298 READING

PASSAGE THREE (Questions 22-31)

In the 1930s, Chester F. Carlson was working in the patents department of a large
electronics firm in New York City. One of the major problems in his work was the length of
time and expense involved in getting patents copied; patents were lengthy legal documents,
Line and the only ways to get them copied were to take them to a typist or to take them to a
(5) photographer. Either way of copying patents took a lot of time and cost a lot of money.
He came up with the idea for a machine that would copy documents quickly and
efficiently. He researched the idea in the library and then worked over a three-year
period on developing a machine that used a light, an electrostatically charged plate, and
powder to duplicate images on paper. The result of t.hiswork was a machine that
(10) produced the first xerographic copy on October 22, 1938. He named the process
"Xerox," which means "dry writing."
Carlson felt that he had a good idea, one that would be extremely helpful in the
business world. He tried to sell his idea to a number of large corporations, but they were
not terribly interested in his machine. A few years later he sold the process to a small
(15) family-owned company. This small company grew into the giant Xerox Corporation, and
both Carlson and Xerox became rather wealthy in the process.

22. This passage is mainly about 27. Carlson most likely began work on
the machine in
(A) Carlson's job in a patent office
(B) now the Xerox machine works (A) 1930
(C) Carlson's success in business (B) 1935
(D) the development of the Xerox (C) '938
machine (D) 1941

23. Which of the following is NOT
mentioned as a problem that Carlson
encountered in getting patents copied?
(A) The time needed for copying
(B) The expense of the copying
(C) The length of the paten ts
(D) Dependability of photographers
28. The passage indicates that the large
corporations that Carlson tried to
sell his process to
(A) were family owned
(B) were nonprofit institutions
(C) helped to develop the process
(D) did not want to buy his machine

24. The word "expense" in line 3 is 29. The word "giant" in line 15 could
closest i'n meaning to best be replaced by
(A) cost (A) monster
(B) difficulty (B) tiny
(C) legality (C) familiar
(D) payment (D) huge

25. Click on the word in paragraph 2
that is c1os~st in meaning to "looked
for information about."
26. The following are components of
Carlson's machine EXCEPT
(A) A light
(B) A charged plate
(C) Powder
(D) A typewriter
30. VI'her': in the passage does the
author indicate what a patent is?
(A) Lines 1-2
(B) Line 3
(C) Lines 6-7
(D) Lines 9-10
31. Click on the sentence in paragraph 3
that describes what happened to the
company that eventually bought
Carlson's process.