The word " languish " in paragraph 4 i...

When we worry about who might be spying on our private lives, we usually think about the Federal agents. But the private sector outdoes the government every time. It’’s Linda Tripp, not the FBI, who is facing charges under Maryland’’s laws against secret telephone taping. It’’s our banks, not the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) , that pass our private financial data to telemarketing firms. Consumer activists are pressing Congress for better privacy laws without much result so far. The legislators lean toward letting business people track our financial habits virtually at will. As an example of what’’s going on, consider U. S. Bancorp, which was recently sued for deceptive practices by the state of Minnesota. According to the lawsuit, the bank supplied a telemarketer called Member-Works with sensitive customer data such as names, phone numbers, bank-accounts and credit-card numbers, Social Security numbers, account balances and credit limits. With these customer lists in hand, Member-Works started dialing for dollars—selling dental plans, videogames, computer software and other products and services. Customers who accepted a "free trial offer" had 50 days to cancel. If the deadline passed, they were charged automatically through their bank or credit-card accounts. U. S. Bancorp collected a share of the revenues. Customers were doubly deceived, the lawsuit claims. They didn’’t know that the bank was giving account numbers to Member-Works. And if customers asked, they were led to think the answer was no. The state sued Member-Works separately for deceptive selling. The company defends that it did anything wrong. For its part, U. S. Bancorp settled without admitting any mistakes. But it agreed to stop exposing its customers to nonfinancial products sold by outside firms. A few top banks decided to do the same. Many other banks will still do business with Member-Works and similar firms. And banks will still be mining data from your account in order to sell you financial products, including things of little value, such as credit insurance and credit-card protection plans. You have almost no protection from businesses that use your personal accounts for profit. For example, no federal law shields "transaction and experience" information—mainly the details of your bank and credit-card accounts. Social Security numbers are for sale by private firms. They’’ve generally agreed not to sell to the public. But to businesses, the numbers are an open book. Self-regulation doesn’’t work. A firm might publish a privacy-protection policy, but who enforces it Take U. S. Bancorp again. Customers were told, in writing, that "all personal information you supply to us will be considered confidential. " Then it sold your data to Member-Works. The bank even claims that it doesn’’t "sell" your data at all. It merely "shares" it and reaps a profit. Now you know. Contrary to popular belief, the author finds that spying on people’’s privacy________

A．is mainly carried out by means of secret taping.
B．has been intensified with the help of the IRS.
C．is practiced exclusively by the FBI.
D．is more prevalent in business circles.

单项选择题

Davison knelt down close to the bottom of the basement stairs. He was saved for the moment by the thick fog which covered the street. Could the policemen be sure that he hadn’’t turned round and run back into the main street But they weren’’t taking chances. Davison slowly went down the street as they searched all the doorways. There wasn’’t a light on in the basement flat behind him. That alone was dangerous. The policemen were coming close but they wouldn’’t expect to find him in an occupied flat. There was a notice on the door which said "No milk till Monday", he tore it down. He tried the door and found it was double locked. The footsteps came nearer very slowly. They must be searching thoroughly. He knew there was one chance because people were often careless, so he took out a knife, slipped it under the catch of the window and pushed upward until the window slid up. He climbed through quickly and fell on to a bed. He closed the window and turned on the light at once. He heard steps coming towards the front door. On no account must the place seem empty. He looked for an electric point, and quickly connected the radio and turned it on. Then he opened the door opposite and found himself in the bathroom. Somebody ― it could only be a policeman ― rang the doorbell. Luckily he found what he wanted in the bathroom cupboard straightaway ― a razor, a stick of shaving soap and a towel. He tied the towel over his collar and managed to soap over his neat beard and the ugly scar on his chin fairly thickened before the bell rang again. Davison moved slowly to the front door and opened it. Two policemen stood outside and one of them had a dirty piece of paper in one hand. "We’’ve just found this note, "he said. "As it says’’ No milk till Monday’’, I thought the flat might be empty and the light left on by mistake. "He looked at Davison carefully. When Davison was hiding by the stairs, the policemen were

A．searching the flats.
B．running in the street.
C．searching for him in the street.
D．looking in the doorway.

单项选择题

In the last ten years, the Internet has opened up incredible amounts of information to ordinary citizens. But using the Internet can be like walking into a library where the books are all lying on the floor in piles. While tools like Google allow some structured search, much of the data from such searches is outdated or of questionable value. Some web enthusiasts have taken up the task of organizing information through a democratic means that only the Internet allows: an encyclopedia of the people, by the people, and completely free to copy and distribute. This people’’s encyclopedia’’ of the Web ( a free site called Wikipedia) has provided a unique solution by inviting individuals to participate in the process of rationalizing and updating web content. At the heart of this movement are wikis, web sites that allow users to directly edit any web page with one click of the mouse. Wikipedia (the largest example of these collaborative efforts) is a functioning, user-contributed online encyclopedia that has become a popular and highly regarded reference in just three years of existence. The goal of Wikipedia was to create an encyclopedia that could be shared and copied freely while encouraging people to change and improve the content. Each and every article has an " Edit this page" button, allowing anyone, even anonymous passersby, to add or delete any content on the page. It seems like a recipe for disaster and chaos, but it has produced surprisingly credible content that has been evaluated and revised by the thousands of international visitors to the site. The Wikipedia project was started by Jimmy Wales, head of Internet startup bomis. com, after his original project for a volunteer, but strictly controlled, free encyclopedia ran out of money and resources after two years. Editors with PhD degrees were at the helm of the project then, but it produced only a few hundred articles. Not wanting the content to languish, Wales placed the pages on a wiki website in January 2001 and invited any Internet visitors to edit or add to the collection. The site became a runaway success in the first year and gained a loyal following, generating over 20,000 articles and spawning over a dozen language translations. After two years, it had 100, 000 articles. Over 2,000 new articles are added each day across all the various languages. And according to website rankings at alexa. com, it has become more popular than traditional online encyclopedias such as britannica. com and is one of the top 200 most heavily visited websites on the internet. The author called Wikipedia people’’s encyclopedia because it________

A．is accessible by all the passersby.
B．can be edited by everyone.
C．is run by ordinary people.
D．is built to the taste of common citizens.

