For many years, Americans have had a love affair with ferryboats. Ferries are said to relieve our frayed nerves after we’ve stewed in bumper-to-bumper traffic, and conventional wisdom also says ferries (i)___ congestion and air pollution by getting us out of cars. Unfortunately, this (ii)_ notion recently has (iii)___ several West Coast mayors, who have in consequence eagerly pursued the imple

The answer to the first blank is reduce congestion because the given paragraph discusses about the benefits of ferries. It says that Americans had been in love with ferryboats for many years. It is said that ferries mitigate our strained nerves when we travel for quite a while from one vehicle to another. It is a general theory that ferries reduce congestion and air pollution by getting us out of the vehicles. As the above sentences are describing the advantages of ferries so the verb reduce is the suitable option as it supports the notion and theory described in the previous discussion about ferries.

The answer to the second blank is misguided notion because in this sentence it is said that the traditional theory about ferries is not necessarily right. So this part of the paragraph opposes the conventional concept stated in the previous discussion in which the advantages of ferries are described.

The answer to the third blank is captivated. This part of the paragraph discusses that: unfortunately, the misleading belief (conventional wisdom) about the ferries has attracted many West coast mayors who decided eagerly to construct facilities for ferry service in the city. So the appropriate word is captivated which means fascinated. So the misguided notion has captivated several west coast mayors.