The handling and delivery of mail has always been a serious business, underpinned by the trust of the public in requiring timeliness, safety, and confidentiality. After early beginnings using horseback and stagecoach, and although cars and trucks later replaced stagecoaches and wagons, the Railway Mail Service still stands as one of America’s most resourceful and exciting postal innovations. This service began in 1832, but grew slowly until the Civil War. Then from 1862, by sorting the mail on board moving trains, the Post Office Department was able to decentralize its operations as railroads began to crisscross the nation on a regular basis, and speed up mail delivery. This service lasted until 1974. During peak decades of service, railway mail clerks handled 93% of all non-local mail and by 1905 the service had over 12,000 employees.

   Railway Post Office trains used a system of mail cranes to exchange mail at stations without stopping. As a train approached the crane, a clerk prepared the catcher arm which would then snatch the incoming mailbag in the blink of an eye. The clerk then booted out the outgoing mailbag. Experienced clerks were considered the elite of the Postal Service’s employees, and spoke with pride of making the switch at night with nothing but the curves and feel of the track to warn them of an upcoming catch. They also worked under the greatest pressure and their jobs were considered to be exhausting and dangerous. In addition to regular demands of their jobs they could find themselves the victims of train wrecks and robberies.

   As successful as it was, “mail-on-the-fly” still had its share of glitches. If they hoisted the train’s catcher arm too soon, they risked hitting switch targets, telegraph poles or semaphores, which would rip the catcher arm off the train. Too late, and they would miss an exchange.

The public expects the following three services in handling and delivery of mail except ______.

Câu hỏi liên quan

• The passage mainly discusses ______.

• The word "drastically" in line 21 is closest in meaning to ..........

• Which of the following business schools has NOT shown a decrease in enrollment?

ZUNIA12

• When education first reached women, they were _______.

• The author discusses cows and horses in paragraph 3 in order to_________

• It can be inferred from the passage that the author would most likely endorse a program that .........

• When taking the university entrance exams, ..............

• The word “basis” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to ............

• Which of the following would NOT be a problem for the construction plan?

• Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?

• According to the passage, an exuberant tone of voice may be an indication of a person’s ............

• The passage implies that insects would be most attracted to lantana blossoms __________

• "Negative publicity" in the passage most likely means .................

• Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

• According to the writer, people should ______.

• The word “ integral” in line 13 is closest in meaning to ..........

• The word "all-inclusive" in the passage mostly means ................

• The passage suggests that the first amphibians used their limbs to……..

• The word -lethal‖ in the second paragraph probably means ............

• It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following presents the greatest danger to a diver?