单项选择题

When we worry about who might be spying on our private lives, we usually think about the Federal agents. But the private sector outdoes the government every time. It’’s Linda Tripp, not the FBI, who is facing charges under Maryland’’s laws against secret telephone taping. It’’s our banks, not the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) , that pass our private financial data to telemarketing firms. Consumer activists are pressing Congress for better privacy laws without much result so far. The legislators lean toward letting business people track our financial habits virtually at will. As an example of what’’s going on, consider U. S. Bancorp, which was recently sued for deceptive practices by the state of Minnesota. According to the lawsuit, the bank supplied a telemarketer called Member-Works with sensitive customer data such as names, phone numbers, bank-accounts and credit-card numbers, Social Security numbers, account balances and credit limits. With these customer lists in hand, Member-Works started dialing for dollars—selling dental plans, videogames, computer software and other products and services. Customers who accepted a "free trial offer" had 50 days to cancel. If the deadline passed, they were charged automatically through their bank or credit-card accounts. U. S. Bancorp collected a share of the revenues. Customers were doubly deceived, the lawsuit claims. They didn’’t know that the bank was giving account numbers to Member-Works. And if customers asked, they were led to think the answer was no. The state sued Member-Works separately for deceptive selling. The company defends that it did anything wrong. For its part, U. S. Bancorp settled without admitting any mistakes. But it agreed to stop exposing its customers to nonfinancial products sold by outside firms. A few top banks decided to do the same. Many other banks will still do business with Member-Works and similar firms. And banks will still be mining data from your account in order to sell you financial products, including things of little value, such as credit insurance and credit-card protection plans. You have almost no protection from businesses that use your personal accounts for profit. For example, no federal law shields "transaction and experience" information—mainly the details of your bank and credit-card accounts. Social Security numbers are for sale by private firms. They’’ve generally agreed not to sell to the public. But to businesses, the numbers are an open book. Self-regulation doesn’’t work. A firm might publish a privacy-protection policy, but who enforces it Take U. S. Bancorp again. Customers were told, in writing, that "all personal information you supply to us will be considered confidential. " Then it sold your data to Member-Works. The bank even claims that it doesn’’t "sell" your data at all. It merely "shares" it and reaps a profit. Now you know. We know from the passage that________

A．legislators are acting to pass a law to provide better privacy protection.
B．most states are turning a blind eye to the deceptive practices of private businesses.
C．the state of Minnesota is considering drawing up laws to protect private information.
D．lawmakers are inclined to give a free hand to businesses to inquire into customers’’ buying habits.

单项选择题

Davison knelt down close to the bottom of the basement stairs. He was saved for the moment by the thick fog which covered the street. Could the policemen be sure that he hadn’’t turned round and run back into the main street But they weren’’t taking chances. Davison slowly went down the street as they searched all the doorways. There wasn’’t a light on in the basement flat behind him. That alone was dangerous. The policemen were coming close but they wouldn’’t expect to find him in an occupied flat. There was a notice on the door which said "No milk till Monday", he tore it down. He tried the door and found it was double locked. The footsteps came nearer very slowly. They must be searching thoroughly. He knew there was one chance because people were often careless, so he took out a knife, slipped it under the catch of the window and pushed upward until the window slid up. He climbed through quickly and fell on to a bed. He closed the window and turned on the light at once. He heard steps coming towards the front door. On no account must the place seem empty. He looked for an electric point, and quickly connected the radio and turned it on. Then he opened the door opposite and found himself in the bathroom. Somebody ― it could only be a policeman ― rang the doorbell. Luckily he found what he wanted in the bathroom cupboard straightaway ― a razor, a stick of shaving soap and a towel. He tied the towel over his collar and managed to soap over his neat beard and the ugly scar on his chin fairly thickened before the bell rang again. Davison moved slowly to the front door and opened it. Two policemen stood outside and one of them had a dirty piece of paper in one hand. "We’’ve just found this note, "he said. "As it says’’ No milk till Monday’’, I thought the flat might be empty and the light left on by mistake. "He looked at Davison carefully. From the first paragraph, we know that

A．the thick fog made it difficult for the policemen to crack down Davison.
B．Davison ran so quickly that the policemen couldn’’t find him in the fog.
C．Davison was very tricky, and escaped from the policemen.
D．Both B and C.

