阅读理解
Directions: For this rusk, you are to read a short passage with 5 questions. Read the passage carefully Then answer the questions in the fewest possible words on the Answer Sheet. 


Three hundred years ago news travelled by word of mouth or letter, and circulated in taverns and coffee houses in the form of pamphlets and newsletters. “The coffee houses particularly are very roomy for a free conversation, and for reading at an easier rate all manner of printed news, ” noted one observer. Everything changed in 1833 when the first mass-audience newspaper, The New York Sun, pioneered the use of advertising to reduce the cost of news, thus giving advertisers access to a wider audience. The penny press, followed by radio and television, turned news flora a two-way conversation into a one-way broadcast, with a relatively small number of firms controlling the media.

Now, the news industry is returning to something closer to the coffee house. The internet is making news more participatory, social and diverse, reviving the discursive characteristics of the era before the mass media. That will have profound effects on society and politics. In much of the world, the mass media are flourishing. Newspaper circulation rose globally by 6% between 2005and 2009. But those global figures mask a sharp decline in readership in rich countries.

Over the past decade, throughout the Western world, people have been giving tip newspapers and TV news and keeping up with events in profoundly different ways. Most strikingly, ordinary people are increasingly involved in compiling, sharing, filtering, discussing and disturbing news. Twitter lets people anywhere report what they are seeing. Classified documents are published in their thousands online. Mobile phone footage of Arab uprisings and American tornadoes is posted on social networking sites and shown on television newscasts. Social networking sites help people find discuss and share news with their friends.

And it is not just readers who are challenging the media elite. Technology firms including Google, Facebook and Twitter have become important conduits of news. Celebrities and world leaders publish updates directly via social networks: many countries now make raw data available through “open government” initiatives. The internet lets people read newspapers or watch television channels from around the world. The web has allowed new providers of news, from individual bloggers to sites, to prominence in a very short space of time. And it has made possible entirely new approaches to journalism, such as that practiced by Wikileaks, which provides an anonymous way for whistleblowers to publish documents. The news agenda is no longer controlled by a few press barons and state outlets.

In principle, every, liberal should celebrate this. A more participatory and social news environment, with a remarkable diversity and range of news sources, is a good thing. The transformation of the news business is unstoppable, and attempts to reverse it are doomed to failure. As producers of new journalism, individuals can be scrupulous with facts and transparent with their sources. As consumers, they can be general in their tastes and demanding in their standards. And although this transformation does raise concerns, there is much to celebrate in the noisy, diverse, vociferous, argumentative and stridently alive environment of the news business in the age of the Internet. The coffee house is back. Enjoy it. 

问答题 Why does the year 1833 stand out in the history of thenewspaper?
【正确答案】Because advertising appeared in newspapers
【答案解析】根据文章第一段第三句可知: 事情在1883年发生重大转变,第一个面向大众的报纸,纽约太阳 报率先使用了在报纸上登广告的形式降低了新闻 成本并为赞助商寻到更多的观众,所以最终原因归结于是报纸广告的出现。
问答题 What is “The penny press” (Para. 1) ? Give a briefdescription according to the meaning of Para. 2.
【正确答案】Penny press refers newspapers that are cheap, popular and in large circulation.
【答案解析】由文章第二段可知,新闻 变得更易参与,更具有社会性,更容易听到不同的声音,让新闻 从大众传媒时代重回 百家争鸣的盛况。
问答题 What is the one crucial word that runs through thepassage linking the ideas together?
【正确答案】Transformation
【答案解析】本文主要讨论了新闻 产业的一些变革,所以transformation一词表现了文章的主题。
问答题 As a young person living in this age of the Internet,aren’ t you also part of the “news transformation” ? Givean example and explain why.
【正确答案】With the Internet, news can spread through many ways like Google, Twitter and Facebook since people are increasingly involved in compiling, sharing, filtering,discussing and distributing news, everyone can be part of news transformation.
【答案解析】随着互联网 的出现,每个人都可以是信息传播的一部分,每天谷歌,推特和脸书上面都有各种信息传播。
问答题 What is the author’ s opinion on this change? How doyou know?
【正确答案】Optimistic and cautious
【答案解析】文章最后一段提到作者对新式新闻 的看法,从“In principle,every liberal should celebrate this” 可以看出作者是持乐观态度的; 由“although this transformation does raise concerns” 可知作者也并未否认这种新式新闻的负面影响,因此可以说是比较严谨的。