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 托福閱讀真題 Early Cinema Task (1)

Paragraph 1: The cinema did not emerge as a form of mass consumption until its technology evolved from the initial “peepshow” format to the point where images were projected on a screen in a darkened theater. In the peepshow format, a film was viewed through a small opening in a machine that was created for that purpose. Thomas Edison’s peepshow device, the Kinetoscope, was introduced to the public in 1894. It was designed for use in Kinetoscope parlors , or arcades, which contained only a few individual machines and permitted only one customer to view a short, 50-foot film at any one time. The first Kinetoscope parlors contained five machines. For the price of 25 cents (or 5 cents per machine), customers moved from machine to machine to watch five different films (or, in the case of famous prizefights, successive rounds of a single fight).

1) According to paragraph 1, all of the following were true of viewing films in Kinetoscope parlors EXCEPT:

○ One individual at a time viewed a film.

○ Customers could view one film after another.

○ Prizefights were the most popular subjects for films.

○ Each film was short

  Paragraph 2: These Kinetoscope arcades were modeled on phonograph parlors, which had proven successful for Edison several years earlier. In the photograph parlors, customers listened to recordings through individual ear tubes, moving from one machine to the next to hear different recorded speeches or pieces of music. The Kinetoscope parlors functioned in a similar way. Edison was more interested in the sale of Kinetoscopes (for roughly $1,000 apiece) to these parlors than in the films that would be run in them (which cost approximately $10 to $15 each). He refused to develop projection technology, reasoning that if he made and sold projector, than exhibitors would purchase one machine-a projector-from him instead of several.

  2) The author discusses phonograph parlors in paragraph 2 in order to

 ○ Explain Edison’s financial success

 ○ Describe the model used to design Kinetoscope parlors

 ○ Contrast their popularity to that Kinetoscope parlors

 ○ Illustrate how much more technologically advanced Kinetoscope parlors were

3. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence from the passage?

 Incorrect answer choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.

 ○ Edison was more interested in developing a variety of machines than in developing a technology based on only one.

 ○ Edison refused to work on projection technology because he did not think exhibitors would replace their projectors with newer machines.

 ○ Edison did not want to develop projection technology because it limited the number of machines he could sell.

 ○ Edison would not develop projection technology unless exhibitors agreed to purchase more than one projector from him.

  Paragraph 3: Exhibitors, however, wanted to maximize their profits, which they could do more readily by projecting a handful of films to hundreds of customers at a time (rather than one at a time ) and by charging 25 to 50 cents admission. About a year after the opening of the first Kinetoscope parlor in 1894, showmen such as Louis and Auguste Lumiere, Thomas Armat and Charles Francis Jenkins, and Orville and Woodville Latham (with the assistance of Edison’s former assistant, William Dickson) perfected projection devices. These early projection devices were used in vaudeville theaters, legitimate theaters, local town halls, makeshift storefront theaters, fairgrounds, and amusement parks to show films to a mass audience.

4) The word readily in the passage is closest in meaning to

  ○ Frequently

  ○ Easily

  ○ Intelligently

  ○ Obviously

5) The word assistance in the passage is closest in meaning to

  ○  Criticism

  ○  Leadership

  ○  Help

  ○  Approval