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“It is impossible that old prejudices and hostilities should longer exist, while such an instrument has been created far the exchange of thought between all the nations of the earth,” acclaimed Victorian enthusiasts the arrival in 1858 of the first transatlantic telegraph cable. People say that sort of things about new technologies, even today. Biotechnology is said to be the cure for world hunger. The sequencing of the human genome will supposedly uproot cancer and other diseases. The wildest optimism, though, has greeted the Internet. A whole industry of cyber gurus has enthralled audiences (and made a fine living) with claims that the Internet will prevent wars, reduce pollution, and combat various forms of inequality However, although the Internet is still young enough to inspire idealism, it has also been around long enough to test whether the prophets can be right.Grandest of all the claims are those made by some of the experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology about the Internet’s potential as a force for peace. Nicholas Negroponte, has declared that, thanks to the Internet, the children of the future “are not going to know what nationalism is”. His colleague, Michael Dertouzos, has written that digital communications will bring “computer-aided peace” which “may help stave off future flare-ups of ethnic hatred and national break-ups”. The idea is that improved communications will reduce misunderstandings and transfer conflict.This is not new, any more than were the claims for the peace-making possibilities of other new technologies. In the early years of the 20th century, airplanes were expected to end wars, by promoting international communication and (less credibly) by making armies out-of-date, since they would be weak to attack from the air. After the First World War had dispelled such notions, it was the turn of radio. “Nation shall speak peace unto nation” ran the fine motto of Britain’s BBC World Service. Sadly, Radio of Rwanda disproved the idea that radio was an intrinsically peace force once and for all.The mistake people make is to assume that wars are caused simply by the failure of different peoples to understand each other adequately. Indeed, even if that were true, the Internet can also be used to advocate conflict. Hate speech and intolerance develop in its dark comers, where government finds it hard to intervene. Although the Internet undeniably fosters communication, it will not put an end to war.1.Nowadays, the 1858 acclaim by enthusiasts are still used to describe （）.2.The phrase "stave off"(underlined in paragraph 2) probably means （）. 3.People will not believe the Internet can put an end to war if they（）.

Europe is following the Dutch lead and taking the green movement to the manufacturers of white goods and electronics. A spate of legislation emerging from Brussels aims ultimately to hold manufacturers responsible for the fate of their products along after they’ve left store shelves or car showrooms. They’re being told they must ensure that as much as 85 percent of their products be recycled or reused, and the remainder disposed of in environmentally sound ways.Something surely needs to be done. In recent decades consumers have grown used to an ever-speedier turnover of hardware. A computer built in the 1960s lasted 10 years on average; now they are scrapped in just four. In the past more than 90 percent of this detritus had been buried in landfills. Europe's junk heap of electronic goods now weighs 6 million tons and will double in 12 years. All this waste is taking an obvious toll on the planet.Even at this early stage in Europe's recycling experiment, though the new laws have already caused unintended problems. Some European countries have been caught wholly unprepared. Because of the new regulations, waste sites and incinerators（焚化炉）throughout Europe are being inundated with hardware. Recycling facilities now coming online face a backlog of six months. Another problem: replacing bad but essential materials. The EU will soon ban the use of the lead, a hazardous substance that’s been used for decades to solder circuit boards. Electronics companies are struggling to find alternatives. “This could be a much bigger challenge for us than the waste-disposal regulation,” says Michelle O Neill, a Hewlett-Packard lobbyist in Brussels.Business leaders also warn of excessive costs. “Society and the politicians have another objective here; to move costs onto industry,” says Viktor Sundberg, European affairs director of Swedish manufacturer Electrolux. Inevitably some of those costs will trickle down to the consumer. And there's the sticky problem of assigning responsibility. Is one manufacturer liable for recycling the products of a former rival that has gone out of business? Should carmakers pay for dismembering vehicles built years before the directive took effect? Europe hasn't worked out these issues.The new recycling laws may not cost as much as one might think. Many of the new targets are only incrementally tougher than existing ones. Carmakers, for instance, will in five years have to recycle or reuse 80 percent, by weight, of their old cars. But in the more eco-conscious northern states, they already voluntarily recycle 60 percent. That may be why manufacturers have greeted the new rules meekly. Ford claims that its latest Fiesta hatchback, newly built for the European market, is already 85 percent recyclable; that's a powerful image for the new eco-friendly manufacturing, provided Europe’s medicine works without too many side Effects.1.The author says “something surely needs to be done” because （）.2.The word “inundate” (underlined in paragraph 3) probably means （）. 3.What disturbs electronics companies most according to Michelle O Neill?4.We learn from the passage that（）.

