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A. Bài đọc IELTS Morse code
Morse Code
Morse code is being replaced by a new satellite-based system for sending distress calls at sea. Its dots and dashes have had a good run for their money.
A
“Calling all. This is our last cry before our eternal silence.” Surprisingly this message, which flashed over the airwaves in the dots and dashes of Morse code on January 31st 1997, was not a desperate transmission by a radio operator on a sinking ship. Rather, it was a message signaling the end of the use of Morse code for distress calls in French waters. Since 1992 countries around the world have been decommissioning their Morse equipment with similar (if less poetic) sign-offs, as the world’s shipping switches over to a new satellite-based arrangement, the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System. The final deadline for the switch-over to GMDSS is February 1st, a date that is widely seen as the end of the art era.
B
The code has, however, had a good history. Appropriately for a technology commonly associated with radio operators on sinking ships, the idea of Morse code is said to have occurred to Samuel Morse while he was on board a ship crossing the Atlantic. At the time Morse was a painter and occasional inventor, but when another of the ship’s passengers informed him of recent advances in electrical theory, Morse was suddenly taken with the idea of building an electric telegraph to send messages in codes. Other inventors had been trying to do just that for the best part of a century. Morse succeeded and is now remembered as “the father of the telegraph” partly thanks to his single-mindedness—it was 12 years, for example, before he secured money from Congress to build his first telegraph line—but also for technical reasons.
C
Compared with rival electric telegraph designs, such as the needle telegraph developed by William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone in Britain, Morse’s design was very simple: it required little more than a “key” (essentially, a spring-loaded switch) to send messages, a clicking “sounder” to receive them, and a wire to link the two. But although Morse’s hardware was simple, there was a catch: in order to use his equipment, operators had to learn the special code of dots and dashes that still bears his name. Originally, Morse had not intended to use combinations of dots and dashes to represent individual letters. His first code, sketched in his notebook during that transatlantic voyage, used dots and dashes to represent the digits 0 to 9. Morse’s idea was that messages would consist of strings of numbers corresponding to words and phrases in a special numbered dictionary. But Morse later abandoned this scheme and, with the help of an associate, Alfred Vail, devised the Morse alphabet, which could be used to spell out messages a letter at a time in dots and dashes.
D
At first, the need to learn this complicated-looking code made Morse’s telegraph seem impossibly tricky compared with other, more user-friendly designs, Cooke’s and Wheatstone’s telegraph, for example, used five needles to pick out letters on a diamond-shaped grid. But although this meant that anyone could use it, it also required five wires between telegraph stations. Morse’s telegraph needed only one. And some people, it soon transpired, had a natural facility for Morse code.
E
As electric telegraphy took off in the early 1850s, the Morse telegraph quickly became dominant. It was adopted as the European standard in 1851, allowing direct connections between the telegraph networks of different countries. (Britain chose not to participate, sticking with needle telegraphs for a few more years.) By this time Morse code had been revised to allow for accents and other foreign characters, resulting in a split between American and International Morse that continues to this day.
F
On international submarine cables, left and right swings of a light-beam reflected from a tiny rotating mirror were used to represent dots and dashes. Meanwhile a distinct telegraphic subculture was emerging, with its own customs and vocabulary, and a hierarchy based on the speed at which operators could send and receive Morse code. First-class operators, who could send and receive at speeds of up to 45 words a minute, handled press traffic, securing the best-paid jobs in big cities. At the bottom of the pile were slow, inexperienced rural operators, many of whom worked the wires as part-timers. As their Morse code improved, however, rural operators found that their new-found skill was a passport to better pay in a city job. Telegraphers soon swelled the ranks of the emerging middle classes. Telegraphy was also deemed suitable work for women. By 1870, a third of the operators in the Western Union office in New York, the largest telegraph office in America, were female.
G
In a dramatic ceremony in 1871, Morse himself said goodbye to the global community of telegraphers he had brought into being. After a lavish banquet and many adulatory speeches, Morse sat down behind an operators table and, placing his finger on a key connected to every telegraph wire in America, tapped out his final farewell to a standing ovation. By the time of his death in 1872, the world was well and truly wired: more than 650,000 miles of telegraph line and 30,000 miles of submarine cable were throbbing with Morse code; and 20,000 towns and villages were connected to the global network. Just as the Internet is today often called an “information superhighway”, the telegraph was described in its day as an “instantaneous highway of thought”,
H
But by the 1890s the Morse telegraph’s heyday as a cutting-edge technology was coming to an end, with the invention of the telephone and the rise of automatic telegraphs, precursors of the teleprinter, neither of which required specialist skills to operate. Morse code, however, was about to be given a new lease of life thanks to another new technology: wireless. Following the invention of radiotelegraphy by Guglielmo Marconi in 1896, its potential for use at sea quickly became apparent. For the first time, ships could communicate with each other, and with the shore, whatever the weather and even when out of visual range. In 1897 Marconi successfully sent Morse code messages between a shore station and an Italian warship 19km (12 miles) away. By 1910, Morse radio equipment was commonplace on ships.
