Entraînement à la Grammaire Anglaise à Distance

Facebook celebrated its 12th anniversary this month. But social networking got its start 38 years ago today, when the first public, dial-up Computerized Bulletin Board System (BBS) went online in Chicago. Ward Christensen and Randy Suess had the idea (1) of creating a virtual message board that people could connect to using a telephone modem, to post notes to one another. It was to be much like the physical bulletin boards in (2) public spaces that people had been using for decades. Yes, they did it even before Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook was born. There were all sorts (3) of limitations, of course. Few people had personal computers back then. Connecting also required a modem, a device that allowed computers to communicate over telephone lines by converting digital signals into sounds on one end of the call, and from sounds back to digital signals at the other end. If you connected (4) to a local bulletin board system, you could read or leave a message for other computer hobbyists. Then the wait began. A reply could take days or weeks, but such connections could very well have made you a social networking pioneer. (Your Tuesday Briefing, NYT, February, 16th)

1. What is the form of of in (1)?

2. What is the function of public spaces in (2)?

3. What is the form of of limitations in (3)?

4. What is the function of to a local bulletin board system in (4)?