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 word “microbes” in paragraph 3 could best be replaced by which of the following?

• Which of the following is NOT true about carbon-14?

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

ZUNIA12

• The word “interfere” in paragraph 2 most nearly means ..........

• Why did John Mills fly in an aeroplane?

• Which sentence best expresses the main idea of the second paragraph?

• Where did Marianne Moore grow up?

• The main subject of the passage is ...........

• The phrase "set off" is closest in meaning to______________.

• When the concept of universal primary education was introduced, education _______.

• The writer learnt to sail .................

• The word "derived" in line 13 is closest in meaning to ____________.

• The "pounds" in the second paragraph are probably ...............

• What is the main idea of this passage?

• According to the passage, which of the following statements is NOT true?

• The word “hurdles” can be best replaced by ...............

• What does the author mean by staring that, "At interpersonal levels, tone may reflect ideas and feelings over and above the words chosen" ?

• In the first paragraph, the word "emerged" is closest in meaning to ...........

• According to the passage, young owlets eat everything EXCEPT ..............

• The word “They” in paragraph 2 refers to ...............