When Noon Moved
When Noon Moved
For most of history, a town did not need anyone else's permission to know the time. When the sun stood highest in the sky, it was noon, and the clockmaker in the main street set the town clock to twelve. Everyone else set their clocks by it.
The trouble is that the sun does not reach its highest point everywhere at once. Because the Earth turns from west to east, noon arrives about four minutes later for every degree of longitude you travel west. In the 1800s, Melbourne's noon came about twenty-five minutes after Sydney's, and Adelaide's came later still. Each town's time was correct for that town, and wrong for every other.
For a long time this hardly mattered. A coach journey between two towns took days, and nobody could tell whether a traveller had arrived at ten past or twenty-five past the hour by someone else's clock. Then two inventions changed the scale of things. The railway carried people hundreds of kilometres in a day, and the telegraph carried messages along the same route in moments. A timetable printed in one city now had to make sense at a station far away, and a guard who read the wrong clock could send two trains onto the same stretch of single track.
The railways began running all their trains on one city's time, whatever the clock in the local main street said. For a while, some towns kept two times at once: "town time" on the main-street clock and "railway time" on the station wall, a few minutes apart.
In 1895, the Australian colonies moved to standard time, dividing the continent into three broad zones, each with one standard time. Clocks inside a zone would all show the same hour, even if that meant noon on the clock no longer matched noon in the sky. Not everyone was pleased. Some people complained that their clocks now told a lie about the sun. But within a generation, few people could imagine doing it any other way, and the idea that every town should keep its own time began to seem as strange as it had once seemed natural.
Worked explanation 1
The writer mentions that a guard who read the wrong clock "could send two trains onto the same stretch of single track". This detail suggests that, once railways arrived,
- AA.
the guards on early railways were often careless about their work
- BB.
mismatched clocks had become a safety risk, not just a nuisance
- CC.
the railways ran more trains than their tracks could safely carry
- DD.
trains were more dangerous to travel on than coaches had been
Answer: B
Answer: B (mismatched clocks had become a safety risk, not just a nuisance)
Two trains on one single track could crash, so the writer is showing that a few minutes' difference between clocks could now put people in danger. Before railways, the difference 'hardly mattered'; now it could cause an accident. The detail raises the stakes from convenience to safety. The answer is B.
The trap: C tempts because the detail pictures two trains crowded onto one track. But the danger comes from a guard reading the wrong clock, not from there being too many trains.
Why the other options are wrong
- A (the guards on early railways were often careless about their work): The guard's mistake comes from the clocks disagreeing, not from careless guards.
- C (the railways ran more trains than their tracks could safely carry): The problem is clocks that disagree, not too many trains; the passage never says the tracks were overloaded.
- D (trains were more dangerous to travel on than coaches had been): The passage never compares how safe trains and coaches were overall.
The Windmill at Dry Gully
The Windmill at Dry Gully
Out past the shearing shed, alone,
the old windmill stands on its iron legs
and turns its face to every wind
as if it were listening for its name.
When the wind calls, it answers —
round and round, and creak, and round —
pulling water up from somewhere dark
and pouring it, cold, into the trough.
The cattle drink and never look up.
My brother says it's just a pump.
It has joined the view, like the fences,
the gums along the creek, the sky.
Only in the stillest week of summer,
when the blades hang where they stopped
and the trough shows a ring of dried green,
does everyone look up at it —
the way you only notice the kitchen clock
on the night it forgets to tick.
Worked explanation 4
In the first two stanzas, the poet describes the windmill as if it were a person who
- AA.
is lonely and wishes the family would visit it more often
- BB.
is too old and tired to do its work properly any more
- CC.
is frightened of the strong winds out past the shed
- DD.
listens out for the wind and answers it by getting to work
Answer: D
Answer: D (listens out for the wind and answers it by getting to work)
The windmill 'turns its face to every wind / as if it were listening for its name', and 'When the wind calls, it answers'. Together these make it sound like someone waiting to be called, who sets to work as soon as they are. The rest of stanza 2 is the work itself: pumping water. The answer is D.
The trap: A tempts because of the word 'alone' in line 1. But the poem never shows the windmill wanting company; 'alone' just places it far from the shed.
Why the other options are wrong
- A (is lonely and wishes the family would visit it more often): 'Alone' describes where it stands, not a wish for visitors.
- B (is too old and tired to do its work properly any more): 'Old' and 'creak' do not mean it fails; it still pumps cold water.
- C (is frightened of the strong winds out past the shed): It turns towards the wind, which is the opposite of being afraid of it.
Cartoon: Walk to School Day
Cartoon: Walk to School Day
A cartoon shows the front gate of a primary school on a sunny morning. A large banner across the gate reads WALK TO SCHOOL DAY – Leave the car at home!
Below the banner, a long queue of cars stretches down the street and out of sight, bumper to bumper, with fumes drifting from their exhausts. In the front car, a parent leans out of the driver's window and asks a teacher who is holding a clipboard, "Where do we park for the walk?"
On the footpath beside the queue, one small child with a backpack is walking past all the cars, alone. The child is clearly going to reach the gate first.
The caption under the cartoon reads: Everyone's doing their bit.
Worked explanation 6
What is the main point the cartoonist is making?
- AA.
People can claim to support a good idea while their actions work against it.
- BB.
Schools should provide more parking for parents on special event days.
- CC.
Walking to school is unsafe because of the heavy traffic near schools.
- DD.
Teachers are not organised enough to run special events properly.
Answer: A
Answer: A (People can claim to support a good idea while their actions work against it.)
The banner asks families to leave the car at home, yet the street is jammed with cars, and the parent in front wants to park 'for the walk'. The families think they are joining in, but by driving they undo the whole point of the day. The joke is the gap between saying and doing. The answer is A.
The trap: B tempts because the parent asks about parking. But the cartoonist is laughing at the question, not agreeing that more parking is needed.
Why the other options are wrong
- B (Schools should provide more parking for parents on special event days.): The parking question is the joke, not the cartoonist's suggestion.
- C (Walking to school is unsafe because of the heavy traffic near schools.): The one child who walks is doing fine; the cartoon is not a safety warning.
- D (Teachers are not organised enough to run special events properly.): The teacher is not shown doing anything wrong; the drivers are the target.
