Last night I was driving from Harrisburg to Lewisburg, a 1of about eighty miles. It was late and I was in a hurry. However, if anyone asked me how fast I was driving, I'd say I was not over-speeding (超速). Several times I got2 behind a slow-moving truck on a narrow road, and I was holding my fists tightly with impatience.
At one point along an open highway, I 3 a crossroad with a traffic light. I was alone on the road by now, but as I got near to the light, it turned red and I braked to a stop. I looked left, right and behind me. Nothing. Not a car, no suggestion of headlights, but there I sat, waiting for the light to4, the only human being for at least a mile in any5.
I started6 why I refused to run the light. I was not afraid of being fined, because there was obviously no policeman around, and there certainly would have been no7 in going through it.
Much later that night, after I8 a group of my friends in Lewisburg and climbed into bed near midnight, the question of why I'd stopped for that light came back to me. I think I stopped because it's part of a contract (合同) we all have with each other. It's not only the 9, but it's an arrangement we have, and we trust each other to10 it: we don't go through red lights. Like most of us, I'm more likely to be11 from doing something bad by the social conventions (社会习俗) that stand by it than by any law against it.
It's amazing that we ever trust each other to do the right thing, isn't it? I was so12of myself for stopping for the red light that night.