单项选择题

In the last ten years, the Internet has opened up incredible amounts of information to ordinary citizens. But using the Internet can be like walking into a library where the books are all lying on the floor in piles. While tools like Google allow some structured search, much of the data from such searches is outdated or of questionable value. Some web enthusiasts have taken up the task of organizing information through a democratic means that only the Internet allows: an encyclopedia of the people, by the people, and completely free to copy and distribute. This people’’s encyclopedia’’ of the Web ( a free site called Wikipedia) has provided a unique solution by inviting individuals to participate in the process of rationalizing and updating web content. At the heart of this movement are wikis, web sites that allow users to directly edit any web page with one click of the mouse. Wikipedia (the largest example of these collaborative efforts) is a functioning, user-contributed online encyclopedia that has become a popular and highly regarded reference in just three years of existence. The goal of Wikipedia was to create an encyclopedia that could be shared and copied freely while encouraging people to change and improve the content. Each and every article has an " Edit this page" button, allowing anyone, even anonymous passersby, to add or delete any content on the page. It seems like a recipe for disaster and chaos, but it has produced surprisingly credible content that has been evaluated and revised by the thousands of international visitors to the site. The Wikipedia project was started by Jimmy Wales, head of Internet startup bomis. com, after his original project for a volunteer, but strictly controlled, free encyclopedia ran out of money and resources after two years. Editors with PhD degrees were at the helm of the project then, but it produced only a few hundred articles. Not wanting the content to languish, Wales placed the pages on a wiki website in January 2001 and invited any Internet visitors to edit or add to the collection. The site became a runaway success in the first year and gained a loyal following, generating over 20,000 articles and spawning over a dozen language translations. After two years, it had 100, 000 articles. Over 2,000 new articles are added each day across all the various languages. And according to website rankings at alexa. com, it has become more popular than traditional online encyclopedias such as britannica. com and is one of the top 200 most heavily visited websites on the internet. The word " languish " in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to ________

A．give up.
B．be aborted.
C．reduce.
D．sink.

单项选择题

Many publications made private inquiries before presidential election, generally by means of questionnaires sent to subscribers and by telephone surveys. The principle common to all these inquiries was that they depended on quantity rather than quality; little effort was made to reach representatives of all segments of the population. Still, the erroneous belief persisted that the greater the number of questionnaires, the more accurate the results would be. The record was held by the American monthly Literary Digest, which sent out millions of postcards with short and pointed questions before each election, and received many hundreds of thousands of replies. In fact, in 1932, the Literary Digest’’s forecast was off by only 1%. In view of such striking achievements, it seemed rather improper for the young American journalist, George Gallup, to claim that large numbers were irrelevant, and that equally accurate or better predictions could be made with a small but carefully selected sample of the population and a small team of skilled interviewers. In 1936, Gallup convinced thirty-five newspaper editors that his system was much cheaper than the customary mass inquiries and that it could provide surprisingly accurate predictions. The editors finally agreed. On condition that if Gallup’’s predictions were less accurate than those obtained by the tried method of the Literary Digest, he would have to refund the entire cost of the investigation. Although the Literary Digest broke its own record by obtaining two million replies to its electoral postcards that year, its prediction was wrong by 19% , whereas Gallup’’s was off by less than 1 % . Suddenly Gallup’’s name was on everyone’’s lips. Not only was he the prophet of the moment, but it was generally conceded that he had founded a new and most important scientific method of prediction. He was showered with money and commissions, and the Gallup Poll becomes a common term for public opinion polls. Gallup usually samples his subjects according to six factors: state, size of community, age, sex, income, and political affiliation. From time to time, other factors may be considered, during time of war, for instance, the national origins of electors may be taken into account. Only when the composition of the electorate has been accurately determined can the purely arithmetical question — how many people in each bracket must be interviewed — be solved. Once this is done, laws of probability take over, and the more people interviewed, the more exact the estimates will be. However, above a certain maximum number of interviews, the accuracy increases by no more than a fractional percentage — and where errors of up to 2% are permissible, a few thousand questionnaires will accurately reflect the opinions of the total United States electorate. Gallup’’s method of sampling the electorate was successful. Before Gallup, political predictions were no more than shots in the dark, and it is as a result of his achievement that today we can make truly scientific forecasts in this difficult field. How does the author like the common principle held in the pre-election poll

A．It was successful because it took all sections of the population into consideration.
B．It was successful because the publications sent out numerous questionnaires.
C．It was unsuccessful because it didn’’t take the composition of the electorate into consideration.
D．It was unsuccessful because it put emphasis on quality instead of quantity.

单项选择题

When we worry about who might be spying on our private lives, we usually think about the Federal agents. But the private sector outdoes the government every time. It’’s Linda Tripp, not the FBI, who is facing charges under Maryland’’s laws against secret telephone taping. It’’s our banks, not the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) , that pass our private financial data to telemarketing firms. Consumer activists are pressing Congress for better privacy laws without much result so far. The legislators lean toward letting business people track our financial habits virtually at will. As an example of what’’s going on, consider U. S. Bancorp, which was recently sued for deceptive practices by the state of Minnesota. According to the lawsuit, the bank supplied a telemarketer called Member-Works with sensitive customer data such as names, phone numbers, bank-accounts and credit-card numbers, Social Security numbers, account balances and credit limits. With these customer lists in hand, Member-Works started dialing for dollars—selling dental plans, videogames, computer software and other products and services. Customers who accepted a "free trial offer" had 50 days to cancel. If the deadline passed, they were charged automatically through their bank or credit-card accounts. U. S. Bancorp collected a share of the revenues. Customers were doubly deceived, the lawsuit claims. They didn’’t know that the bank was giving account numbers to Member-Works. And if customers asked, they were led to think the answer was no. The state sued Member-Works separately for deceptive selling. The company defends that it did anything wrong. For its part, U. S. Bancorp settled without admitting any mistakes. But it agreed to stop exposing its customers to nonfinancial products sold by outside firms. A few top banks decided to do the same. Many other banks will still do business with Member-Works and similar firms. And banks will still be mining data from your account in order to sell you financial products, including things of little value, such as credit insurance and credit-card protection plans. You have almost no protection from businesses that use your personal accounts for profit. For example, no federal law shields "transaction and experience" information—mainly the details of your bank and credit-card accounts. Social Security numbers are for sale by private firms. They’’ve generally agreed not to sell to the public. But to businesses, the numbers are an open book. Self-regulation doesn’’t work. A firm might publish a privacy-protection policy, but who enforces it Take U. S. Bancorp again. Customers were told, in writing, that "all personal information you supply to us will be considered confidential. " Then it sold your data to Member-Works. The bank even claims that it doesn’’t "sell" your data at all. It merely "shares" it and reaps a profit. Now you know. When the "free trial " deadline is over, you’’ll be charged without notice for a product or service if________

