Can database administrators access and modify the database before it's opened?

I'm trying to answer the following question (asked in a previous exam and supposedly having one correct answer): > To create a DATAFILE and Assign it to a DATABASE, the instance can't be > > 1. started in NOMOUNT mode > 2. started in MOUNT mode > 3. started in OPEN mode > 4. not started To this end, I started reading the relevant Oracle documentation in the article Database and Instance Startup and Shutdown . In the section *How a Database is Mounted*, the following was stated (emphasis mine):
> How a Database is Mounted > = > The instance mounts a database to associate the database with that > instance. To mount the database, the instance finds the database > control files and opens them. Control files are specified in the > CONTROL_FILES initialization parameter in the parameter file used to > start the instance. Oracle then reads the control files to get the > names of the database's datafiles and redo log files. > > At this point, ***the database is still closed and is accessible only to > the database administrator***. The database administrator can keep the > database closed while completing specific maintenance operations. > However, the database is not yet available for normal operations. According to this passage, when the database is mounted it can be accessed by the database administrator. Does *access* here mean that the administrator can only perform read operations, or can also modify the database (e.g. by creating a datafile)?