单选题 If Bill Gates ever had reason to doubt that the brash young billionaires of Google were out to get him, the time for such uncertainty is now officially over. Last month's dramatically revised version of its program Google Desktop is a glove slap across the face of Microsoft's fabled chief software architect. Obviously Google's update to a previous tool that searched people's hard drives in addition to the usual lightning-quick survey of the entire World Wide Web, Google Desktop 2 turns out to be a not-so-stealthy attempt to hijack the desktop from Microsoft. And in a move that must be particularly galling to Gates, the program does it in a way that directly steals thunder from Microsoft's upcoming Windows update, Vista.
Specifically, I'm talking about Google's feature called Sidebar, a stack of small windows that sit on the side of the screen and dynamically draw on Web and personal information to track things like weather, stock prices, your e-mail, your photos, recently opened documents and Web destinations . Several years ago, demonstrating an early version of Vista, Microsoft proudly showed a column of on-screen "tiles" that did the same kinds of things. Microsoft's name for this upcoming feature (which it still plans to include in Vista when it ships in late 2006): Sidebar.
That's not all. Google product manager Nakhil Bhatla explains that another purpose of Desktop is to use the search box to quickly locate programs and files that you want to open--bypassing the Windows way of clicking on an icon or using the Start menu.
Clearly, Google is squatting on Microsoft's turf, asking users to live in its environment as opposed to Bill's. Microsoft still believes that the central point of personal computing is productivity. That's why the desktop search in Vista will limit itself to probing the user's hard disk. Microsoft's explanation for this approach is that mixing Web-search results with hits from your own information is just too confusing. Things go more efficiently, the theory goes, when your personal data pond is segregated from the ocean of information data located elsewhere in the world. (Microsoft offers Web search as a separate program. )
In contrast, Google Desktop searches bring results from everywhere--your hard disk, your email and billions of Web sites. That's because the Google mission is organizing and managing all the world's information. "You shouldn't have to think about where the information comes from," says Google VP Susan Wojcicki. Though Google-sites acknowledge difficulties in merging the personal with the public, their core belief is that the essence of 21st-century computing springs from the connectivity that allows all human knowledge, from books to instant messages, to be potentially shared.
As Google tries to annex new information flows, it increasingly runs smack against issues of privacy, copyright and censorship. That's one part of Google's challenge. The other will be fending off Bill Gates, undoubtedly determined to prove that his vision of computing still dominates.

单选题 From the first sentence we can infer that
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】推理判断题。文章第一段的第一句话说比尔•盖茨怀疑Google否能赶上微软，而现在这种不确定已经结束，也就是说Google确实已经赶上了微软，因此[C]项是正确的。这一句话中的brash是“盛气凌人”的意思，[A]项中的"impolite"偏离了文章的旨意；[B]项是说对微软的主导地位不再有不确定，和文章表述意思相反；第一句话没有提到比尔·盖茨和Google为敌的事，因此排除[D]项。
单选题 According to the first paragraph, what is most annoying to Gates?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】事实细节题。文章第一段最后一句话中galling“烦恼的”与题干中的annoying对应，[B]项是这一句话的同义转述。这一段中提到了Google推出新的桌面，也提到了Google可以访问硬盘，但对于Gates来说，都不是最annoying的，所以排除[A]项和[C]项；[D]项说Google在和微软竞争中不够隐蔽，表述和这一段的最后一句话不一致，因此排除。
单选题 Which of the following is true about Sidebar?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】推理判断题。文章第二段第一句话介绍了Google的Sidebar，第二句就介绍了Microsoft的Sidebar，因此说Coogle和Microsoft都有Sidebar是正确的，所以选[C]。这一段的第一句话在介绍Sidebar时指出...a stack of small windows that sit on the side of the screen...，而[A]项说Sidebar在屏幕中间，因此排除这一选项；[B]项中的"everything"说法过于绝对，不符合文意，所以排除；这一段的倒数第二句把Microsoft的Sidebar暗喻成a column of on-screen "tiles"，而不是实在的tiles，因此排除[D]项。
单选题 By saying "squatting on Microsoft's turf", the author means that
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】事实细节题。文章第四段的完整的第一句话，Clearly, Coogle is squatting on Microsoft's turf, asking users to live in its environment as opposed to Bill's．从这句话的后半部分可以看出其意思是Coogle占领 Microsoft的地盘，因此选[A]。同时也可以排除[B]、[C]和[D]。
单选题 Which one is true about Google Desktop search?
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】推理判断题。文章第五段的最后一句话allows all human knowledge... to be potentially shared，可以推断[D]项说法是正确的；第四段最后一句话说Microsoft offers Web search as a separate program，而[A]项偷换了主语；由倒数第二段的最后一句话Though Google-sites acknowledge difficulties in merging the personal with the public...可以看出[C]项和这句话的意思相反；由这一段的第一句话...bring results from everywhere—your hard disk，your e-mail and billions of Web sites，可以推断[C]项说法片面。