【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 14-17
Greek soldiers sent messages by turning their shields toward the sun．The flashes reflected light could be seen several miles away．The enemy did not know what the flashes meant．but other Greek soldiers could understand the messages．[14]Roman soldiers in some places built long rows of signal towers. When they had a message to send the soldiers shouted it from tower to tower. If there were enough towers and enough soldiers with loud voices．important news could be sent quickly over distance．
[16]In Africa, people learned to send messages by beating on a series of large drums. Each drum was kept within hearing distance of the next one．The drum beats were sent out in a special way that all the drummers understood．Though the messages were simple，they could be sent at great speed for hundreds of miles．
In the eighteenth century，[15]a French engineer found a new way to send short messages. In this way, a person held a flag in each hand and the arms were moved to various positions representing different letters of the alphabet．It was like spelling out words with flags and arms．
Over a long period of time，people sent messages by all these different ways． [17]However,not until the telephone was invented in America in the nineteenth century could people send speech sounds over a great distance in just a few seconds．

[解析] 事实细节题。短文中提到，罗马人建造了许多信号塔来传递信号，故B是正确答案。读题时可知听音重点 要放在与Roman soldiers~关的信息上。文中谈及罗马时，多次重复关键词tower，考生比较容易抓住该信息， 选出正确答案。选项A是古希腊人的方法，选项C和D是在介绍18世纪法国工程师发明的方法时提到的。

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 事实细节兼推理判断题。短文提到，一个法国工程师发明了一种传递信息的新方法，他们用双手各拿 一面旗帜，挥舞手臂，拼出不同的字母。所以选项C表述正确，为本题答案。

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 事实细节题。短文中说，非洲人通过击鼓来传递信号，故C是正确答案。文中提及，非洲人以一种特殊的方式击鼓，但击鼓本身并不特别，故可排除干扰项A；该方式可以快速地传递数百里的距离，B、D与原文相悖。

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 地点细节题。短文最后说，电话最先出现在美国，故D是正确答案。本题比较简单，只需抓住telephone这 个信息．听到什么地点就选什么。而且，however，but等转折词之后的信息往往是考点所在。