英語真題閱讀理解試題及名師解析（七）
A great deal of attention is being paid today to the so-called digital divide—the division of the world into the info(information) rich and the info poor. And that divide does exist today. My wife and I lectured about this looming danger twenty years ago. What was less visible then, however, were the new, positive forces that work against the digital divide. There are reasons to be optimistic.
There are technological reasons to hope the digital divide will narrow. As the Internet becomes more and more commercialized, it is in the interest of business to universalize access—after all, the more people online, the more potential customers there are. More and more governments, afraid their countries will be left behind, want to spread Internet access. Within the next decade or two, one to two billion people on the planet will be netted together. As a result, I now believe the digital divide will narrow rather than widen in the years ahead. And that is very good news because the Internet may well be the most powerful tool for combating world poverty that we've ever had.
Of course, the use of the Internet isn't the only way to defeat poverty. And the Internet is not the only tool we have. But it has enormous potential.
To take advantage of this tool, some impoverished countries will have to get over their outdated anti-colonial prejudices with respect to foreign investment. Countries that still think foreign investment is an invasion of their sovereignty might well study the history of infrastructure (the basic structural foundations of a society) in the United States. When the United States built its industrials infrastructure, it didn't have the capital to do so. And that is why America's Second Wave infrastructure—including roads, barbors, highways, ports and so on—were built with foreign investment. The English, the Germans, the Dutch and the French were investing in Britain's former colony. They financed them. Immigrant Americans built them. Guess who owns them now? The Americans. I believe the same thing would be true in places like Brazil or anywhere else for that matter. The more foreign capital you have helping you build your Third Wave infrastructure, which today is an electronic infrastructure, the better off you're going to be. That doesn't mean lying down and becoming fooled, or letting foreign corporations run uncontrolled. But it does mean recognizing how important they can be in building the energy and telecom infrastructures needed to take full advantage of the Internet.
25. Digital divide is something _________.
[A]getting worse because of the Internet
[B]the rich countries are responsible for
[C]the world must guard against
[D]considered positive today
26. Governments attach importance to the Internet because it _________.
[A]offers economic potentials
[B]can bring foreign funds
[C]can soon wipe out world poverty
[D]connects people all over the world
27. The writer mentioned the case of the United States to justify the policy of _________.
[A]providing financial support overseas
[B]preventing foreign capital's control
[C]building industrial infrastructure
[D]accepting foreign investment
28. It seems that now a country's economy depends much on _________.
[A]how well-developed it is electronically
[B]whether it is prejudiced against immigrants
[C]whether it adopts America's industrial pattern
[D]how much control it has over foreign corporations
25. Digital divide is something _______. 數字鴻溝是______。
[A]getting worse because of the Internet 因爲因特網而變得更加糟糕
[B]the rich countries are responsible for 由富裕國家應該承擔責任的
[C]the world must guard against 全世界都要警惕的
[D]considered positive today 今天被認爲是積極的
【答案】 C
【分析】 通過題幹關鍵詞“數字鴻溝”定位到第一段。第一句是對“數字鴻溝”所下的一個定義。其後作者提到，他和妻子20年前就談到這種隱伏的的危險，這裡的“looming danger”指的就是“the digital divide”。早在20年前，防止產生這種鴻溝的積極因素還不太明顯，而今天作者認爲是樂觀的。同時定位到第二段，作者提到了“因特網的普及使這種鴻溝正得到縮小”，可見，選項[A]是錯誤的，“因爲因特網而變得糟糕”與原文意思相左。[B]不對，是因爲作者沒有提到這個方面。在作者看來，這種鴻溝是不好的現象，而網絡的普及能幫助世界戰勝貧困。[D]的說法顯然是錯誤的，因爲作者就是要消除這個鴻溝。
26. Governments attach importance to the Internet because it ______.
政府重視因特網是因爲它________。
[A]offers economic potentials 提供很多經濟可能
[B]can bring foreign funds 能夠帶來外國資金
[C]can soon wipe out world poverty 能夠很快消除世界貧困
[D]connects people all over the world 將世界人民連在一起
【答案】 A
【考點】 事實細節題。
【分析】 定位到第二段，文中提到“政府之所以大力推廣因特網是出於因特網可能成爲消除貧困的最好的工具的考慮”。第三段更是提到“因特網可能具有巨大的潛力”。因此可以判斷[A]是正確的。[B]選項認爲“可以帶來海外投資”，這僅僅是局部因素。[C]選項中，雖然作者提到了“國際互聯網的利用可能是戰勝貧困的工具”，但這僅僅是一種潛在的力量，並沒有說能夠很快消除貧困。[D]選項也是因特網的一個主要功能，但是也不是政府重視的主要原因。
