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Word of the Day: Turnpike
If you have ever driven on a toll road, there is a good chance that you have driven on a turnpike.
In modern terms, a turnpike is a toll road, such as an expressway, that people have to pay to use.
Often, we have to drive through some gate to collect the toll (fee).
In Japan, we can either pay with cash or use the electronic toll collection (ETC) system, which collects the fee automatically and is thus much faster.
Drivers only need to slow down to 20 kph and pass through the gate instead of stopping altogether.
I was wondering where the word turnpike comes from, so I did a bit of research.
In the days of yore (a long time ago), a turnpike was similar to a modern turnstile, identical to the ones they have in subway stations.
If you want to pass through a turnstile, you have to pay, and then the turnstile will turn to let you through.
In the old days, the ends were pointy or spiked, so if you didn’t pay and tried to pass, you would stab yourself on the pointy ends (pikes).
Eventually, over time, the road became a turnpike and not just the gates you had to pass.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 75.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.