Which word could best replace ‘escalation’ in sentence 4?
Direction for questions 19 to 24: The following passage is an early draft of an essay. Some parts of the passage need to be rewritten. Read the passage and select the best answers for the questions that follow. Some questions are about particular sentences or parts of sentences and ask you to improve sentence structure or word choice. Other questions ask you to consider organization and development. In choosing answers, follow the requirements of standard written English.
My Laptop
(1)In the Stone Age, our ancestors used tablets to organize important thoughts, keep track of daily activities, and pass on their knowledge to future generations. (2) Their method of writing was inefficient as much effort was being put into carving and preserving the tablet, while the end result contained little information relative to its size. (3) As technologies evolve, we have refined our methods of writing and have come up with newer, cheaper, and more efficient ways to communicate. (4) Living in the age of information escalation, my most intimate experience with writing technologies comes from the use of my royal blue VAIO.
(5) In this essay, I will first describe how I have been shaped by my laptop, then provide nuanced detail about my use of it, and finally explain why my relationship with it is interesting.
(6) First, my laptop has shaped my style of living for the better. (7) Throughout my undergraduate years, I have taken the opportunity to travel and try many new things. (8) Specifically, I have participated in a few three to six month internship / cooperative education program in order to learn more about my own career aptitude. (9) During temporary relocations to Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, and Taipei, my laptop has always accompanied me and provided great mobility to wherever destination. (10) In this, through the use of Outlook Express and AIM, my VAIO helped me communicate with colleagues during the day, and family and friends at night. (11) Beyond that, I believe the convenience of relocation that is implied in laptop ownership has vastly broadened my world views and has allowed me to become more independent as a young adult.
(12) Other than being a necessary traveling companion, my laptop has also become an integral part of my life while at school. (13) For instance, I use it to manage mutual fund investments, organize lecture notes and homework, read the news (I spend a lot of time at cnn.com), edit video clips, etc.
(14) I cannot live without my laptop, it's quite simple. (15) Throughout the years, I have become increasingly dependent on it for day-to-day activities such as corresponding with professors, keeping in touch with families, and friends, as well as organizing personal documents such as music, pictures, and the like. (16) I still make a habit of carrying it wherever I go, and probably spend more time with this so-called writing technology than any other object or person.(17) In the event of an emergency evacuation, it would definitely be the first thing I take and the last thing to let go.