27. The writer mentioned the case of the United States to justify the policy of _________.
作者提到美國的案例是爲了證明__________政策是對的。
[A]providing financial support overseas 爲海外提供資金支持
[B]preventing foreign capital’s control 防止外國資金控制
[C]building industrial infrastructure 建設工業基礎
[D]accepting foreign investment 接受外國投資
【答案】 D
【考點】 作者意圖題。
【分析】 在第四段，美國和巴西的例子都被作者用以說明拋棄過去的在那種在利用外資上的，過時的反殖民偏見，提出充分利用外資建立電子基礎設施的重要性，並且指出，哪個國家在建設“第三次浪潮”的基礎設施上利用外資多，哪個國家就將變得更富裕。因此可以判斷正確選項是[D]。[A]選項把吸收外資的重要性和美國提供海外資金混淆起來。[B]的說法無法從美國這個案例中推斷出來。[C]錯在“工業”這個概念上。
28. It seems that now a country’s economy depends much on _____.
現在，一個國家的經濟看起來極大地依賴於_______。
[A]how well developed it is electronically 它的電子發展程度
[B]whether it is prejudiced against immigrants 它是否歧視移民
[C]whether it adopts America’s industrial pattern 它是否接受美國的工業模式
[D]how much control it has over foreign corporations 它對外國公司的控制有多大
【答案】 A
【考點】 推斷題。
【分析】 文章最後一段提到哪個國家在建設“第三次浪潮”的基礎設施上利用外資多，哪個國家就將變得更富裕。這裡的“第三次浪潮”指的就是“電子基礎建設”。因此選項[A]是正確的。其他三個選項中，[B]和[D]文中沒有提到。[C]再次出現“工業模式”，因此不正確。
難句解析：
1. As the Internet becomes more and more commercialized, it is in the interest of business to universalize access—after all, the more people online, the more potential customers there are.
【結構分析】 本句主句是“It is in the interest of business to universalize access”，“as”引導一個伴隨狀語，“隨着”，而非“因爲”，後面破折號的部分是進一步解釋說明前面的主句。
2. The more foreign capital you have helping you build your Third Wave infrastructure, which today is an electronic infrastructure, the better off you're going to be.
【結構分析】 本句是一個“the more..., the more...”的句型。“which today is an electronic infrastructure”是修飾“Third Wave infrastructure”的非限定性定語從句。
全文翻譯：
今天，人們十分關注所謂的數字鴻溝問題，即世界被分爲信息資源豐富區和信息資源貧乏區兩類。這個鴻溝今天確實存在，我和我妻子20年前談過這個隱伏的危險。然而，那時一些抵制數字鴻溝的、新的積極因素還不如今天明顯。我們是有理由感到樂觀的。
一些技術上的因素使我們有理由希望鴻溝會縮小。隨着互聯網變得越來越商業化，普及上網對商家是有利的——畢竟，上網人數越多，潛在的客戶就越多。越來越多的政府，由於擔心自己的國家會落後，都想推廣互聯網。一二十年之內，全球將有一二十億人被網在一起。因此，我現在相信，在將來，數字鴻溝將會縮小而不是擴大。這是非常好的消息，因爲互聯網非常可能成爲我們消除所面臨的貧困的最強有效的工具。
當然，使用互聯網不是唯一戰勝貧困的方法。互聯網也不是我們所擁有的唯一工具，但它卻有巨大的潛力。
要想利用互聯網這個工具，某些貧困國家必須克服在外國投資方面的過時的反殖民偏見。那些認爲外國投資是對本國主權的侵犯的國家最好還是研究一下美國基礎設施(社會的基本結構基礎)的歷史。當初美國建設自己的工業基礎設施時，缺乏資金，這就是爲什麼美國的第二波基礎設施建設——包括公路、港口，高速公路、港口城市等等——都是利用的國外資金。英國人、德國人、荷蘭人和法國人都在這片前英國殖民地投資。他們提供資金，美國移民建造。想想看，現在誰擁有這一切？美國人。我想，同樣的事情也可以發生在巴西或其他任何地方。你擁有的去建造第三次浪潮基礎設施(今天主要指電子基礎設施)的外國資金越多，那麼你就越富裕。這並不是說卑躬屈膝，任人愚弄，也不是讓外國公司爲所欲爲。但這的確意味着你已認識到外國公司對本國能源及通信基礎設施建設的重要性，這些基礎設施是充分利用互聯網所必要的。