Numerical answer
Five sentences related to a topic are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent, meaningful paragraph. Identify the sentence that does not fit.
1. Early telephone operators were almost exclusively young women, a striking reversal of the male-dominated telegraph workforce that preceded them.
2. Telephone companies argued that women's voices were judged more pleasant by callers and that women could be paid less than the men they replaced.
3. Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone in 1876, narrowly beating a rival claim filed by Elisha Gray.
4. This combination of a manufactured aesthetic preference and a straightforward cost incentive shaped hiring patterns across the entire industry.
5. Within decades, the switchboard operator had become one of the most recognisable respectable occupations open to young unmarried women.
1. Early telephone operators were almost exclusively young women, a striking reversal of the male-dominated telegraph workforce that preceded them.
2. Telephone companies argued that women's voices were judged more pleasant by callers and that women could be paid less than the men they replaced.
3. Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone in 1876, narrowly beating a rival claim filed by Elisha Gray.
4. This combination of a manufactured aesthetic preference and a straightforward cost incentive shaped hiring patterns across the entire industry.
5. Within decades, the switchboard operator had become one of the most recognisable respectable occupations open to young unmarried women.
Show answer and solution
Answer: 3
Sentences 1, 2, 4 and 5 trace a single narrative about why and how women came to dominate telephone operating and what that meant for female employment. Sentence 3, about the patent dispute over the telephone's invention, is a historical fact unconnected to this specific thread about the gendered operator workforce, making it the odd sentence out.
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