Recently, I was looking for something online, or probably browsing aimlessly, when I happened on a name I hadn’t thought of since I was a child: Alfred P. Morgan. Someone had uploaded a digitized version of The Boy Electrician. I was instantly swept back more than half a century to my local library. In my mind I saw the familiar metal shelving and the blue-gray binding of my favorite book, also written – and illustrated – by Morgan: The Boys’ First Book of Radio and Electronics.

Which of the following expressions is a synonym for ‘aimlessly’ on the first line of the text?

Recently, I was looking for something online, or probably browsing aimlessly, when I happened on a name I hadn’t thought of since I was a child: Alfred P. Morgan. Someone had uploaded a digitized version of The Boy Electrician. I was instantly swept back more than half a century to my local library. In my mind I saw the familiar metal shelving and the blue-gray binding of my favorite book, also written – and illustrated – by Morgan: The Boys’ First Book of Radio and Electronics.

What is known about Alfred P. Morgan?

Soon enough, say some engineers, miniature wireless sensors will be located in spots where it would be inconvenient, to say the least, to change their batteries – inside your body, within the steel and concrete of buildings, in the dangerous innards of chemical plants. But today, even the most robust nodes can be counted on to last only a few years. Ideally, engineers need wireless sensors that can last forever without external power sources or battery changes. According to research presented in December at the International Electron Devices Meeting, in Baltimore, that dream is within reach.

The expression ‘to say the least’ in the text suggests that…

Soon enough, say some engineers, miniature wireless sensors will be located in spots where it would be inconvenient, to say the least, to change their batteries – inside your body, within the steel and concrete of buildings, in the dangerous innards of chemical plants. But today, even the most robust nodes can be counted on to last only a few years. Ideally, engineers need wireless sensors that can last forever without external power sources or battery changes. According to research presented in December at the International Electron Devices Meeting, in Baltimore, that dream is within reach.

What does the sentence “According to research presented in December at the International Electron Devices Meeting, in Baltimore, that dream is within reach.” imply about the text?

Soon enough, say some engineers, miniature wireless sensors will be located in spots where it would be inconvenient, to say the least, to change their batteries – inside your body, within the steel and concrete of buildings, in the dangerous innards of chemical plants. But today, even the most robust nodes can be counted on to last only a few years. Ideally, engineers need wireless sensors that can last forever without external power sources or battery changes. According to research presented in December at the International Electron Devices Meeting, in Baltimore, that dream is within reach.

What inconvenience is mentioned in the text?

The history of technology is full of breakthroughs in one field that wound up working wonders in a related one. The 300B vacuum tube, introduced by Western Electric in 1937 to amplify telephone signals, found a far more enduring use as a high-fidelity audio amplifier. The atomic clocks first used in the 1960’s by the U.S. military to track Sputnik and later to validate Albert Einstein’s relativity theories are now the basis of Global Positioning System. And of course, the magnetron, invented in the 1920’s at General Electric and used in radars during World War II, later found itself repurposed as the basis for the microwave oven.

According to the text, complete the sentence: “The microwave oven…”

The history of technology is full of breakthroughs in one field that wound up working wonders in a related one. The 300B vacuum tube, introduced by Western Electric in 1937 to amplify telephone signals, found a far more enduring use as a high-fidelity audio amplifier. The atomic clocks first used in the 1960’s by the U.S. military to track Sputnik and later to validate Albert Einstein’s relativity theories are now the basis of Global Positioning System. And of course, the magnetron, invented in the 1920’s at General Electric and used in radars during World War II, later found itself repurposed as the basis for the microwave oven.

According to the text, what is correct to say?

Scientists say juggling e-mail, phone calls and other incoming information can change how people think and behave. They say our ability to focus is being undermined by bursts of information. These play to a primitive impulse to respond to immediate opportunities and threats. The stimulation provokes excitement — a dopamine squirt — that researchers say can be addictive. In its absence, people feel bored. The resulting distractions can have deadly consequences, as when cell phone-wielding drivers and train engineers cause wrecks. And for millions of people these urges can inflict nicks and cuts on creativity and deep thought, interrupting work and family life.

The text states that human beings instinctively …

Scientists say juggling e-mail, phone calls and other incoming information can change how people think and behave. They say our ability to focus is being undermined by bursts of information. These play to a primitive impulse to respond to immediate opportunities and threats. The stimulation provokes excitement — a dopamine squirt — that researchers say can be addictive. In its absence, people feel bored. The resulting distractions can have deadly consequences, as when cell phone-wielding drivers and train engineers cause wrecks. And for millions of people these urges can inflict nicks and cuts on creativity and deep thought, interrupting work and family life.

What does the passage imply?

Is ‘Facebook’, the social networking website, making us narcissist? A new book argues we’re much more self-absorbed nowadays, stating that technology is to blame. I tweet, therefore I am. Or is it, I tweet, therefore I am insufferable? As if adult celebrities that pop out on the red carpets weren’t clue enough, we now have statistical evidence that we are a lot more in love with ourselves than we used to be. This social phenomenon has raised fields of research to academic studies nowadays. In the book ‘The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement’, Jean M. Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University, and W. Keith Campbell, a social psychologist at the University of Georgia, look to the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, which measures self-regard, materialism, and lack of empathy. They found that the number of college students scoring high on the test has risen by 30 percent since the early 1980’s.

What has NOT been encouraging people to act the way described in the text?