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I recently had this question on a placement exam, and I got it wrong. (I'm sorry it is a bit long question but it is not boring)

The influence of technology on diplomacy can be illustrated by leaked and misunderstood telegrams, which shaped the history in unexpected ways. For example, the 1917 Zimmermann telegram (sent by German foreign minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German Mission in Mexico and intercepted by the British) instructed the German representative to start negotiating Mexico’s entrance into World War I as a German ally by offering Mexico control of the US states of New Mexico, Utah and California after the war. The Zimmermann telegram was leaked at a time when the American public were still neutral and not ready to join World War I. It prompted the United States to join the Allied forces. The most illustrative case study of the influence of the telegraph on diplomacy was the 1914 July crisis that led to the beginning of the World War I. Telegraph messages were being sent between St. Petersburg, Berlin, Belgrade, Vienna, Paris and other countries involved in the conflict. However, there was little awareness of how to use the telegraph properly. The Russian czar sent a conciliatory note to Germany, but the German kaiser had already sent a note that was not conciliatory at all, thus creating communication confusion and mistrust that contributed toward escalation and ultimately war. A new technology coupled with human failure led to an unfortunate outcome.

As it stated in the passage, the 1914 July crisis........................

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I chose option D because I thought the telegraph system is susceptible to interception and can cause misunderstandings due to lack of effectiveness and frustration eventually.To me it seems to be a reasonable sentence and I don't understand why it was wrong, or what would make one of the other options better. Can someone explain what the correct choice is, and why it is the best fit?

Deniz
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  • D might be true or it might not. There's nothing in the paragraph that indicates that the parties to the eventual conflict distrusted telegraphy in general. The US trusted that the Zimmerman telegram was authentic (It was.), the Tsar trusted that the telegraphy system had sent his conciliatory telegram, and the Kaiser trusted that the system had sent his belligerent one. The distrust was between countries: the Tsar likely didn't understand why his conciliatory message got a belligerent one in reply, and the Kaiser likely didn't understand the reverse. – deadrat Apr 07 '16 at 18:06
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is less about language and usage than it is about challenging the answers on a test. – Rob_Ster Apr 07 '16 at 18:06
  • @Rob_Ster Yeah, it's about misunderstanding inferences from unambiguous text. Closeworthy. – deadrat Apr 07 '16 at 18:08
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    The passage you're asked to read is not clear about the nature of the confusion. The use of the word already suggests that the timing of the messages had something to do with the problem; moreover, answer B's "a confusion in understanding" is total crap when it comes to clarity. Don't let the question bug you. – TimR Apr 07 '16 at 18:18

1 Answers1

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The answer would be B.

I will go through each answer and explain the logic.

A

Is wrong. Because:

However, there was little awareness of how to use the telegraph properly

The ending of A clearly states that they knew very well how to use it. But they didn't according to your question.

B

Is correct. Because:

The Russian czar sent a conciliatory note to Germany, but the German kaiser had already sent a note that was not conciliatory at all, thus creating communication confusion and mistrust that contributed toward escalation and ultimately war.

C

Is wrong. Because:

Telegraph messages were being sent between St. Petersburg, Berlin, Belgrade, Vienna, Paris and other countries involved in the conflict.

There weren't any technical problems. Only human error.

D

Is wrong. Because it wasn't a distrust in the system. It was distrust in the people.

E

Is wrong. The other countries were mentioned, but not entirely relevant to the question.

Community
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LiHRaM
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