Someday a stranger will read your e-mail without your permission or scan the Web
题型：不详难度：来源：
Someday a stranger will read your e-mail without your permission or scan the Website you’ve visited，Or perhaps someone will casually glance through your credit card purchases or cell phone bills to find out your shopping preferences or calling habits.
In fact, it’s likely some of these things have already happened to you. Who would watch you without your permission? It might be a spouse, a girl friend, a marketing company, a boss, a cop or a criminal. Whoever it is, they will see you in a way you never intended to be seen --- the 21st century equivalent of being caught naked.
Psychologists tell us boundaries are healthy, that it"s important to reveal yourself to friends, family and lovers in stages, at appropriate times.But few boundaries remain. The digital bread crumbs (碎屑) you leave everywhere make it easy for strangers to reconstruct who you are, where you are and what you like. In some cases, a simple Google search can reveal what you think. Like it or not, increasingly we live in a world where you simply cannot keep a secret.
The key question is: Does that matter?
For many Americans, the answer apparently is “no.”
When opinion polls ask Americans about privacy, most say they are concerned about losing it. A survey found an overwhelming pessimism about privacy, with 60 percent of respondents saying they feel their privacy is “slipping away, and that bothers me.”
But people say one thing and do another. Only a tiny fraction of Americans change any behaviors in an effort to preserve their privacy. Few people turn down a discount at tollbooths (收费站) to avoid using the EZ-Pass system that can track automobile movements. And few turn down supermarket loyalty cards. Privacy economist Alessandro Acauisti has run a series of tests that reveal people will surrender personal information like Social Security numbers just to get their hands on a pitiful 50-cents-off coupon (优惠卷).
But privacy does matter - at least sometimes. It’s like health: When you have it, you don’t notice it. Only when it’s gone do you wish you’d done more to protect it.
小题1:What does the author mean by saying “the 21st century equivalent of being caught naked” (Lines 3-4, Para. 2)?| A．People"s personal information is easily accessed without their knowledge. | | B．In the 21st century people try every means to look into others’ secrets. | | C．People tend to be more frank with each other in the information age. | | D．Criminals are easily caught on the spot with advanced technology. |
小题2:What would psychologists advise on the relationships between friends?| A．Friends should open their hearts to each other. | | B．Friends should always be faithful to each other. | | C．There should be a distance even between friends. | | D．There should be fewer disputes between friends. |
小题3:Why does the author say “we live in a world where you simply cannot keep a secret” ( Line5, para. 3)?| A．Modern society has finally evolved into an open society. | | B．People leave traces around when using modern technology. | | C．There are always people who are curious about others’ affairs. | | D．Many search engines profit by revealing people’s identities. |
小题4:What do most Americans do with regard to privacy protection?| A．They change behaviors that might disclose their identity. | | B．They use various loyalty cards for business transactions. | | C．They rely most and more on electronic devices. | | D．They talk a lot but hardly do anything about it. |
小题5:According to the passage, privacy is like health in that .| A．people will make every effort to keep it | | B．its importance is rarely understood | | C．it is something that can easily be lost | | D．people don’t cherish it until they lose it |
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答案
小题1:A
小题2:C
小题3:B
小题4:D
小题5:D |
解析
试题分析：这篇材料讲的是信息时代的隐私保护问题，大体可以分成两个部分，前三段是信息时代隐私遭到泄露的现状，后面几段讲的是人们保护隐私的现实情况。
小题1:.句意理解题：从第二段的句子：Whoever it is, they will see you in a way you never intended to be seen 可知人们的个人隐私在不知道的情况下很容易泄漏。选A
小题2:细节理解题。根据Psychologists tell us boundaries are healthy, that it’s important to reveal yourself partly to friends, family and lovers at appropriate times.向朋友敞开心扉是重要的，但是朋友之间要有距离，故选C。
小题3:细节题：从第三段的句子：The digital bread crumbs (碎屑) you leave everywhere make it easy for strangers to reconstruct who you are, where you are and what you like. In some cases, a simple Google search can reveal what you think.可知人们在使用现代科技的时候，也留下了痕迹。选B
小题4:细节题：从倒数第二段的句子：But people say one thing and do another. Only a tiny fraction of Americans change any behaviors in an effort to preserve their privacy. 可知美国人谈的很多，但是很少对此采取行动的，选D
小题5:细节理解题。根据But privacy does matter- at least sometimes. It’s like health; when you have it, you don’t notice it. Only when it’s gone do you wish you’d done more to protect it——直译为：“隐私是有关系的，至少是某些时候。它就像健康，在你拥有它时，你注意不到它。只有当它离你而去时你才想要是更注意地保护过它就好了。”选D |
举一反三
In business, there’s a speed difference: It’s the difference between how important a firm’s leaders say speed is to their competitive(竞争的) strategy(策略) and how fast the company actually moves.The difference is important regardless of industry and company size. Companies fearful of losing their competitive advantage spend much time and money looking for ways to pick up the speed.
