阅读理解
A new book claims to have definitive evidence of a long-suspected technological crime-that Alexander
Graham Bell stole ideas for the telephone from a competitor, Elisha Gray.
In The Telephone Gambit:Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret,journalist Seth Shulman argues
that Bell-aided by aggressive lawyers and a corrupt patent examiner-got an improper glance at patent
documents Gray had filed,and that Bell was incorrectly credited with filing first.
Shulman believes the smoking gun is Bell's lab notebook,which was limited by Bell's family until 1976,
then digitized and made widely available in 1999.
The notebook details the false starts Bell met as he and assistant Thomas Watson tried transmitting
sound electromagnetically over a wire.Then,after a 12-day gap in 1876-when Bell went to Washington to
sort out patent questions about his work-he suddenly began trying another kind of voice transmitter.That
method was the one that proved successful.
As Bell described that new approach,he drew a diagram of a person speaking into a device.Gray's
patent documents,which described a similar technique,also featured a very similar diagram.
Shulman's book describes other elements that have angered researchers' suspicions. For instance,Bell's
transmitter design appears hastily(草率地) written in the margin of his patent; Bell was nervous about
demonstrating his device with Gray present; Bell resisted testifying(作证) in an 1878 lawsuit solving this
question; and Bell,as if ashamed,quickly distanced himself from the telephone patent right bearing his name.
Perhaps the most instructive lesson comes when Shulman explores why historical memory has favoured
Bell but not Gray-nor German inventor Philipp Reis.who beat them both with 1860s telephones that
employed a different principle.
One reason is simply that Bell,not Gray.actually demonstrated a phone that transmitted speech.Gray
was focused instead on his era's pressing communications challenge:how to send multiple messages
simultaneously(同时地) over the same telegraph wire.As Gray shouted to his lawyers,"I should like to
see Bell do that with his instruments."
1.The phrase"the smoking gun"in Paragraph 3 means" ".
A.the cause of a series of things
B.something proving what one has done
C.the conclusion of a complex case
D.something used to confuse people
2.According to Shulman,how did Bell steal the idea for telephone from Gray?
A.He secretly looked at Gray's patent documents.
B.He watched secretly while Gray was experimenting.
C.He was told the new technique by Gray's assistant.
D.He learned the new technique from the patent examiner.
3.How many examples are given by Shulman to prove that Bell stole the idea?
A.3.
B.4.
C.5.
D.6.
4.History treats Bell as the inventor of telephone because .
A.he had written transmitter design in his patent
B.he founded a telephone company bearing his name
C.he proved how to send many messages at the same time
D.he made an actual demonstration of transmitting speech
