Direction: You have passages with 5 questions in each passage. Read the passages carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.
PASSAGE
Why don’t I have a telephone? Not because I pretend to be wise or pose as unusual. There are two chief reasons; because I don’t really like the telephone, and because I find I can still work and play, eat, breathe, and sleep without it. Why don’t I like the telephone? Because I think it is a pest and time waster. It may create unnecessary suspense and anxiety, as when you wait for an expected call, that doesn’t come; or irritating delay, as when you keep ringing a number that is always engaged. As for speaking in a public telephone booth, it seems to me really horrible. You would not use it unless you were in a hurry, and because you are in a hurry, you will find other people waiting before you. When you do get into the booth, you are half suffocated by the stale, unventilated air, flavoured with cheap face powder and chain-smoking; and by the time you have begun your conversation your back is chilled by the cold looks of somebody who is moving about restlessly to take your place. If you have a telephone in your house, you will admit that it tends to ring when you least want it to ring; when
you are asleep, or in the middle of a meal or a conversation, or when you are just going out, or when you are in your bath. Are you strong-minded enough to ignore it, to say to yourself. “Ah well, it will be all the same in hundred years time”. You are not. You think there may be some important news or message for you. Have you never rushed dripping from the bath, of chewing from the table, or dazed from bed, only to be told that you are a wrong number? You were told the truth. In my opinion all telephone numbers are wrong numbers. If, of course, your telephone rings and you decide not to answer it, then you will have to listen to an idiotic bell ringing and ringing in what is supposed to be the privacy of your own home. You might as well buy a bicycle bell and ring it yourself.
SOME IMPORTANT WORDS
pest : an annoying person/thing suffocated : lack of air (fresh) stale : not fresh