History of the Emoji - Test Prep

Why do you think the author included the illustration below the title?

• to tell a joke
• to show what emojis are
• to show off her art skills
• to show why she wrote the article

What caused Japan to become interested in emojis?

• They knew people liked sending pictures.
• They knew people liked writing letters.
• They knew people liked drawing pictures.
• They knew people liked writing stories.

What made Shigetaka Kurita famous?

• He worked for NTT DoCoMo.
• He was a weather man.
• He invented the cell phone.
• He invented emojis.

Read these sentences from Paragraph 2: "At the time, Japan’s cell phone users were sending a lot of pictures to each other. The phone companies noticed this habit." What does the word “habit” mean?

• picture
• drawing
• behavior
• problem

Read these sentences from Paragraph 4: "The team decided that text messaging needed to be more personal. They observed that it was difficult to show how you feel in messages." What does the word “observe” mean?

• to notice
• to complain
• to decide
• to explain

Part A - What does the word “emoji” mean?

• picture smile
• smile happy
• picture character
• fun drawing

Part B - Which sentence helps you define the word in Part A?

• The team decided that text messaging needed to be more personal.
• They observed that it was difficult to show how you feel in messages.
• Shigetaka Kurita’s solution was the creation of the emoji.
• Emoji means “picture” (e) and “character” (moji).

Part A - How did the other companies feel about creating smileys for Shigetaka Kurita?

• They were excited.
• They were not interested.
• They were unsure.
• They were angry.

Part B - Which sentence BEST shows the feeling in Part A?

• Shigetaka Kurita contacted many companies to draw his smiley idea.
• No one wanted to design it.
• So, he decided to design it himself with his team.
• They came up with 176 characters to show objects and describe how people feel.

What is the author’s purpose for writing this article?

• to get people to buy more phones
• to inform people about how emojis got started
• to tell a story about a funny emoji
• to explain why people send phone pictures