B. Bài tập
Questions 1-8
Reading passage 1 has eight paragraphs, A-H.
Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A-H from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-xi, in boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i The advantage of Morse’s invention
ii A suitable job for women
iii Morse’s invention was developed
iv Sea rescue after the invention of radiotelegraphy
v The emergence of many job opportunities
vi Standard and variations
vii Application of Morse code in a new technology
viii The discovery of electricity
ix International expansion of Morse Code
x The beginning of an end
xi The move of using code to convey information
Điểm số của bạn là % – đúng / câu
Questions 9-13
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
Điểm số của bạn là % – đúng / câu
C. Giải thích đáp án chi tiết
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1. Paragraph A x The beginning of an end
Đoạn A nói về việc các quốc gia từ bỏ Morse Code và bắt đầu chuyển sang dùng hệ thống GMDSS vào mùng 1 tháng 2, ngày mà được xem là kết thúc của 1 kỷ nguyên. Tức là ngày bắt đầu của hệ thống GMDSS là ngày kết thúc của Morse Code. |
Đoạn A: […] countries around the world have been decommissioning [….] The final deadline for the switch-over to GMDSS is February 1st, a date that is widely seen as the end of the art era. |
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2. Paragraph B xi The move of using code to convey information Morse đột nhiên nảy ra ý tưởng chế tạo một máy điện báo để gửi tin nhắn bằng mật mã. Nhiều nhà phát minh cũng đã cố gắng tạo ra điện tín vào thời điểm đó, nhưng Morse mới là người thành công và được xem là cha đẻ của điện tín. => Đoạn B nói về Morse mở đường cho một phương thức liên lạc mới (điện tín – sử dụng mật mã để truyền đạt thông tin). |
Đoạn B: […] but when another of the ship’s passengers informed him of recent advances in electrical theory, Morse was suddenly taken with the idea of building an electric telegraph to send messages in codes. Other inventors had been trying to do just that for the best part of a century. Morse succeeded and is now remembered as “the father of the telegraph” partly thanks to his single-mindedness—it was 12 years, for example, before he secured money from Congress to build his first telegraph line—but also for technical reasons. |
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3. Paragraph C iii Morse’s invention was developed Đoạn C nói về việc ban đầu, Morse không có ý định sử dụng kết hợp dấu chấm và dấu gạch ngang để thể hiện từng chữ cái riêng lẻ. Mã đầu tiên của ông sử dụng dấu chấm và dấu gạch ngang để biểu thị các chữ số từ 0 đến 9.[…]. Nhưng Morse sau đó đã từ bỏ kế hoạch này và với sự giúp đỡ của một cộng sự, Alfred Vail, đã phát minh ra bảng chữ cái Morse, có thể được sử dụng để đánh vần các thông điệp từng chữ cái bằng dấu chấm và dấu gạch ngang. => Cả đoạn C nói về phát minh của Morse được phát triển như thế nào. |
Đoạn C: Originally, Morse had not intended to use combinations of dots and dashes to represent individual letters. His first code, sketched in his notebook during that transatlantic voyage, used dots and dashes to represent the digits 0 to 9.[…]. But Morse later abandoned this scheme and, with the help of an associate, Alfred Vail, devised the Morse alphabet, which could be used to spell out messages a letter at a time in dots and dashes. |
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4. Paragraph D i The advantage of Morse’s invention Đoạn D nói về với phát minh của Morse thì chỉ cần 1 đường dây nối giữa các trạm điện tín. |
Đoạn D: But although this meant that anyone could use it, it also required five wires between telegraph stations. Morse’s telegraph needed only one. |
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5. Paragraph E vi Standard and variations Mã Morse được công nhận là tiêu chuẩn Châu Âu vào năm 1851. Cũng vào thời điểm đó, mã Morse đã được sửa đổi để tạo nên Morse của Mỹ và Morse quốc tế và tiếp tục được sử dụng cho đến ngày nay. => Đoạn E nói về phiên bản tiêu chuẩn (European standard) và hai biến thể của mã Morse (American and International Morse). |
Đoạn E: It was adopted as the European standard in 1851, allowing direct connections between the telegraph networks of different countries. By this time Morse code had been revised to allow for accents and other foreign characters, resulting in a split between American and International Morse that continues to this day. |
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6. Paragraph F v The emergence of many job opportunities Các nhà điều hành hạng nhất đã có những công việc được trả lương cao nhất ở các thành phố lớn. Và mã Morse cũng đem lại cơ hội việc làm cho:
