Researchers believe that the insect is better at managing congestion than humans. Ants are the most many type of animal on earth with brains that contain about 250,000 cells ---- the largest among insects. Now an intelligence expert Dr. Dirk Helbing says understanding more about ants could help solve one of the headaches of modern life -- road congestion. His team set up an "ant motorway" with two routes of different widths from the nest to some sugar syrup . Soon the narrower route soon became crowded . But when an ant returning along the crowded route to the nest met with another ant just starting out, the returning ant pushed the newcomer onto the other path. However, if the returning ant had enjoyed a trouble-free journey, it did not send the newcomer in a different direction. The result was that just before one route became _ , the ants had turned to another route and traffic jams never formed. The researchers also created a computer model of more complex ant networks with routes of different lengths. The team found that even though ants being sent in another direction sometimes took a longer route, they still got to the food quickly and efficiently. Dr. Helbing, of the Dresden University of Technology in Germany, said that while you cannot allow cars to meet with traffic coming in the opposite direction as a form of traffic control, you could do the next best thing and allow them to communicate. His plan is to force cars traveling in one direction to tell oncoming traffic what the conditions they are about to meet with-- so they can avoid that situation if necessary. What's the advice that Dr. Helbing gives us? A) The cars cannot be allowed to communicate with traffic coming in the opposite direction. B) The cars can communicate with traffic in the same direction. C) The cars that travel in one direction can tell oncoming traffic about the traffic conditions. D) We should build more routes of different lengths and widths.
C
It's AOL Jobs Week. We'll have many job listings, so settle in and get your resume ready. And be sure to check out the rest of our Jobs Week content: from resume writing and networking to day jobs and time management to getting a new restaurant off the ground. Lastly, don't forget to enter our sweepstakes for a chance to win a personal session with one of our career experts! *Customer Service Workers Median salary: US$31,547 Top cities for hiring: Houston, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; Atlanta, Georgia We've all dealt with customer service representatives, those disembodied voices helping you over the phone with various company or purchase-related matters. Love them or hate them, the customer service field is currently blowing up in the United States--big time. *Warehouse Workers Median salary: US$29,357 Top cities for hiring: Houston, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; Columbus, Ohio Without warehouse workers, everything we've ever purchased would still be sitting in a building somewhere. The rise of online shopping sites like Amazon has made warehouses a hot spot for hiring. *Accountants Median salary: US$63,550 Top cities for hiring: Chicago, Illinois; Houston, Texas; New York Death and taxes may be two reasons for the popularity of accounting jobs, which are frequently in high demand. You'll need to become a CPA (Certified Public Accountant) to get started. But while some jobs are at the mercy of the economy, the economy itself isn't going away. Neither are accountants. *Human Resources Managers Median salary: US$99,720 Top cities for hiring: Chicago, Illinois; Houston, Texas; New York Speaking of job security, workers in company's human resources department are always needed to find and assess new hires, along with countless other tasks essential to keeping a company well-peopled. CareerCast named it one of the ten best jobs of 2016, because it has high income and low stress. If an employee wants to work in Columbus, he can choose to work as a(n) _ . A) customer service worker B) warehouse worker C) accountant D) human resources manager
B
This winter, the air quality over the north China plain was so bad that it was actually off the standard scale. The air pollution reached levels that the World Health Organization describes as dangerous. On Thursday, heavy smog blanketed most of northern and eastern China again. It is reasonable to ask why the air pollution is so bad this winter. Weather conditions and topographic factors have been given as reasons, but, although contributing factors, these are not to blame. The worsening air pollution is linked to an energy mix that relies heavily on coal and to motor vehicle emissions . But despite the astonishing growth of motor vehicles in our cities, it is the burning of coal that is the biggest cause of air pollution. More than half of the country's power plants are located in the eastern region and China's coal consumption has more than doubled in the past decade, reaching 3.8 billion tons last year, accounting for almost half the world's total coal consumption. And with coal occupying nearly 70 percent of the country's primary energy consumption, it has become critical to reduce the use of coal if we are to solve the nation's overall air pollution problem. In the face of the poisonous air recently, one citizen said, "we have nothing but hot air to purify the skies". In fact, the government plans to have 350 billion yuan ($55.67 billion) investment in improving coal-fired facilities and limiting the use of yellow-label cars that do not meet the Euro I emissions standard and so on. However, it would be far more effective to reduce emissions at the source, which means that the biggest challenge currently facing government departments is saying "no" to the country's air polluting offenders. According to the Joint Prevention and Control Plan on Air Pollution in Key Regions released recently by the State Council, the amount of coal the nation consumes is set to rise by 30 percent during the period of the 12th Five-Year Plan. This is not going to let anyone breathe easier. This highlights a key problem when... Which best describes the writer's tone in the passage? A) Pessimistic. B) Convincing. C) Doubtful. D) Concerned.
D