A．you fail to cancel it within the specified period.
B．you happen to reveal your credit card number.
C．you find the product or service unsatisfactory.
D．you fail to apply for extension of the deadline.

单项选择题

In the last ten years, the Internet has opened up incredible amounts of information to ordinary citizens. But using the Internet can be like walking into a library where the books are all lying on the floor in piles. While tools like Google allow some structured search, much of the data from such searches is outdated or of questionable value. Some web enthusiasts have taken up the task of organizing information through a democratic means that only the Internet allows: an encyclopedia of the people, by the people, and completely free to copy and distribute. This people’’s encyclopedia’’ of the Web ( a free site called Wikipedia) has provided a unique solution by inviting individuals to participate in the process of rationalizing and updating web content. At the heart of this movement are wikis, web sites that allow users to directly edit any web page with one click of the mouse. Wikipedia (the largest example of these collaborative efforts) is a functioning, user-contributed online encyclopedia that has become a popular and highly regarded reference in just three years of existence. The goal of Wikipedia was to create an encyclopedia that could be shared and copied freely while encouraging people to change and improve the content. Each and every article has an " Edit this page" button, allowing anyone, even anonymous passersby, to add or delete any content on the page. It seems like a recipe for disaster and chaos, but it has produced surprisingly credible content that has been evaluated and revised by the thousands of international visitors to the site. The Wikipedia project was started by Jimmy Wales, head of Internet startup bomis. com, after his original project for a volunteer, but strictly controlled, free encyclopedia ran out of money and resources after two years. Editors with PhD degrees were at the helm of the project then, but it produced only a few hundred articles. Not wanting the content to languish, Wales placed the pages on a wiki website in January 2001 and invited any Internet visitors to edit or add to the collection. The site became a runaway success in the first year and gained a loyal following, generating over 20,000 articles and spawning over a dozen language translations. After two years, it had 100, 000 articles. Over 2,000 new articles are added each day across all the various languages. And according to website rankings at alexa. com, it has become more popular than traditional online encyclopedias such as britannica. com and is one of the top 200 most heavily visited websites on the internet. Which can be inferred form the passage about Wikipedia

A．It has once ran into trouble.
B．It has a foreseeable bright future.
C．It will soon take the part of Google.
D．It makes great contribution to the spreading of information.

单项选择题

Davison knelt down close to the bottom of the basement stairs. He was saved for the moment by the thick fog which covered the street. Could the policemen be sure that he hadn’’t turned round and run back into the main street But they weren’’t taking chances. Davison slowly went down the street as they searched all the doorways. There wasn’’t a light on in the basement flat behind him. That alone was dangerous. The policemen were coming close but they wouldn’’t expect to find him in an occupied flat. There was a notice on the door which said "No milk till Monday", he tore it down. He tried the door and found it was double locked. The footsteps came nearer very slowly. They must be searching thoroughly. He knew there was one chance because people were often careless, so he took out a knife, slipped it under the catch of the window and pushed upward until the window slid up. He climbed through quickly and fell on to a bed. He closed the window and turned on the light at once. He heard steps coming towards the front door. On no account must the place seem empty. He looked for an electric point, and quickly connected the radio and turned it on. Then he opened the door opposite and found himself in the bathroom. Somebody ― it could only be a policeman ― rang the doorbell. Luckily he found what he wanted in the bathroom cupboard straightaway ― a razor, a stick of shaving soap and a towel. He tied the towel over his collar and managed to soap over his neat beard and the ugly scar on his chin fairly thickened before the bell rang again. Davison moved slowly to the front door and opened it. Two policemen stood outside and one of them had a dirty piece of paper in one hand. "We’’ve just found this note, "he said. "As it says’’ No milk till Monday’’, I thought the flat might be empty and the light left on by mistake. "He looked at Davison carefully. The instant Davison entered the flat, he turned on the light because

A．he wondered whether there was someone in it.
B．he wanted to examine the flat.
C．the policemen might not look in an occupied flat.
D．he could observe the policemen.

