Sales of George Orwell’s ________________ (A) novel Nineteen Eighty-Four have spiked twice recently, both times in response to political events. In early 2017, the idea of ‘alternative facts’ called to mind Winston Smith, the book’s protagonist and, as a clerk in the Ministry of Truth, a professional
alternator of facts. And in 2013, the US National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden ____________ (B) widespread government surveillance explicitly to what Orwell had imagined: ‘The types of collection in the book – microphones and video cameras, TVs that _________ (C) us – are nothing compared to what we have available today.’
Snowden was right. Re-reading Nineteen Eighty-Four in 2018, one is struck by the ‘TVs that watch us’, which Orwell called telescreens. The telescreen is one of the first objects we_____________(D): ‘The instrument (the telescreen, it was called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of _____________ (E) completely.’ It is omnipresent, in every private room and public space, right up until the end of the book, when it is ‘still pouring forth its tale of prisoners and booty and slaughter’ even after Smith has resigned himself to its rule.
What’s most striking about the telescreen’s ubiquity is how right and how wrong Orwell was about our technological present. Screens are not just a part of life today: they are our lives. We ___________ (F) digitally so often and in such depth that it’s hard for many of us to imagine (or remember) what life used to be like. And now, all that interaction is recorded. Snowden was not the first to point out how far smartphones and social media are from what Orwell imagined. He couldn’t have known how eager we’d be to ______________ (G) our telescreens and carry them with us everywhere we go, or how readily we’d sign over the data we produce to companies that fuel our need to connect. We are at once _________________ (H) by telescreens and so far past them that Orwell couldn’t have seen our world coming.
Or could he? Orwell gives us a couple of clues about where telescreens came from, clues that point toward a surprising origin for the ______________ (I) state that Nineteen Eighty-Four describes. Taking them seriously means looking toward the corporate world rather than to our current governments as the likely source of freedom’s demise. If Orwell was right, consumer choice – indeed, the ideology of choice itself – might be how the erosion of choice really starts.
The first clue comes in the form of a technological absence. For the first time, Winston finds himself in a room without a telescreen: ‘There’s no telescreen!’ he could not help murmuring. ‘Ah,’ said the old man, ‘I never had one of those things. Too expensive. And I never seemed to feel the need of it, somehow.’
Though we learn to take the old man’s statements__________________ (J), it seems that – at some point, for some people – the owning of a telescreen was a matter of choice.
The second hint is dropped in a book within the book: a banned history of the rise of ‘the Party’ authored by one of its early architects who has since become ‘the Enemy of the People’. The book credits technology with the ______________(K) of privacy, and here we catch a glimpse of the world in which we live: ‘With the development of television, and the technical advance which made it possible to receive and transmit simultaneously on the same instrument, private life came to an end.’
A)
I- DystopianII- Fictional
III- Fabricated
IV- Mythical
V- None of the above
Solution: I as the Orwell speculates on how the future might turn out by emphasizing the ways a present situation could turn ugly so dystopian is the best word to describe the novel.
B)
I- AnalyzedII- Distinguishing
III- scrutinizes
IV- Compared
V- None of the above
Solution: IV it is talking about the past event so II and II will be eliminated. Compared is the best choice. Hence IV is the right choice.
C)
I- SeeII- Discern
III- Watch
IV- Perceive
V- None of the above
Solution: III discern is to recognize and find out. Perceive is to become conscious or aware of anything. Here only watch fulfil the blank correctly so it is the only choice.
D)
I- ExperienceII- Confront
III- Encounter
IV- None of the above
V- Both II and III
Solution: V both confront and encounter means face something and both can fulfil the blank coherently correct.
E)
I- Starting itII- Shutting it off
III- Convene
IV- both II and III
V- none of the above
Solution: II it is said in the former part of sentence telescreen can be dimmed so starting it will not be the correct choice. It can be dimmed but it cannot be stopped.
F)
I- AcquaintII- Apprise
III- Uncouth
IV- Interact
V- None of the above
Solution: IV apprise is to inform someone and it is usually followed by of which is not case here. Uncouth is an adjective which means uncivilized person. Only interact completes the blank in a logical manner.
G)
I- ExpandII- Explicate
III- Shrink down
IV- Both I and II
V- None of the above
Solution: III we can carry telescreen anywhere by shrinking it down only. So option III is the right choice.
H)
I- EncompassII- Surrounded
III- Gratuitous
IV- Reinforced
V- None of the above
Solution: II we are surrounded by telescreen everytime. SO surrounded is the only right choice here.
I)
I- TotalitarianII- Democracy
III- Laissez- fairre
IV- None of the above
V- Both I and III
Solution: I Totalitarian is relating to a system of government that is centralized and dictatorial and requires complete subservience to the state.
J)
I- Fait accompliII- Daft as a brush
III- With a grain of salt
IV- Keep at bay
V- None of the above
Solution: III with a grain of salt means to view something with scepticism or not to interpret something literally. And here it is saying it is a choice of using telescreen so we can’t say the old man statements are completely correct. So III is the right choice.
K)
I- DestructionII- Increase
III- Edifice
IV- Maintaining
V- None of the above
Solution: I the book credited technology as the destruction of privacy, so the word destruction is the only correct choice here.
