A year ago. AT&T looked as if it might soon be sleeping with the fishes. Its long- time boss, Bob Allen, had been replaced in November 1997 by Michael Armstrong from Hughes Electronics, who was a relative novice in the telecoms business. The firm's long-distance operation was being whittled away by newcomers such as WorldCom.Its international alliances were floundering. it had wasted $ 4 billion trying to persuade its uppity offspring, the Baby Bells, to let it into their lucrative $ 100 billion local markets. People whispered that the only good bit of AT&T had been its equipment business.
  Yet in the past six months Mr. Armstrong has silenced most of his critics. Some of his moves - for instance slimming AT&T's workforce by another 18,000 people piling money into Internet research - were only to the expected. But AT&T has also begun to throw its weight around:
  It has terrified the Baby bells, first by buying TeleCommunications Inc, America's biggest cable -TV firm, for $ 48 billion and, this week, by forming a joint - venture with Time Warner, the second -biggest cable group, to deliver local telephone services. AT&T now has a potential line into 50 million American houses (more than 40% of the total), it talking with other big cable operators about extending its reach.
Statements:
 1.When Machael Armstrong replaced Bob Allen in November 1997, he was considered as an expert in the telecoms business.(    )
 2.Though AT&T's long - distance operation was being reduced, its international alliances were doing extremely well.(    )
 3.Mr.Armstrong was expected to make more employees redundant soon after he became the new boss of AT&T.(    )
 4.Undr Machale Armstrong,AT&T threw its weight around by buying TeleCommunications Inc, by forming a joint - venture with Time Warner.(    )
5.Mr. Armstrong was quite irresolute in dealing with his critics.(    )