Espionage, Intrigue and Fighting for Equality — Test Answers

Read the excerpt from "The Rosetta Stone.” Then chance stepped in. In 1798, Napoleon went to Egypt to protect its trade interests. In addition to an army, he brought along Egyptian scholars who were charged with copying the inscriptions and studying the architecture. The following year, the French bolstered their defenses by rebuilding a fort in the town of Rosetta. In the midst of the fortification, the Rosetta Stone was discovered. Ironically, this large stone tablet was found not by one of the scholars but by a soldier. Luckily, he recognized that the inscriptions must have value. Militarily, Napoleon's Egyptian campaign was a disaster—the British decimated the French navy—but historically, it was of long-lasting importance. Which best describes the primary structure of this excerpt?

Which best describes the author’s viewpoint toward the actual Rosetta Stone in "The Rosetta Stone”?

If someone were to describe "The Rosetta Stone” to a friend, he or she would most likely compare it to

Read the excerpt from "The Rosetta Stone.” Egyptian scripts were replaced with Coptic, which included six demotic characters. In the ninth century, Arab scholar Abu Bakr Ahmad Ibn-Wahshiyah was able to partly decipher the hieroglyphs by comparing them to Coptic. But in the eleventh century, it too was replaced, by Arabic. The link was once again severed. For centuries, Western scholars tried to decipher the hieroglyphs, with little success. They were working under a false hypothesis, that the hieroglyphs were pictograms, with each symbol representing an object or an idea. Which is the best summary of this paragraph?

Read the excerpt from The Dark Game . Cable messages from Europe to the United States traveled through transatlantic cables that passed deep in the English Channel. The British saw the cables as an opportunity to gain access to secret diplomatic messages sent from Berlin to its ambassador in Washington, D.C. Knowing they couldn't tap the cables the way they could tap phone lines, the British did the next best thing. The cable ship Telconia cut all five of the cables that carried communications through the channel. Which structure is mainly used in the excerpt?

Read the excerpt from The Dark Game . On January 16, 1917, in a clear attempt to convince the Mexican government to help Germany in the war, Arthur Zimmermann, the German foreign secretary, sent a telegram to Count von Bernstorff, the German ambassador in Washington. The foreign secretary wanted to be certain that this message reached von Bernstorff, so he made arrangements for it to be carried aboard a U-boat to Sweden and from there to Washington through diplomatic channels. Which statement best explains how the evidence from this excerpt leads to the inference that the message Zimmermann sent was important?

Read the excerpt from The Dark Game . As a result of the cut cables, Germany lost its most secure long-distance communications system. The Germans now had to rely on radio transmissions from their powerful wireless station at Nauen, a few miles from Berlin. Which was exactly what the British military knew they would have to do. And once the Germans began sending wireless messages, MI8, the British code breakers, began plucking them from the air. Of course, all German correspondence was sent in a complicated cipher system, so that was when the hard work began for the code breakers of MI8. Which type of structure is used in the excerpt?

Read the excerpt from The Dark Game . On February 24, when Hall sensed that the Zimmermann telegram would tip the balance in favor of the U.S. joining the Allied forces, the British home secretary presented the telegram to President Wilson. One week later, news of the Zimmermann telegram was splashed across the front page of American newspapers. On April 6, 1917, the Congress of the United States declared war on Germany and its allies. What statement best explains the cause and effect structure of the excerpt?

Read the excerpt from The Code Book. Other attacks include the use of viruses and Trojan horses. Eve might design a virus that infects PGP software and sits quietly inside Alice's computer. When Alice uses her private key to decrypt a message, the virus would wake up and make a note of it. The next time that Alice connects to the Internet, the virus would surreptitiously send the private key to Eve, thereby allowing her to decipher all subsequent messages sent to Alice. One way to better connect with this excerpt is to

Heidi has a writing assignment to connect The Code Book to her own life. Which line from her assignment best demonstrates Heidi’s connection with the text?

