Variant 1 You could have come first and won the race if you … faster

24. The phrase SPRANG UP in the text is closest in meaning to ... .

A) showed B) jumped high C) demolished D) came into existence

The word alphabet is made up from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet - alpha and beta and describes any group of symbols intended to represent the sounds used in speech. The letters of an alphabet can be assembled in thousands of different combinations to form words, and are therefore much more flexible than other symbols, such as pictograms or ideograms each of which can only stand for one particular object or idea. The origin of alphabets is obscure. Some scholars believe that the first true alphabets developed from Egyptian Hieroglyphics; others contend that the cuneiform scripts of the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians hold the key.