Question

“Smombies”—people walking while staring at their smart phones—are very real and a growing cause for concern. Tired of having to constantly alert both locals and tourists to pay more attention to their surroundings to avoid serious accidents, authorities of a small German town have come up with a more positive solution—embedding(嵌入) traffic lights in the pavement to make them visible to people constantly looking down at their phones.

The seemingly ridiculous safety measure was put in place. Authorities in Augsburg decided to act, installing ground level traffic lights at two tram(有轨电车) stops last Tuesday. The lights flash red every time a tram is approaching, or when the regular traffic light turns red. “We realized that the normal traffic light isn't in the line of sight of many pedestrians these days，” said Tobias Hermes, a city administration official. “So we decided to have an additional set of lights—the more we have, the more people are likely to notice them.”

Some Augsburg residents appear to be quite happy with the idea.“I think it makes sense，” Jack Smith said, speaking to The Augsburger Allgemeine. “One always sees young people these days running over red lights. This makes it more obvious that you need to stop.”

Others, however, found the need for ground traffic lights disturbing and even frightening. “I find it scary that smart phone users are so engrossed that they need to install lights in the ground so that they notice the tram coming，” one person told the local paper.

But do this kind of pavement?embedded lights actually work? Well, if one interviewed teenager is to be believed, not really. “To be honest I didn't even notice it，” he told The Augsburger Allgemeine. “Maybe it'd be useful at night, but yeah, I didn't realize it was there until just now.”

The word “smombie”—a mashup of the words smart phone and zombie—was born in Germany. It was voted “youth word of the year” in 2015, but the serious consequences of this behaviour are no laughing matter.

1.Which of the following about “smombies” is TRUE?

A. It refers to people who are fond of walking.

B. It refers to people who are looking at phones while walking.

C. It refers to people who concern others very much.

D. It refers to people who hate locals and tourists.

2.Which of the following can replace the underlined word “engrossed” in Paragraph 4?

A. Disturbed. B. Frightened.

C. Addicted. D. Encouraged.

3.What may be the best title for the text?

A. Ground traffic lights for people looking at smart phones

B. Effective ways to educate people to obey traffic rules

C. The meanings of ground traffic lights

D. The serious problem of traffic safety

Answer 1