单项选择题

Many publications made private inquiries before presidential election, generally by means of questionnaires sent to subscribers and by telephone surveys. The principle common to all these inquiries was that they depended on quantity rather than quality; little effort was made to reach representatives of all segments of the population. Still, the erroneous belief persisted that the greater the number of questionnaires, the more accurate the results would be. The record was held by the American monthly Literary Digest, which sent out millions of postcards with short and pointed questions before each election, and received many hundreds of thousands of replies. In fact, in 1932, the Literary Digest’’s forecast was off by only 1%. In view of such striking achievements, it seemed rather improper for the young American journalist, George Gallup, to claim that large numbers were irrelevant, and that equally accurate or better predictions could be made with a small but carefully selected sample of the population and a small team of skilled interviewers. In 1936, Gallup convinced thirty-five newspaper editors that his system was much cheaper than the customary mass inquiries and that it could provide surprisingly accurate predictions. The editors finally agreed. On condition that if Gallup’’s predictions were less accurate than those obtained by the tried method of the Literary Digest, he would have to refund the entire cost of the investigation. Although the Literary Digest broke its own record by obtaining two million replies to its electoral postcards that year, its prediction was wrong by 19% , whereas Gallup’’s was off by less than 1 % . Suddenly Gallup’’s name was on everyone’’s lips. Not only was he the prophet of the moment, but it was generally conceded that he had founded a new and most important scientific method of prediction. He was showered with money and commissions, and the Gallup Poll becomes a common term for public opinion polls. Gallup usually samples his subjects according to six factors: state, size of community, age, sex, income, and political affiliation. From time to time, other factors may be considered, during time of war, for instance, the national origins of electors may be taken into account. Only when the composition of the electorate has been accurately determined can the purely arithmetical question — how many people in each bracket must be interviewed — be solved. Once this is done, laws of probability take over, and the more people interviewed, the more exact the estimates will be. However, above a certain maximum number of interviews, the accuracy increases by no more than a fractional percentage — and where errors of up to 2% are permissible, a few thousand questionnaires will accurately reflect the opinions of the total United States electorate. Gallup’’s method of sampling the electorate was successful. Before Gallup, political predictions were no more than shots in the dark, and it is as a result of his achievement that today we can make truly scientific forecasts in this difficult field. All the following about the Literary Digest and its forecast is true EXCEPT________.

A．it believed that more questionnaires may ensure more accurate results
B．it held the record in sending out the electoral postcards with many questions
C．its prediction in 1936 was wrong by 19%
D．its forecast in 1932 turned out to be a failure

单项选择题

When we worry about who might be spying on our private lives, we usually think about the Federal agents. But the private sector outdoes the government every time. It’’s Linda Tripp, not the FBI, who is facing charges under Maryland’’s laws against secret telephone taping. It’’s our banks, not the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) , that pass our private financial data to telemarketing firms. Consumer activists are pressing Congress for better privacy laws without much result so far. The legislators lean toward letting business people track our financial habits virtually at will. As an example of what’’s going on, consider U. S. Bancorp, which was recently sued for deceptive practices by the state of Minnesota. According to the lawsuit, the bank supplied a telemarketer called Member-Works with sensitive customer data such as names, phone numbers, bank-accounts and credit-card numbers, Social Security numbers, account balances and credit limits. With these customer lists in hand, Member-Works started dialing for dollars—selling dental plans, videogames, computer software and other products and services. Customers who accepted a "free trial offer" had 50 days to cancel. If the deadline passed, they were charged automatically through their bank or credit-card accounts. U. S. Bancorp collected a share of the revenues. Customers were doubly deceived, the lawsuit claims. They didn’’t know that the bank was giving account numbers to Member-Works. And if customers asked, they were led to think the answer was no. The state sued Member-Works separately for deceptive selling. The company defends that it did anything wrong. For its part, U. S. Bancorp settled without admitting any mistakes. But it agreed to stop exposing its customers to nonfinancial products sold by outside firms. A few top banks decided to do the same. Many other banks will still do business with Member-Works and similar firms. And banks will still be mining data from your account in order to sell you financial products, including things of little value, such as credit insurance and credit-card protection plans. You have almost no protection from businesses that use your personal accounts for profit. For example, no federal law shields "transaction and experience" information—mainly the details of your bank and credit-card accounts. Social Security numbers are for sale by private firms. They’’ve generally agreed not to sell to the public. But to businesses, the numbers are an open book. Self-regulation doesn’’t work. A firm might publish a privacy-protection policy, but who enforces it Take U. S. Bancorp again. Customers were told, in writing, that "all personal information you supply to us will be considered confidential. " Then it sold your data to Member-Works. The bank even claims that it doesn’’t "sell" your data at all. It merely "shares" it and reaps a profit. Now you know. Businesses do not regard information concerning personal bank accounts as private because

A．its revelation will do no harm to consumers under the current protection policy
B．it is considered "transaction and experience" information unprotected by law.
C．it has always been considered an open secret by the general public.
D．its sale can be brought under control through self-regulation.

单项选择题

Davison knelt down close to the bottom of the basement stairs. He was saved for the moment by the thick fog which covered the street. Could the policemen be sure that he hadn’’t turned round and run back into the main street But they weren’’t taking chances. Davison slowly went down the street as they searched all the doorways. There wasn’’t a light on in the basement flat behind him. That alone was dangerous. The policemen were coming close but they wouldn’’t expect to find him in an occupied flat. There was a notice on the door which said "No milk till Monday", he tore it down. He tried the door and found it was double locked. The footsteps came nearer very slowly. They must be searching thoroughly. He knew there was one chance because people were often careless, so he took out a knife, slipped it under the catch of the window and pushed upward until the window slid up. He climbed through quickly and fell on to a bed. He closed the window and turned on the light at once. He heard steps coming towards the front door. On no account must the place seem empty. He looked for an electric point, and quickly connected the radio and turned it on. Then he opened the door opposite and found himself in the bathroom. Somebody ― it could only be a policeman ― rang the doorbell. Luckily he found what he wanted in the bathroom cupboard straightaway ― a razor, a stick of shaving soap and a towel. He tied the towel over his collar and managed to soap over his neat beard and the ugly scar on his chin fairly thickened before the bell rang again. Davison moved slowly to the front door and opened it. Two policemen stood outside and one of them had a dirty piece of paper in one hand. "We’’ve just found this note, "he said. "As it says’’ No milk till Monday’’, I thought the flat might be empty and the light left on by mistake. "He looked at Davison carefully. After Davison got into the bathroom, he

A．turned on the light.
B．attempted to hide in it.
C．made it look as if he were the owner of the flat.
D．recognized that it was a safe place.

