Read the following passage.
A. Reginald Fessenden was born on October 6, 1866, in East Bolton, Quebec. He studied at Bishop's College in Lennoxville and then went to Bermuda as headmaster of the Whitney Institute, a middle school. In the United States he worked with Thomas Edison, becoming head chemist at the Edison laboratory in West Orange, and later worked with George Westinghouse. In 1892 he became the first professor of electrical engineering at Purdue University. From 1893 to 1900 he held the same kind of post at the Western University of Pennsylvania, which is now the University of Pittsburgh.
B. Most early wireless systems, including Marconi's, sent signals as short bursts from an electric spark. Fessenden believed that a continuous wave would work far better and could carry speech and music. While working for the United States Weather Bureau, he achieved the first transmission of the human voice by radio in December 1900. He also worked out the principle of heterodyning, in which a signal produced inside the receiver is mixed with the incoming one. His time at the bureau ended badly. The bureau chief wanted control of his patents, and Fessenden resigned in 1902.
C. With two Pittsburgh investors, Thomas Given and Hay Walker, he formed the National Electric Signalling Company, and in 1905 he set up a laboratory at Brant Rock, Massachusetts. In November and December 1906 he sent speech across the Atlantic Ocean. On December 21, 1906, he showed engineers and newspaper editors that speech and phonograph records could be sent by radio from Brant Rock to Plymouth. He is often said to have made the first broadcast of music on Christmas Eve that year. However, that date seems to come from a letter he wrote in 1932, and a later researcher found no press report or radio log from 1906 that mentions the program.
D. After disputes with Given and Walker over marketing, Fessenden ended his connection with the company in 1911 and began legal proceedings against them over the ownership of his patents. His claims were not resolved until 1928. From 1912 he worked with the Submarine Signal Company of Boston and developed an oscillator for sending signals under water. In 1923 the company began selling a fathometer, a device for measuring water depth, built around it. That same year he privately published a book that tried to match biblical places with locations in the Caucasus Mountains, after academic presses had rejected the manuscript.
E. Not given in any of the above paragraphs.
Decide which paragraph, A to D, has the information given in each statement below. Select E if the information is not given in any of the paragraphs.
AI explanationShows the answer. Tap to open.
Correct Answer: B
Why this is correct: The second paragraph says his time at the United States Weather Bureau ended badly. The bureau chief, his boss, wanted control of his patents, so Fessenden resigned in 1902.
Passage Reference: The bureau chief wanted control of his patents, and Fessenden resigned in 1902.
Tips: Two places involve fights over his inventions. Ask which one is about the weather service and his boss.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The first paragraph lists his early jobs with Edison, Westinghouse and two universities. But it never says why he left any of them.
- C: In paragraph C he starts a company with two investors and builds a laboratory at Brant Rock. Nobody there takes his patents.
- D: The fourth paragraph does involve patents. But there he took his own investors to court after leaving their company, not the weather service.
- E: The last two sentences of Paragraph B name the bureau chief, the fight over patents and his resignation in 1902.
Correct Answer: A
Passage Reference: He studied at Bishop's College in Lennoxville and then went to Bermuda as headmaster of the Whitney Institute, a middle school.
Why this is correct: The first paragraph says that after Bishop's College he went to Bermuda as headmaster of the Whitney Institute, a middle school. A headmaster is the person in charge of a school.
Tips: Follow his life from his own education to his first jobs. Check whether his time in Bermuda was spent learning or running a school.
Why the other options are wrong:
- B: Notice that paragraph B explains spark signals, continuous waves and his work for the Weather Bureau. There is no school in it.
- C: The third paragraph describes the company he formed and the 1906 tests at Brant Rock, which came long after his early jobs.
- D: Paragraph D mentions academic presses that rejected his manuscript, but he runs no school there. It covers his later court case and inventions.
- E: Nothing is missing here: Paragraph A says he was headmaster of the Whitney Institute in Bermuda.
Correct Answer: D
Passage Reference: After disputes with Given and Walker over marketing, Fessenden ended his connection with the company in 1911 and began legal proceedings against them over the ownership of his patents.
Why this is correct: Look at paragraph D: in 1911 he began legal proceedings against Given and Walker over his patents. His claims were not resolved until 1928. Paragraph C tells us these two men were his investors, and seventeen years is many years.
Tips: Two places name the men who put money in. Ask which one describes a court fight and says how long it lasted.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: His education and teaching posts fill paragraph A. It names no investors and no court case.
- B: Notice that paragraph B has a conflict with the Weather Bureau chief, but Fessenden resigned. He did not go to court against anyone.
- C: Paragraph C introduces Given and Walker as the investors in his company, but it does not describe any fight with them.
- E: The start of the case in 1911 and its end in 1928 are both in paragraph D. You find them in its first two sentences.
Correct Answer: E
Passage Reference: In November and December 1906 he sent speech across the Atlantic Ocean.
