单选题 The Internet, perhaps the most important technological development of the past 30 years, succeeded unexpectedly. It started out in an experimental backwater, nurtured far from the mainstream. It was spawned with no business plan and with no CEO leading the charge. Instead, a group of researchers—nerds, really—had the very unentrepreneurial idea to develop a set of free and open technical protocols to move data from one place to another. The PC, which I think of as a companion technology to the Internet, likewise groomed as the hobbyhorse of passionate nerds who (at least initially) shared their designs. Both the Internet and the PC were released unfinished, and because they were open technologies, businesses and inventors could use them as a springboard for innovation. New applications were deployed to use them without needing the permission of their vendors.
This kind of openness isn't found in cars, fridges, Video or any other major technology. It's what helped the Internet and PC succeed over more boring, predictable counterparts—proprietary networks like CompuServe and information appliances like dedicated smart word processors. However, now that PCs and the Internet have become mainstream tools, there's rising pressure to turn them into the appliances they defeated: to close them, in some cases forbidding outside tinkering altogether, and in others allowing it only under closely monitored and controlled circumstances. The Internet and the PC as well-springs of innovation are living on borrowed time.
The new closed models that represent the likely future of consumer computing and networking are no minor tweaks. We face wholesale revision of the Internet and PC environment of the past several decades. The change is coming partly because of the need to address security problems peculiar to open technologies, and partly because businesses want more control over the experience that customers have with their products. The trend from open systems toward closed ones threatens the culture of serendipitous tinkering that has given us the Web, instant messaging, peer-to-peer networking, Skype, Wikipedia and a host of other innovations, each of which emerged from left field. It will produce a concentrated set of new gatekeepers, with us and them prisoner to their limited business plans and to regulators who fear things that are new and disruptive.

单选题 According to the text, which of the following is TRUE about the Internet?
A. It was born as a result of a business plan.
B. It was initially developed by enterpreneurs to make profits.
C. It was born by accident as an open and free technique.
D. It was born as a finishing product at first.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】选项A、B与文章第一段第三和四句的内容相反：“因特网在诞生时并没有行业发展规划，也没有首席执行官来负责指导。相反，它是由一群科技人员(其实是书呆子)怀着非商业想法，想要发展一套技术协议，把数据从一地转移到另一地，大家可互相分享。”D与本段第六句意思相反：“因特网和PC在面世时都是半成品……。”C的相关信息在第一段第一、四句：“因特网大概是最近几十年来最重要的一项技术成果，它却是在偶然中诞生的。……大家可互相分享”；其中by accident替换了原文中的unexpectedly。

单选题 The following are the advantages of the open Internet EXCEPT that______.
A. it contributes to innovation
B. it can easily develop
C. it makes big money for firms
D. it offers much free information

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】选项A与第一段第六句相符：“……而且因为它们属于开放性技术，企业和投资人可以把它们作为创新的跳板。”B可从第二段第二句推出：“正是这种开放性帮助因特网和PC超越了相对平庸、可预测的对手——CompuServe那样的特许网络和专用智能文字处理器之类的信息处理设备。”D与第一段第四句内容一致。C在文中未涉及，故是本题的正确答案。

单选题 The advantages of the closing Internet are______.
A. protecting the net safety
B. being easily controlled and monitored
C. collecting product information conveniently
D. all of the above

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】选项A、C可从第三段第三句内容推出：“把开放性因特网调整为封闭性的一部分原因是我们必须解决开放性技术独有的安全问题，另一部分原因是企业想要更好地掌握用户使用产品的情况。”B与第二段倒数第二句意思相符：“进行封闭化管理可只允许在电脑和因特网受到严密监控的情况下进行第三方改动。”因此，D是本题的正确答案。