II. 選擇搭配題
Directions:In the following article, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 41-- 45, choose the most suitable one from the list A--G to fit into each of the numbered blank. There are two extra choices, which do not fit in any of the gaps. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)
This year's good-news / bad-news report on technology usage in the United States contains hardly any surprises. And that really got my attention. The upside is that computer ownership and Internet connectivity are booming. The number of homes with a computer has nearly doubled in the past four years. Today, the computer has taken up appliance status in more than 42 percent of households across the United States.
41) _______________________________. Online access was up more than 50 percent in just the past year (from 1997 to 1998). Now, more than one quarter of all U.S. households can surf in cyberspace.
Mostly, this explosive growth has occurred democratically. 42) _________________________.
We view these trends as favorable without the slightest question because we clearly see computer technology as empowering. 43) _______________________________. I myself am hoping that such assumptions are true and that world peace, love, understanding, will somehow be future byproducts.
44) _______________________________. That is, the digital explosion is not booming at the same pace for everyone. Yes, it is true that we are all plugged in to a much greater degree than any of us have been in the past. But some of us are more plugged in than others and are getting plugged in far more rapidly. And this gap is widening even as the pace of the information age accelerates through society.
45) _______________________________.
The highest income bracket households, those earning more than $75,000 annually, are 20 times as likely to have access to the Internet as households at the lowest income levels, under $10,000 annually. The computer penetration rate at the high-income level is an astounding 76.56 percent, compared with 8 percent at the bottom end of the scale.
Technology access differs widely by educational level. College gradates are 16 times as likely to be Internet surfers at homes as are those with only elementary-school education. If you look at the differences between these groups in rural areas, the gap widens to a twenty-six-fold advantage for the college-educated.
[A] From the time of the last study, the information access gap grew by 29 percent between the highest and lowest income groups, and by 25 percent between the highest and lowest education levels.
[B] And these computers are increasingly being wired to the Internet.
[C] Computer ownership and Internet access are highly stratified along lines of wealth, race, education, and geography. The data indicates that computer ownership and online access is growing more rapidly among the most prosperous and well educated: essentially, wealthy white people with high-school and college diplomas and who are part of stable, two-parent households.
[D] The online penetration and computer ownership increases extend across all the demographic levels -- by race, geography, income, and education.
[E] Pretty rosy picture, right? Now for the not-so-good news. The government's analysis spells out so called digital divide.
[F] In the long run, participation in the information age may not be a zero sum game, where if some groups win, others must lose.
[G] In fact, personal growth and a prosperous U.S. economy are considered to be the long-range rewards of individual and collective technological prowess（威力，本領(lǐng)）.
