Multiple Choice, Single Answer (Reading) — practice #rmcsa-003

The concept of universal time zones emerged from a practical problem created by the railways. Before standardisation, each town set its clocks by the local position of the sun, so a journey of a few hundred kilometres could pass through dozens of slightly different times. This patchwork made railway schedules confusing and sometimes dangerous, as trains sharing a single track relied on accurate timing to avoid collisions. In 1884, delegates meeting in Washington agreed to divide the globe into standard zones measured from a prime meridian at Greenwich. Although some communities resisted abandoning their familiar local time, the new system gradually took hold worldwide. Today, coordinated time zones underpin global trade, communication, and travel, yet their origin lay in the simple need to keep nineteenth-century trains running safely and on schedule.