单项选择题

In the last ten years, the Internet has opened up incredible amounts of information to ordinary citizens. But using the Internet can be like walking into a library where the books are all lying on the floor in piles. While tools like Google allow some structured search, much of the data from such searches is outdated or of questionable value. Some web enthusiasts have taken up the task of organizing information through a democratic means that only the Internet allows: an encyclopedia of the people, by the people, and completely free to copy and distribute. This people’’s encyclopedia’’ of the Web ( a free site called Wikipedia) has provided a unique solution by inviting individuals to participate in the process of rationalizing and updating web content. At the heart of this movement are wikis, web sites that allow users to directly edit any web page with one click of the mouse. Wikipedia (the largest example of these collaborative efforts) is a functioning, user-contributed online encyclopedia that has become a popular and highly regarded reference in just three years of existence. The goal of Wikipedia was to create an encyclopedia that could be shared and copied freely while encouraging people to change and improve the content. Each and every article has an " Edit this page" button, allowing anyone, even anonymous passersby, to add or delete any content on the page. It seems like a recipe for disaster and chaos, but it has produced surprisingly credible content that has been evaluated and revised by the thousands of international visitors to the site. The Wikipedia project was started by Jimmy Wales, head of Internet startup bomis. com, after his original project for a volunteer, but strictly controlled, free encyclopedia ran out of money and resources after two years. Editors with PhD degrees were at the helm of the project then, but it produced only a few hundred articles. Not wanting the content to languish, Wales placed the pages on a wiki website in January 2001 and invited any Internet visitors to edit or add to the collection. The site became a runaway success in the first year and gained a loyal following, generating over 20,000 articles and spawning over a dozen language translations. After two years, it had 100, 000 articles. Over 2,000 new articles are added each day across all the various languages. And according to website rankings at alexa. com, it has become more popular than traditional online encyclopedias such as britannica. com and is one of the top 200 most heavily visited websites on the internet. It can be inferred from the passage that, Jimmy Wales initiated the Wikipedia project in order to________

A．built a people’’s encyclopedia .
B．make himself known.
C．make resources available useful again.
D．execute a project ordered by his superior.

单项选择题

Many publications made private inquiries before presidential election, generally by means of questionnaires sent to subscribers and by telephone surveys. The principle common to all these inquiries was that they depended on quantity rather than quality; little effort was made to reach representatives of all segments of the population. Still, the erroneous belief persisted that the greater the number of questionnaires, the more accurate the results would be. The record was held by the American monthly Literary Digest, which sent out millions of postcards with short and pointed questions before each election, and received many hundreds of thousands of replies. In fact, in 1932, the Literary Digest’’s forecast was off by only 1%. In view of such striking achievements, it seemed rather improper for the young American journalist, George Gallup, to claim that large numbers were irrelevant, and that equally accurate or better predictions could be made with a small but carefully selected sample of the population and a small team of skilled interviewers. In 1936, Gallup convinced thirty-five newspaper editors that his system was much cheaper than the customary mass inquiries and that it could provide surprisingly accurate predictions. The editors finally agreed. On condition that if Gallup’’s predictions were less accurate than those obtained by the tried method of the Literary Digest, he would have to refund the entire cost of the investigation. Although the Literary Digest broke its own record by obtaining two million replies to its electoral postcards that year, its prediction was wrong by 19% , whereas Gallup’’s was off by less than 1 % . Suddenly Gallup’’s name was on everyone’’s lips. Not only was he the prophet of the moment, but it was generally conceded that he had founded a new and most important scientific method of prediction. He was showered with money and commissions, and the Gallup Poll becomes a common term for public opinion polls. Gallup usually samples his subjects according to six factors: state, size of community, age, sex, income, and political affiliation. From time to time, other factors may be considered, during time of war, for instance, the national origins of electors may be taken into account. Only when the composition of the electorate has been accurately determined can the purely arithmetical question — how many people in each bracket must be interviewed — be solved. Once this is done, laws of probability take over, and the more people interviewed, the more exact the estimates will be. However, above a certain maximum number of interviews, the accuracy increases by no more than a fractional percentage — and where errors of up to 2% are permissible, a few thousand questionnaires will accurately reflect the opinions of the total United States electorate. Gallup’’s method of sampling the electorate was successful. Before Gallup, political predictions were no more than shots in the dark, and it is as a result of his achievement that today we can make truly scientific forecasts in this difficult field. Gallup became a household name overnight because________.