In our study of 343 businesses, the companies that chose to go, go, go to try to gain an edge ended up with lower sales and operating incomes than those that paused at key moments to make sure they were on the right track.What"s more, the firms that “slowed down to speed up” improved their top and bottom lines, averaging 40% higher sales and 52% higher operating incomes over a three-year period.
How did they disobey the laws of business physics, taking more time than competitors yet performing better? They thought differently about what “slower” and “faster” mean.Firms sometimes fail to understand the difference between operational speed (moving quickly) and strategic speed (reducing the time it takes to deliver value)．Simply increasing the speed of production, for example, may be one way to try to reduce the speed difference.But that often leads to reduced value over time, in the form of lower-quality products and services.
In our study, higher-performing companies with strategic speed always made changes when necessary. They became more open to ideas and discussion.They encouraged new ways of thinking.And they allowed time to look back and learn.By contrast (相比而言), performance suffered at firms that moved fast all the time, paid too much attention to improving efficiency, stuck to tested methods, didn"t develop team spirit among their employees, and had little time thinking
about changes.
Strategic speed serves as a kind of leadership.Teams that regularly take time to get things right, rather than plough ahead full bore, are more successful in meeting their business goals.That kind of strategy must come from the top.
小题1:What does the underlined part “gain an edge” in Paragraph 2 mean?| A．Increase the speed. | B．Reach the limit. | | C．Get an advantage. | D．Set a goal. |
小题2:The underlined part “the laws of business physics” in Paragraph 3 means ________.| A．spending more time and performing worse | | B．spending more time and performing better | | C．spending less time and performing worse | | D．spending less time and performing better |
小题3:What can we learn from the text?| A．How fast a firm moves depends on how big it is. | | B．How competitive a firm is depends on what it produces. | | C．Firms guided by strategic speed take time to make necessary changes. | | D．Firms guided by operational speed take time to develop necessary team spirit. |
小题4:Which could be the best title for the text?| A．Improve quality? Serve better. | B．Deliver value? Plough ahead. | | C．Reduce time? Move faster. | D．Need speed? Slow down. |
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Some people believe that a Robin Hood is at work，others that a wealthy person simply wants to distribute (分配) his or her fortune before dying. But the donator who started sending envelopes with cash to deserving causes，accompanied by an article from the local paper, has made a northern German city believe in fairytales (童话).
The first envelope was sent to a victim support group. It contained €10, 000 with a cutting from the Braunschiveiger Zeitung about how the group supported a woman who was robbed of her handbag; similar plain white anonymous (匿名) envelopes, each containing €10, 000, then arrived at a kindergarten and a church.
The envelopes keep coming, and; so far at least €190, 000 has been distributed. Last month, one of them was sent to the newspaper’s own office. It came after a story it published about Tom, a 14-year-old boy who was severely disabled in a swimming accident. The receptionist at the Braunschiveiger Zeitung opened an anonymous white envelope to find 20 notes of € 500 inside with a copy of the article. The name of the family was underlined.
