The author is J. B. Priestley
Answer:
theterm mayday means...an international radio distress signal used by ships and aircraft.
Explanation:
Convention requires the word be repeated three times in a row during the initial emergency declaration ("Mayday mayday mayday") to prevent it being mistaken for some similar-sounding phrase under noisy conditions, and to distinguish an actual mayday call from a message about a mayday call.
I find all of the answers pretty neutral (that is, giving only facts, no judgements) except on sentence 3: this is because of the word "sharply".
It seems that the author of this sentence makes a judgement about the split: that they're very split, that their argument was very intense. It seems like a judgement to me more than the other sentences.