A．his performance in 1936 pre-election poll was excellent
B．he was the prophet of the moment
C．he founded a new scientific method of prediction
D．he was the founder of the Gallup Poll

单项选择题

When we worry about who might be spying on our private lives, we usually think about the Federal agents. But the private sector outdoes the government every time. It’’s Linda Tripp, not the FBI, who is facing charges under Maryland’’s laws against secret telephone taping. It’’s our banks, not the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) , that pass our private financial data to telemarketing firms. Consumer activists are pressing Congress for better privacy laws without much result so far. The legislators lean toward letting business people track our financial habits virtually at will. As an example of what’’s going on, consider U. S. Bancorp, which was recently sued for deceptive practices by the state of Minnesota. According to the lawsuit, the bank supplied a telemarketer called Member-Works with sensitive customer data such as names, phone numbers, bank-accounts and credit-card numbers, Social Security numbers, account balances and credit limits. With these customer lists in hand, Member-Works started dialing for dollars—selling dental plans, videogames, computer software and other products and services. Customers who accepted a "free trial offer" had 50 days to cancel. If the deadline passed, they were charged automatically through their bank or credit-card accounts. U. S. Bancorp collected a share of the revenues. Customers were doubly deceived, the lawsuit claims. They didn’’t know that the bank was giving account numbers to Member-Works. And if customers asked, they were led to think the answer was no. The state sued Member-Works separately for deceptive selling. The company defends that it did anything wrong. For its part, U. S. Bancorp settled without admitting any mistakes. But it agreed to stop exposing its customers to nonfinancial products sold by outside firms. A few top banks decided to do the same. Many other banks will still do business with Member-Works and similar firms. And banks will still be mining data from your account in order to sell you financial products, including things of little value, such as credit insurance and credit-card protection plans. You have almost no protection from businesses that use your personal accounts for profit. For example, no federal law shields "transaction and experience" information—mainly the details of your bank and credit-card accounts. Social Security numbers are for sale by private firms. They’’ve generally agreed not to sell to the public. But to businesses, the numbers are an open book. Self-regulation doesn’’t work. A firm might publish a privacy-protection policy, but who enforces it Take U. S. Bancorp again. Customers were told, in writing, that "all personal information you supply to us will be considered confidential. " Then it sold your data to Member-Works. The bank even claims that it doesn’’t "sell" your data at all. It merely "shares" it and reaps a profit. Now you know. We can infer from the passage that________

A．banks will have to change their ways of doing business.
B．privacy protection laws will soon be enforced.
C．consumers’’ privacy will continue to be invaded.
D．free trial practice will eventually be banned.

单项选择题

Davison knelt down close to the bottom of the basement stairs. He was saved for the moment by the thick fog which covered the street. Could the policemen be sure that he hadn’’t turned round and run back into the main street But they weren’’t taking chances. Davison slowly went down the street as they searched all the doorways. There wasn’’t a light on in the basement flat behind him. That alone was dangerous. The policemen were coming close but they wouldn’’t expect to find him in an occupied flat. There was a notice on the door which said "No milk till Monday", he tore it down. He tried the door and found it was double locked. The footsteps came nearer very slowly. They must be searching thoroughly. He knew there was one chance because people were often careless, so he took out a knife, slipped it under the catch of the window and pushed upward until the window slid up. He climbed through quickly and fell on to a bed. He closed the window and turned on the light at once. He heard steps coming towards the front door. On no account must the place seem empty. He looked for an electric point, and quickly connected the radio and turned it on. Then he opened the door opposite and found himself in the bathroom. Somebody ― it could only be a policeman ― rang the doorbell. Luckily he found what he wanted in the bathroom cupboard straightaway ― a razor, a stick of shaving soap and a towel. He tied the towel over his collar and managed to soap over his neat beard and the ugly scar on his chin fairly thickened before the bell rang again. Davison moved slowly to the front door and opened it. Two policemen stood outside and one of them had a dirty piece of paper in one hand. "We’’ve just found this note, "he said. "As it says’’ No milk till Monday’’, I thought the flat might be empty and the light left on by mistake. "He looked at Davison carefully. What led the policemen to search for the flat

A．The light
B．That piece of paper thrown away outside the flat.
C．The double lock.
D．The closed windows.

单项选择题

Many publications made private inquiries before presidential election, generally by means of questionnaires sent to subscribers and by telephone surveys. The principle common to all these inquiries was that they depended on quantity rather than quality; little effort was made to reach representatives of all segments of the population. Still, the erroneous belief persisted that the greater the number of questionnaires, the more accurate the results would be. The record was held by the American monthly Literary Digest, which sent out millions of postcards with short and pointed questions before each election, and received many hundreds of thousands of replies. In fact, in 1932, the Literary Digest’’s forecast was off by only 1%. In view of such striking achievements, it seemed rather improper for the young American journalist, George Gallup, to claim that large numbers were irrelevant, and that equally accurate or better predictions could be made with a small but carefully selected sample of the population and a small team of skilled interviewers. In 1936, Gallup convinced thirty-five newspaper editors that his system was much cheaper than the customary mass inquiries and that it could provide surprisingly accurate predictions. The editors finally agreed. On condition that if Gallup’’s predictions were less accurate than those obtained by the tried method of the Literary Digest, he would have to refund the entire cost of the investigation. Although the Literary Digest broke its own record by obtaining two million replies to its electoral postcards that year, its prediction was wrong by 19% , whereas Gallup’’s was off by less than 1 % . Suddenly Gallup’’s name was on everyone’’s lips. Not only was he the prophet of the moment, but it was generally conceded that he had founded a new and most important scientific method of prediction. He was showered with money and commissions, and the Gallup Poll becomes a common term for public opinion polls. Gallup usually samples his subjects according to six factors: state, size of community, age, sex, income, and political affiliation. From time to time, other factors may be considered, during time of war, for instance, the national origins of electors may be taken into account. Only when the composition of the electorate has been accurately determined can the purely arithmetical question — how many people in each bracket must be interviewed — be solved. Once this is done, laws of probability take over, and the more people interviewed, the more exact the estimates will be. However, above a certain maximum number of interviews, the accuracy increases by no more than a fractional percentage — and where errors of up to 2% are permissible, a few thousand questionnaires will accurately reflect the opinions of the total United States electorate. Gallup’’s method of sampling the electorate was successful. Before Gallup, political predictions were no more than shots in the dark, and it is as a result of his achievement that today we can make truly scientific forecasts in this difficult field. Paragraphs 5 and 6 suggest that________.

