Introduction / Context:
The mid-1990s marked an explosive phase in the commercial adoption of the Internet. News outlets, including CNN, frequently summarised this boom with striking growth figures that help learners appreciate the speed at which online infrastructure and user bases expanded.
Given Data / Assumptions:
- The time window is specifically from 1994 to 1996.
- The request asks what a CNN report stated about overall Internet traffic growth, not website count or user numbers.
- We interpret 'traffic' in the contemporary sense used by news media: total data volume or usage on the network.
Concept / Approach:
To answer a fact-recall question like this, align each option with historically reported multipliers. Various outlets documented very high growth during this period; the CNN figure commonly cited in quiz and GK contexts is a twenty-five-fold increase across those two years.
Step-by-Step Solution:
List the candidate multipliers: 2x, 5x, 10x, 25x.Recall the headline statistic attributed to CNN for 1994–1996 traffic: 25x.Select the option that exactly matches the reported value.Confirm that this pertains to Internet traffic (usage/throughput), not the number of websites or hosts.
Verification / Alternative check:
Period technology primers and curated GK compilations consistently reference the twenty-five-fold increase for this exact 1994–1996 interval, aligning with the broader narrative of the Internet doubling every few months during that era.
Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Two times: Understates the explosion; growth was far steeper.Five times: Still far below the often-quoted figure.Ten times: Impressive but not the specific CNN statistic for 1994–1996.
Common Pitfalls:
Mistaking the growth in the number of websites or hosts for overall traffic; these metrics are related but not identical and can produce different multipliers.
Final Answer:
Twenty-five times
Discussion & Comments