Question 370
HardOriginal questionWhen a phone shows your position on a map, it is working out where you are from the signals of satellites. For a long time, most of the world on satellite systems run by a few other countries. India decided to build a system of its own: the Indian Navigation Satellite System, better known as NavIC.
As the word "regional" suggests, NavIC is not meant to cover the whole globe. Its service area is India itself and the region up to 1,500 km beyond India's borders. Within that area, it is designed to give a position accurate to better than 20 metres.
The system offers two kinds of service. The first, the Standard Positioning Service, is open to everyone. The second, called the Restricted Service, is and available only to users.
The possible uses are wide. NavIC can guide vehicles on land, ships at sea and aircraft in the air, help manage disasters, track of lorries, and give travellers and hikers a way to find their route. It can be built into mobile phones, and it can supply precise timing, which matters to many modern systems. Having a system of its own also means that India does not have to rely on another country's satellites for any of this.
The writer begins the passage with a phone showing a position on a map in order to
Show the answer and explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
Almost every reader has seen a phone show their position. Starting there makes the idea of satellite navigation familiar before the passage turns to NavIC.
The second sentence then moves from the familiar example to the need that led India to build its own system.
Worth noting
The opening is not a complaint: it simply states a fact about dependence, which the passage explains later.
- Concept
- Recognising how a writer opens a passage
- Typical timeTypical
- 55 s
- Your timeYours
- —
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