Peter is writing about this excerpt from The Code Book . A variation on the Trojan horse is a brand-new piece of encryption software that seems secure, but which actually contains a backdoor , something that allows its designers to decrypt everybody's messages. In 1998, a report by Wayne Madsen revealed that the Swiss cryptographic company Crypto AG had built backdoors into some of its products, and had provided the U.S. Government with details of how to exploit these backdoors. As a result, America was able to read the communications of several countries. Which of Peter’s lines shows that he is using personal experience to understand the reading?

Read the excerpt from The Dark Game: True Spy Stories from Invisible Ink to CIA Moles . Wyke's work was always delicate and demanding, more so in the damp and confined space. Gently and carefully, Wyke scraped the dirt until he found the three cables encased in black rubber and, he believed, pressurized by nitrogen, a common practice in the 1950s to keep moisture out of cables. He knew that once he cut through the rubber sheathing on the cables, the nitrogen would escape. The resulting drop in pressure would be detected by the Soviets. The engineers solved this potential problem by building a concrete barrier with a steel door to pressurize the tap chamber and separate it from the pre-amp room. (It turned out that the cables were not pressurized.) Wyke next attached wires to the exposed cable—probably with alligator clips—and began to draw power from the cables. Once again, the work called for a deft hand. If he drew off too much power, the Soviets would be sure to notice it. As expected, Wyke did a masterful job, and the tapping began on May 11, 1955. Which sentence best states the controlling idea of the passage?

Read the excerpt from "The Enigma Machine.” Cryptologists looked for cribs, which are repeated expressions in messages. Sloppy operators would repeat phrases like "nothing to report" or "weather forecast" ( Wettervorhersage ), which served as clues. If there were no cribs to be found, the British would send out false information about, say, British mines planted in a given area. The Germans might then send messages with the name of that area, which would provide clues about deciphering that code. Which is the meaning of the word cryptologists ?

Which excerpt from " The Enigma Machine ” supports the idea that Allied forces expected the Germans to complicate their coding system?

Which best describes the author’s viewpoint about the people who learned to decipher the Enigma in "The Enigma Machine”?

Read the excerpt from "The Enigma Machine.” At Bletchley Park, the main site in Britain where Enigma codes were deciphered, six thousand messages were decoded every day by a staff of ten thousand men and women. Many of the messages were inconsequential, but more than a few were critical to the outcome of the war. Which is the best summary of this paragraph?

Read the excerpt about Elizabeth Van Lew from The Dark Game: True Spy Stories from Invisible Ink to CIA Moles . No one in Libby Prison hospital paid much attention to this tiny, birdlike woman with a thin nose and alert blue eyes as she went about her business of visiting the hospitalized soldiers. She read to them and brought them baskets of goodies. The Confederate guards had no idea that this kindhearted woman was gathering military intelligence from the prisoners and laying the groundwork for espionage activities. Which statement best describes the author’s viewpoint about Elizabeth Van Lew?

Read this excerpt from The Dark Game . But Elizabeth wanted to do more than simply minister and comfort the wounded. A Unionist, believing in "one nation . . . indivisible," she needed to do more. When she learned of Virginia's secession from the Union in 1861, she felt, in the words of one historian, "profoundly betrayed." She believed that the secessionists did not represent the majority of the citizens of Virginia. She was compelled to act in any way she could to help repair a nation torn apart. How does this excerpt develop the central idea that espionage during the Civil War was often carried out by untrained citizens?

Read the excerpt from The Dark Game: True Spy Stories from Invisible Ink to CIA Moles . Armed with invisible ink, a cipher system, and a passion to end the war and preserve the Union, Elizabeth Van Lew became Butler’s eyes and ears in the Confederate capital city. Truth be told, however, she became much more than that. She became a spymaster, the person responsible for running a network of agents, couriers, and safe houses that was very active during the war. Which word best describes the tone of the passage?

Read this paragraph from The Dark Game . When the war began, Elizabeth Van Lew was considered a southern "spinster." She was in her early forties and unmarried. What could she do, she wondered, to serve her country? The answer came to her when she recalled her father's aunt Letitia telling her how she had ministered to the captured troops of the Continental army during the American Revolution, especially those who had been wounded in action. What is the best summary of this paragraph?