers to "Stop" and then the arms would lower to a 45 degrees angle to tell drivers to proceed with "Caution". At night a red light would command "Stop" and a green light would mean use "Caution". The man behind this new and different invention was John Peake Knight a railroad engineer. The main reason for the traffic light was that there was an overflow of horse-drawn traffic over Westminster Bridge which forced thousands of pedestrians to walk next to the house of Parliament. But Knight's invention was not to last long. After only a month of use the device exploded and injured the police officer who was operating the light. In the first two decades of the 20th century semaphore traffic signals, like the one in London, were in use all over the United States with each state having its own design of the device. One good example was from Toledo, Ohio in 1908. The words "Stop" and "Go" were in white on a green background and the lights had red and green lenses illuminated by kerosene lamps for night travelers and the arms where eight feet above ground. Controlled by a traffic officer who would blow a whistle before changing the commands on this signal to help alert travelers of the change, the design was also used in Philadelphia and Detroit. The example in Ohio was the first time America tried to use a more visible form of traffic control that evolved the use of semaphore. The device that was used in Ohio was designed based on the use of railroad signals. 1. What was the main purpose of making the first traffic control device? 2. What was the light operated manually by a police officer called? 3. Why wasn't John Peake Knight's invention to last long? 4. How tall were the arms of the traffic lights used in Ohio in 1908? 5. The Westminster Bridge is in . A. America B. England C. Brazil D. Canada 3. Read the passage and put a suitable word in each of the gaps. Traffic jams in Vietnam only frequently take in Hanoi capital and Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnamese people seem to be accustomed to traffic congestion, even miss it whenever they go to other places. There is no fixed rule for the the traffic jams to happen but is worst during the rush hour when everyone is in a hurry to get to work or come back home. Apart from peak hours, the time between 9 am and 10 am and between 3 pm and 4 pm also witnesses long lines of vehicles, mainly motorbikes, struggling to get of narrow streets. Whenever it rains, the traffic jam gets more terrible with the joining hand of flooding. Taxis are extremely hard to or wave during the downpour. However, it only about 30 minutes on average for a standstill and 2 hours to get through the worst, not really bad compared to that of other countries. While the rapid increase in car use coupled with the deterioration of roads caused by disordered planning make the matter worse, the most annoying thing about the traffic jam the way people react when being at the congestion. Most road users ride their motorbikes on the pavement rather than waiting calmly, or they constantly use their horns to hasten riders in the front, even shouting at them from time to time. More luckily, bicyclists can leisurely carry their "war-horses" on their backs and thread their way through messy matrixes.