Why this is correct: The third paragraph says that in November and December 1906 he sent speech across the Atlantic Ocean. It does not name the place on the other side where the speech was received, so Scotland is not mentioned anywhere.
Tips: The ocean crossing is mentioned, but check whether any place on the far side is named before you pick a paragraph.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Look at paragraph A: it covers his years before 1900 in Quebec, Bermuda and at universities, with nothing about crossing the Atlantic.
- B: Look at paragraph B: it gives his first voice transmission in 1900 for the Weather Bureau, and no other country is named.
- C: Notice that paragraph C reports the 1906 speech across the ocean but stops there. The receiving station and its country are left out.
- D: The fourth paragraph is about his court case, his underwater inventions and his book, not the 1906 tests.
Correct Answer: A
Passage Reference: In 1892 he became the first professor of electrical engineering at Purdue University.
Why this is correct: The first paragraph says that in 1892 he became the first professor of electrical engineering at Purdue University. Being the first professor of the subject means nobody had taught it there before him.
Tips: Several paragraphs use the word 'first'. Check that the paragraph with Purdue also says nobody taught his subject there before him.
Why the other options are wrong:
- B: Look at paragraph B: it tells us about his work for a government weather office, not about a university.
- C: The third paragraph shows him explaining radio to engineers at a demonstration, but that is a single event, not a university post.
- D: Paragraph D describes academic presses that rejected his manuscript. It says nothing about him teaching at a university.
- E: The first paragraph clearly gives this fact, naming Purdue and the year 1892.
Correct Answer: C
Passage Reference: However, that date seems to come from a letter he wrote in 1932, and a later researcher found no press report or radio log from 1906 that mentions the program.
Why this is correct: In paragraph C, he is often said to have broadcast music on Christmas Eve 1906. But that date seems to come from a letter he wrote in 1932. A letter from 26 years later is something he wrote much later.
Tips: Find the famous music program. Then ask what its date is based on, and when that was written.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Look at paragraph A: it lists schools and employers in order. No claim or disputed date appears in it.
- B: Notice that paragraph B describes his first voice transmission in 1900, which the passage does not question.
- D: Paragraph D mentions a book he published in 1923. But that is a different piece of writing, and it has nothing to do with a broadcast.
- E: The third paragraph links the Christmas Eve date to a 1932 letter and adds that no 1906 press report mentions the program.
Correct Answer: C
Passage Reference: On December 21, 1906, he showed engineers and newspaper editors that speech and phonograph records could be sent by radio from Brant Rock to Plymouth.
Why this is correct: The third paragraph describes December 21, 1906. He showed engineers and newspaper editors that speech and phonograph records could be sent by radio. The engineers and editors were his guests, and radio sends sound without wires.
Tips: Sound by wireless comes up more than once. Look for the time he played records to invited visitors.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The first paragraph mentions the Edison laboratory, but it gives his job as head chemist and no demonstration of music.
- B: Paragraph B describes the first human voice sent by radio in 1900. It gives no audience and no records.
- D: Paragraph D turns to signals sent under water and a depth device. Those are not sounds played for visitors.
- E: The December 21, 1906 demonstration in Paragraph C included phonograph records and had engineers and editors watching.
Correct Answer: D
Passage Reference: In 1923 the company began selling a fathometer, a device for measuring water depth, built around it.
Why this is correct: The fourth paragraph says he developed an oscillator for sending signals under water. In 1923 the company began selling a fathometer built around it. The paragraph explains that a fathometer measures water depth.
Tips: Look for a product that measures how deep water is. It may have an unusual name you do not know.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Notice that paragraph A names inventors he worked with, Edison and Westinghouse, but none of his own devices.
- B: Paragraph B explains how his radio signals worked. Water and depth are not part of it.
- C: The third paragraph has the Atlantic Ocean, but only as something his speech crossed, not something he measured.
- E: The fathometer, sold from 1923, is described in Paragraph D along with the oscillator it was built around.
Correct Answer: E
Passage Reference: That same year he privately published a book that tried to match biblical places with locations in the Caucasus Mountains, after academic presses had rejected the manuscript.
Why this is correct: The fourth paragraph says he published a book in 1923 about biblical places in the Caucasus Mountains. He was in a legal case at that time. But it never gives his reason for writing the book or links it to money.
Tips: The book and the lawsuit are close together in the text. Check whether one is ever given as the reason for the other.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Look at paragraph A: it covers his studies and jobs before 1900. There is no book and no lawsuit in it.
- B: The second paragraph ends with a quarrel over patents at the bureau. But he resigned rather than going to court, and he writes no book.
- C: The third paragraph mentions a letter he wrote in 1932, not a book about ancient places, and it gives no money problems.
- D: The fourth paragraph reports both the court case and the book. Yet it does not connect them or say why he wrote the book.
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