It is hardly necessary for me to cite all the evidence of the depressing state of literacy. These figures from the Department of Education are sufficient: 27 million Americans cannot read at all, and a further 35 million read at a level that is less than sufficient to survive in our society.But my own worry today is less that of the overwhelming problem of elemental literacy than it is of the slightly more luxurious problem of the decline in the skill even of the middle-class reader, of his unwillingness to afford those spaces of silence, those luxuries of domesticity and time and concentration, that surround the image of the classic act of reading. It has been suggested that almost 80 percent of America's literate, educated teenagers can no longer read without an accompanying noise (music) in the background or a television screen flickering at the corner of their field of perception. We know very little about the brain and how it deals with simultaneous conflicting input, but every common-sense intuition suggests we should be profoundly alarmed. This violation of concentration, silence, solitude goes to the very heart of our notion of literacy; this new form of part-reading, of part-perception against background distraction, renders impossible certain essential acts of apprehension and concentration, let alone that most important tribute any human being can pay to a poem or a piece of prose he or she really loves, which is to learn it by heart. Not by brain, by heart; the expression is vital.Under these circumstances, the question of what future there is for the arts of reading is a real one. Ahead of us lie technical, psychic, and social transformations probably much more dramatic than those brought about by Gutenberg, the German inventor in printing. The Gutenberg revolution, as we now know it, took a long time, its effects are still being debated. The information revolution will touch every facet of composition publication, distribution, and reading. No one in the book industry can say with any confidence what will happen to the book as we've known it.1.The picture of the reading ability of the American people drawn by the author is （）. 2.The author's biggest concern is （）. 3.A major problem with most adolescents who can read is （）. 4.The author claims that the best way a reader can show admiration for a piece of prose or poem is（）.

In the United States, the need to protect plant and animal species has become a highly controversial and sharply political issue since the passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973. The act, designed to protect species’ living areas, and policies that preserve land and forests compete with economic interests. In the 1990s, for example, the woodcutters in the Western United states were challenged legally in their attempt to cut trees for timber in the Cascade Mountains. The challenge was mounted to protect the endangered spotted owl, whose remaining population occupies these forests and requires the intact, ancient forest for survival. The problematic situation set the interests of environmentalists against those of corporations and of individuals who stood to lose jobs. After months of debate and legal battles, the fate of the woodcutters — and the owls — was still undecided in mid-1992.Similar tensions exist between the developed and the developing nations. Many people in industrialized nations, for example, believe that developing nations in tropical regions should do more to protect their rain forests and other natural areas. But the developing countries may be impoverished; with populations growing so rapidly that using the land is a means to temporarily avoid worsening poverty and starvation.Many of the changes, to Earth that concern scientists have the potential to rob the plant of its biological richness. The destruction of Earth’s ozone layer, for example, could contribute to the general process of impoverishment by allowing ultra-violet rays to harm plants and animals. And global warming could wipe out species unable to quickly adapt to changing climates. Clearly, protecting Earth’s biological diversity is a complex problem. But solutions to humanity’s current problems will come only through coordinated international efforts to control human population, stabilize the composition of the atmosphere, and preserve intact Earth's complex web of life.1.Why does the author say that the protection of endangered species is a highly controversial issue?2.According to the passage, the preservation of rain forests （）.3.Among humanity’s current problem, the chief concern of the scientist is（）. 4.The author’s purpose in writing this passage is（）.

She sewed a （）on the knee of her trousers.

Distrusting women, he remained a （）all his life.

His shirt factory is growing so fast that he must （）more workers.

The outline of the figure was barely （）in the darkness.

We can （）a conclusion from these facts we have collected.

Our country has grown rich because of its （）with other nations.

Mary's mother had to （）her dress because Mary is growing so tall.

She has the （）of entering graduate school or starting her professional career.

You cannot expect people to work hard unless you give them some kind of （）.

He’s done stupid things before, but to look for the escaping gas with a match really was the（）silliness.

The service operates 36 libraries throughout the country, while six （）libraries specially serve the countryside.

Your latest project has little（）of success.

The （）of our trip to Washington was the visit to the White House.

The treaty will be the （）of lasting peace.

The army training exercises ended with a （）battle.

The bad weather （）all our hopes of going out.

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