“I was driving when I heard the news," Claudia Neumann, the boy"s mother, told Der Spiegel magazine. “I had to park on the side of the road; I was speechless."
The money will be used to make the entrance to their house wheelchair-accessible and for a course of treatment that their insurance company refused to pay for.
"For someone to act so selflessly, for this to happen in such a society in which everyone thinks of himself, was astonishing," Mrs. Neumann said. Her family wonder whether the donator is a Robin Hood character, taking from banks to give to the needy.
Henning Noske，the editor of the Braunschiveiger Zeitung, said: "Maybe it is an old person who is about to die. We just do not know." However, he has told his reporters not to look for the city"s hero, for fear that discovery may stop the donations.
小题1:The Braunschiveiger Zeitung is the name of ______.| A．a church | B．a bank | C．a newspaper | D．a magazine |
小题2:Which of the following is TRUE about the donation to Tom?| A．The donation amounted to €190, 000. | | B．The donation was sent directly to his house. | | C．The money will be used for his education. | | D．His mother felt astonished at the donation. |
小题3:It can be inferred from the passage that _____.| A．the donator is a rich old man | | B．the donation will continue to come | | C．the donation comes from the newspaper | | D．the donator will soon be found out |
小题4: What would be the best title for the passage?| A．Money Is Raised by the Newspaper. | | B．Newspaper Distributes Money to the Needy. | | C．Unknown Hero Spreads Love in Envelopes | | D．Robin Hood Returns to the City |
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Women turn to online shopping
Women have jumped ahead of men for the first time in using the Internet to do their holiday shopping，according to a study published last week in the US.
For years men have been more likely to shop on the Internet than women，but during the 2004 holiday season 58 percent of those making online purchases were women.
“It shows how mainstream the Internet is becoming”，said Lee Rainie，a director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project group，which carried out the study.
Rainie said it was only a matter of time before women shoppers caught up with men. This is because women traditionally make decisions about spending.
Users were more likely to shop online to save time. Internet users between the ages of 18 and 29 were responsible for some of the most dramatic（显著的）increases in the online gift-buying population this time around.
However，three-quarters of the US Internet users did not buy holiday gifts online in 2004．They worried about credit card security，or just compared online prices with off-line prices，then dashed off to the shops to get the best deals.
“But even if shoppers don’t buy online，websites are becoming promotion tools for stores，”said Dan Hess，vice president of Comscore Networks Inc．Hess said that actually most stores’ websites can make shoppers fully believe the security of their credit card numbers. And most are able to ensure that gifts arrive on time.
“It’s all about making the shopping experience more efficient，more reliable and more comfortable，” Hess said.
小题1:Which of the following statements is true?| A．There were fewer women online shoppers than men in 2004． | | B．Most of the Internet users between the ages of 18 and 29 are women. | | C．People in the US were more likely to buy gifts online. | | D．More women shopped online than men in 2004. |
小题2:From the passage we can infer that________.| A．men usually decide how to spend money in the family | | B．women usually decide what to buy in the family | | C．the Internet is used in all the shops. | | D．more and more shops will sell their goods online. |
小题3:What can we know from the passage?| A．American people only buy gifts in holidays. | | B．Shopping online is fun for women. | | C．Shopping off-line provides better service. | | D．Young people like to do gift-shopping online. |
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Although being famous might sound like a dream come true, today’s stars, feeling like zoo animals, face pressures that few of us can imagine. They are at the center of much of the world’s attention. Paparazzi (狗仔队) camp outside their homes, cameras ready. Tabloids (小报) publish thrilling stories about their personal lives. Just imagine not being able to do anything without being photographed or interrupted for a signature.
According to psychologist Christina Villarreal, celebrities — famous people — worry constantly about their public appearance. Eventually, they start to lose track of who they really are, seeing themselves the way their fans imagine them, not as the people they were before everyone knew their names. “Over time,” Villarreal says, “they feel separated and alone.”