A．Gallup focused more on quantity than quality
B．Gallup Poll was firstly based on sociological rather than arithmetical calculations
C．Gallup determined the number of the interviewers from the beginning
D．there is not a maximum number of interviewers in Gallup Poll

单项选择题

In the last ten years, the Internet has opened up incredible amounts of information to ordinary citizens. But using the Internet can be like walking into a library where the books are all lying on the floor in piles. While tools like Google allow some structured search, much of the data from such searches is outdated or of questionable value. Some web enthusiasts have taken up the task of organizing information through a democratic means that only the Internet allows: an encyclopedia of the people, by the people, and completely free to copy and distribute. This people’’s encyclopedia’’ of the Web ( a free site called Wikipedia) has provided a unique solution by inviting individuals to participate in the process of rationalizing and updating web content. At the heart of this movement are wikis, web sites that allow users to directly edit any web page with one click of the mouse. Wikipedia (the largest example of these collaborative efforts) is a functioning, user-contributed online encyclopedia that has become a popular and highly regarded reference in just three years of existence. The goal of Wikipedia was to create an encyclopedia that could be shared and copied freely while encouraging people to change and improve the content. Each and every article has an " Edit this page" button, allowing anyone, even anonymous passersby, to add or delete any content on the page. It seems like a recipe for disaster and chaos, but it has produced surprisingly credible content that has been evaluated and revised by the thousands of international visitors to the site. The Wikipedia project was started by Jimmy Wales, head of Internet startup bomis. com, after his original project for a volunteer, but strictly controlled, free encyclopedia ran out of money and resources after two years. Editors with PhD degrees were at the helm of the project then, but it produced only a few hundred articles. Not wanting the content to languish, Wales placed the pages on a wiki website in January 2001 and invited any Internet visitors to edit or add to the collection. The site became a runaway success in the first year and gained a loyal following, generating over 20,000 articles and spawning over a dozen language translations. After two years, it had 100, 000 articles. Over 2,000 new articles are added each day across all the various languages. And according to website rankings at alexa. com, it has become more popular than traditional online encyclopedias such as britannica. com and is one of the top 200 most heavily visited websites on the internet. The author’’s attitude towards Wikipedia might be best summarize as one of________

A．optimistic.
B．indifferent.
C．encourage.
D．suspicious.

单项选择题

Many publications made private inquiries before presidential election, generally by means of questionnaires sent to subscribers and by telephone surveys. The principle common to all these inquiries was that they depended on quantity rather than quality; little effort was made to reach representatives of all segments of the population. Still, the erroneous belief persisted that the greater the number of questionnaires, the more accurate the results would be. The record was held by the American monthly Literary Digest, which sent out millions of postcards with short and pointed questions before each election, and received many hundreds of thousands of replies. In fact, in 1932, the Literary Digest’’s forecast was off by only 1%. In view of such striking achievements, it seemed rather improper for the young American journalist, George Gallup, to claim that large numbers were irrelevant, and that equally accurate or better predictions could be made with a small but carefully selected sample of the population and a small team of skilled interviewers. In 1936, Gallup convinced thirty-five newspaper editors that his system was much cheaper than the customary mass inquiries and that it could provide surprisingly accurate predictions. The editors finally agreed. On condition that if Gallup’’s predictions were less accurate than those obtained by the tried method of the Literary Digest, he would have to refund the entire cost of the investigation. Although the Literary Digest broke its own record by obtaining two million replies to its electoral postcards that year, its prediction was wrong by 19% , whereas Gallup’’s was off by less than 1 % . Suddenly Gallup’’s name was on everyone’’s lips. Not only was he the prophet of the moment, but it was generally conceded that he had founded a new and most important scientific method of prediction. He was showered with money and commissions, and the Gallup Poll becomes a common term for public opinion polls. Gallup usually samples his subjects according to six factors: state, size of community, age, sex, income, and political affiliation. From time to time, other factors may be considered, during time of war, for instance, the national origins of electors may be taken into account. Only when the composition of the electorate has been accurately determined can the purely arithmetical question — how many people in each bracket must be interviewed — be solved. Once this is done, laws of probability take over, and the more people interviewed, the more exact the estimates will be. However, above a certain maximum number of interviews, the accuracy increases by no more than a fractional percentage — and where errors of up to 2% are permissible, a few thousand questionnaires will accurately reflect the opinions of the total United States electorate. Gallup’’s method of sampling the electorate was successful. Before Gallup, political predictions were no more than shots in the dark, and it is as a result of his achievement that today we can make truly scientific forecasts in this difficult field. The phrase "shots in the dark" in the last paragraph means________.

A．adventures
B．dangers
C．wild guesses
D．successful attempts

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