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Đoạn F: First-class operators, who could send and receive at speeds of up to 45 words a minute, handled press traffic, securing the best-paid jobs in big cities. At the bottom of the pile were slow, inexperienced rural operators, many of whom worked the wires as part-timers. As their Morse code improved, however, rural operators found that their new-found skill was a passport to better pay in a city job. Telegraphers soon swelled the ranks of the emerging middle classes. Telegraphy was also deemed suitable work for women. By 1870, a third of the operators in the Western Union office in New York, the largest telegraph office in America, were female. |
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7. Paragraph G ix International expansion of Morse Code Đoạn G nói về sử mở rộng ra quốc tế của Morse Code. Cụ thể là thế giới đã được kết nối tốt hơn: hơn 650.000 dặm đường dây điện báo và 30.000 dặm cáp ngầm đang rộn ràng với mã Morse; và 20.000 thị trấn và làng mạc đã được kết nối với mạng lưới toàn cầu. |
Đoạn G: By the time of his death in 1872, the world was well and truly wired: more than 650,000 miles of telegraph line and 30,000 miles of submarine cable were throbbing with Morse code; and 20,000 towns and villages were connected to the global network. |
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8. Paragraph H vii Application of Morse code in a new technology Đoạn H nói về việc với sự ra đời của công nghệ không dây (wireless) thì mã Morse có tính ứng dụng mới, cụ thể là được sử dụng trên biển, giữa các tàu thuyền và đất liền. |
Đoạn H: Morse code, however, was about to be given a new lease of life thanks to another new technology: wireless. Following the invention of radiotelegraphy by Guglielmo Marconi in 1896, its potential for use at sea quickly became apparent. For the first time, ships could communicate with each other, and with the shore, whatever the weather and even when out of visual range. In 1897 Marconi successfully sent Morse code messages between a shore station and an Italian warship 19km (12 miles) away. By 1910, Morse radio equipment was commonplace on ships. |
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9. Morse had already been famous as an inventor before his invention of Morse code.
=> Vào thời điểm đó Morse là một họa sĩ và một nhà phát minh bình thường, chưa nổi tiếng.
=> Đáp án là FALSE |
Đoạn B: At the time Morse was a painter and occasional inventor, but when another of the ship’s passengers informed […] |
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10. Morse waited a long time before receiving support from the Congress.
=> Morse phải mất 12 năm mới nhận được tiền từ Quốc hội để xây dựng đường dây điện báo đầu tiên của mình. => Đáp án là TRUE |
Đoạn B: […] it was 12 years, for example, before he secured money from Congress to build his first telegraph line |
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11. Morse code is difficult to learn compared with other designs.
=> Ban đầu, việc học bảng mã nhìn phức tạo này khiến điện báo Morse có vẻ khó học hơn nếu so sánh với những thiết bị khác thân thiện với người dùng. => Đáp án là TRUE |
Đoạn D: At first, the need to learn this complicated-looking code made Morse’s telegraph seem impossibly tricky compared with other, more user-friendly designs […] |
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12. Companies and firms prefer to employ telegraphy operators from rural areas.
Ở nhóm cuối là những người điều hành nông thôn thiếu kinh nghiệm, nhiều người trong số họ làm việc bán thời gian. Tuy nhiên, khi mã Morse của họ được cải thiện, những người điều hành ở nông thôn nhận thấy rằng kỹ năng mới tìm được của họ là tấm hộ chiếu để được trả lương cao hơn khi làm việc ở thành phố. => Không nhắc đến thông tin các công ty và doanh nghiệp thích tuyển dụng các nhà khai thác điện báo từ khu vực nông thôn. => Đáp án là NOT GIVEN |
Đoạn F: At the bottom of the pile were slow, inexperienced rural operators, many of whom worked the wires as part-timers. As their Morse code improved, however, rural operators found that their new-found skill was a passport to better pay in a city job. |
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13. Morse died from overwork.
=> Chỉ có thông tin Morse qua đời vào năm 1872, không có nói Morse qua đời vì cái gì.
=> Đáp án là NOT GIVEN |
Đoạn G: By the time of his death in 1872, […] |
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