Passage: Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow. The International Meridian Conference of 1884 was a turning point in the way the world measured time. Before the introduction of time zones, each town followed its own local time, usually determined by the position of the sun. While this system worked for small communities, it caused confusion as railways and telegraph networks connected distant places. Trains ran on different schedules, depending on local times and telegraph messages often carried inconsistent timestamps. To solve this problem, delegates from twenty-five countries gathered in Washington, DC, to establish a common standard. They selected the meridian passing through Greenwich, England, as the Prime Meridian. The world was then divided into twenty-four standard time zones, each covering fifteen degrees of longitude. This made travel and communication far more efficient and reliable. Over time, some countries adjusted their time zones for political or practical reasons, but the basic structure remains unchanged. Today, time zones enable smooth coordination in transportation, business, communication, and daily life across continents. Question: Why was the introduction of time zones important for global communication?

1. It increased the speed of trains.
2. It helped avoid confusion in time references.
3. It helped measure longitude.
4. It made messages cheaper to send.