A Brief Biography of Thomas Edison Questions

Which sentence BEST summarizes a main idea of the passage?

• Thomas Alva Edison was born February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio.

• He is sometimes called the "Wizard of Menlo Park" because he created two of his three greatest work there.

• Edison also designed a system of power plants that make the electrical and the wiring that brings it to people's homes.

• But he knew that having a good idea was not enough.

Which sentence BEST explains the impact of Thomas Edison's work?

• In his spare time, he took things apart to see how they worked.

• He also improved the telegraph, making it send up to four messages at once.

• The phonograph was the first machine that could record the sound of someone's voice and play it back.

• The inventions made here changed the way we live even today.

Read the quote from the passage. According to this quote, how did Edison live his life?

Edison liked to say, "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration."

• He employed many people to help him with his inventions.

• He did not give up on his inventions when he had a problem.

• He became discouraged when an invention required extra work.

• He came up with ideas for inventions but did not always develop them.

What is the MOST LIKELY reason that Edison was called the "Wizard of Menlo Park"?

• Edison invented the phonograph and light bulb in Menlo Park.

• Edison worked long hours at his lab in Menlo Park.

• People did not understand the work Edison did in Menlo Park.

• People were uneasy about what Edison accomplished in Menlo Park.

Which BEST describes how Edison's system of power plants was related to another one of his inventions?

• Power plants gave Edison the idea for making motion pictures.

• Power plants allowed people to use light bulbs in their homes.

• Power plants made it easier to produce phonographs.

• Power plants helped people to learn Morse code.

Edison invented the phonograph, a machine that records sound. The Greek prefix phono- means "sound," or "voice." Based on this definition, what is phonology the study of?

• word spelling

• word pronunciation

• word use

• word meaning