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1. Tolstoy lived in an era
C. when the telephone was just beginning to change man's world.
| Quotation | Explanation | Skills tested |
| Tolstoy also lived in a pre-satellite, pre-computer age when the telephone was a positive marvel. (line 5) | `Pre' suggests `the idea of before, just the beginning', and the telephone was a positive sign of having a change. | Inference |
2. The writer of the passage believes that the invention of the telephone was
C. equally as important as television, computers and railways.
| Quotation | Explanation | Skills tested |
| The telephone's more glamorous successors - radio, television, computers - have cast a shadow. Yet a century ago Tolstoy's contemporises took a fairer measure of this new force in their hands.( lines 7-8) | `Cast a shadow' gives `the idea of what can be seen'. Since radio, television, computers are important to us, telephone will play an important role too. | Inference |
3. Popular historical studies
D. often refer only superficially to the invention of the telephone.
| Quotation | Explanation | Skills tested |
| Browsers through History books today will be lucky to find even a passing mention, the briefest acknowledgement of this great leap forward in communications. (lines 5-7) | `Lucky to find even a passing mention' suggests `not easy to find the invention of the telephone ' | Inference. |
4. According to the passage, people in the nineteenth century
A. actually had a more balanced view of the telephone's century.
| Quotation | Explanation | Skills tested |
| It was Tolstoy who reputedly once
said: `Imagine Genghis Khan with a telephone'. The author of War and Peace, writing in the
nineteenth century, was aware that his natives Russia had been conquered handily enough by
great Khan's Mongol armies without the use of phone lines to transit oral commands and
orders. (lines 1-3) |
But Tolstoy also lived in a pre-satellites, pre-computer age when the telephone was a positive marvel. The use of the discourse marker `but' shows a balanced view of the author. The success of Khan does not reply on the use of telephone, but the use of telephone is of great importance to the people of the respective age. |
Tone and discourse markers |
5. The importance which governments attributed to telephones is indicted by the fact that
D. many of the governments started state-controlled telephone companies.
| Quotation | Explanation | Skills tested |
| Government, for one, recognised its enormous value, which is why so many of them took charge of the medium as a state monopoly with one government-owned company allowed to operate in each country.( lines 9-10) | `A state monopoly' means `government controlled companies'. | Reading for specific information |
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6. The military applicants of the telephone
C. was exploited by military leaders as early as World War I.
| Quotation | Explanation | Skills tested |
| The field telephone became a mainstay of the First World War.( line 13) | `Mainstay' means `from the top to bottom, figuratively chief support'. Telephones were used by the military leaders in WWI. |
Inference |
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7. In Asia today, many nations are
A. going forward with expansion schemes but experiencing difficulties achieving them.
| Quotation | Explanation | Skills tested |
| For all the telephone's usefulness in war, however, and despite its role as a vital spur of economic growth and a staple of modern civilization, the humble mechanism that Genghis Khan might have killed for remains a complete disaster in much of Asia. (lines 18-20) |
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8. The incident cited, which happened in a Delhi telephone office, shows that when it occurred, there was
A. a significant feeling of frustration in the country towards the telephone system.
| Quotation | Explanation | Skills tested |
| Under its tireless leader, Mr Sam Pitroda, India's system had shown the most remarkable improvement in recent years, since the time when a former politician entered a Delhi telephone office in a rage and waved a gun at terrified switchboard operators ( who promptly staged a walk-out in protest) (lines 27-8) | ¡@ `In a rage and waved a gun at terrified switchboard operators' shows a feeling of frustration. |
Inference |
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9. The telephone is advantages to politicians because
B. it allows governments to control people effectively.
| Quotation | Explanation | Skills tested |
| The telephone's great advantage is its unplanned results: all the millions of limks that enable negotiated business deals, stroke of inspiration and basic interpersonal understanding. (lines 40-2) | This sentence implies the telephone links up people together. They gain interpersonal understanding. The effects of using telephone as a kind of state of control. | Reading for specific information |
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10. According to the writer, some primary positive aspects of the telephone are that
I) it can be sued by anyone at any time
II) it allows communication among people
III) it is simpler and cheaper than television
IV) it is generally not wasteful
V) it allows political control.
B. I, II, IV only
This question can be solved by elimination. III is wrong because telephone is not simpler and cheaper than television, therefore, option A and C is inappropriate. Since II (it allows communication among people) is correct, option B is the answer.
11.Within the last ten year, plans to develop the telephone system in Thailand and the Philippines
B. were temporarily postponed due to budgetary restrictions.
| Quotation | Explanation | Skills tested |
| In the early 1980's, major expansion schemes in the Philippines and Thailand were put off because of belt-tightening policies of the government to save money.(lines 22-3) | `Belt-tightening policies of the government to save money' suggests `budgetary restrictions'. |
Reading for specific information |
12. The person in charge of the Indian telephone system has
D. expanded its services internationally as well as within India.
| Quotation | Explanation | Skills tested |
| India now has international direct dialling to more than 150 countries and domestic connections to 409 localities.( line 30) | This line suggests the Indian telephone system has expanded its services internationally as well as within India. | Inference |
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