The phenomenon of tracking celebrities has been around for ages. In the 4th century B.C., painters followed Alexander the Great into battle, hoping to picture his victories for his admirers. When Charles Dickens visited America in the 19th century, his sold-out readings attracted thousands of fans, leading him to complain (抱怨) about his lack of privacy. Tabloids of the 1920s and 1930s ran articles about film-stars in much the same way that modern tabloids and websites do.
Being a public figure today, however, is a lot more difficult than it used to be. Superstars cannot move about without worrying about photographers with modern cameras. When they say something silly or do something ridiculous, there is always the Internet to spread the news in minutes and keep their “story” alive forever.
If fame is so troublesome, why aren’t all celebrities running away from it? The answer is that there are still ways to deal with it. Some stars stay calm by surrounding themselves with trusted friends and family or by escaping to remote places away from big cities. They focus not on how famous they are but on what they love to do or whatever made them famous in the first place.
Sometimes a few celebrities can get a little justice. Still, even stars who enjoy full justice often complain about how hard their lives are. They are tired of being famous already.
小题1:It can be learned from the passage that stars today________________.| A．are often misunderstood by the public | | B．can no longer have their privacy protected | | C．spend too much on their public appearance | | D．care little about how they have come into fame |
小题2:What is the main idea of Paragraph3?| A．Great heroes of the past were generally admired. | | B．Works of popular writers often have a lot of readers. | | C．Well-known actors are usually targets of tabloids. | | D．The problem faced by celebrities has a long history. |
小题3:What makes it much harder to be a celebrity today?| A．Availability of modern media. | | B．Inadequate social recognition. | | C．Lack of favorable chances. | | D．Huge population of fans. |
小题4:What is author’s attitude toward modern celebrity?| A．Sincere. | B．Skeptical. | C．Disapproving | D．Sympathetic. |
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Last night I drove a long way (about 500 km) to return home. It was late and I was driving fast because I wanted to get home as soon as possible. So several times when I was driving behind a slow-moving truck on a narrow road, I wanted to shout at the driver ahead.
Then I came to a crossroad with a traffic light. As I drove near, it turned red. I stopped my car at once. I looked left，right and behind. I found no cars or persons — I was alone on the road. The person who would come to the crossroad was at least a mile away in any direction. Certainly going through the light would cause no danger. I could pass the traffic light. But strangely enough, I just stopped there, waiting for several minutes until the light went green. I asked myself why I refused to run the light. Surely it was unnecessary for me to be afraid of danger or being fined (罚款), because there were no cars or police around at all. But I remained waiting until the light changed.
When I finally got home, it was near midnight. My wife had fallen asleep. The question of why I stopped for that light came back to me again, because I stopped another two times for the red lights as “special” as the first one. I stopped, not because of the law, but because it was a good habit I had developed. In fact, we were used to doing something right just because we have made obeying the rules a good habit. We do it just because we should do it. I thought if another man met with the same thing, he would make the same choice. I believed so. And I could be trusted (信任) by others. I believed that everyone would and could control (控制) himself/herself well. It was amazing that we trusted each other to do the right things, wasn’t it?
小题1:When the author drove behind the slow-moving truck, he felt ____.| A．confused but happy | B．sleepy and tired | C．excited but tired | D．angry and worried |
小题2:Who made the author stopped at the crossroad?| A．A policeman. | B．The author’s wife. | C．The author himself. | D．Another driver. |
小题3:The author waited until the light went green because ____.| A．running the light would make him fined | B．he was afraid to cause an accident | | C．he was prevented by the passers-by | D．he was used to obeying traffic rules |
小题4:The author is a person who ____.| A．believes others easily | B．can control himself well | | C．treats others very unfriendly | D．is very experienced in driving |
小题5: We can infer from the passage that ____.| A．running the light could help the author get home earlier | | B．the author’s wife was angry because he got home late | | C．the truck driver in front of the author might be drunk | | D．it was very necessary to have very strict traffic rules |
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