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.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions

Which of the following can be inferred from the first paragraph?

Câu hỏi liên quan

• The pronoun "they" in the second paragraph refers to ..........

• Which of the following is closest in meaning to the word “tuck” in line 11?

• The writer himself __________ .

ZUNIA12

• All of the following statements are TRUE about visual learners EXCEPT ...............

• How many different forms of communication are mentioned here?

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

• According to the author, what is one reason why the Internet is sometimes slow?

• According to this passage, what is a signal?

• Why do people say women produce more than half of the food in Africa?

• Satellites are used to .............

• Which of the following has nothing to do with the isolation among Americans?

• The word -plausible‖ in the passage is closest in meaning to .............

• What is the passage mainly about?

• What is the meaning of “waterproof” in the second paragraph?

• What does "this" in the third paragraph refer to .............

• The word acknowledged in paragraph 2 could best be replaced by ..............

• The word "scrutinized" in the fourth paragraph could be replaced by .............

• Learning to write is ..........

• The word ”them” in line 12 refers to _________ .

• What does the passage mainly discuss?