阅读理解
In 1997, devotees of home electronics eagerly awaited the DVD player, a new device that could play movies without videotape, and with greater clarity. It caught on even faster than CD music players and within four years, DVD movies surpassed VHS tapes in sales. The DVDs success is just one example of a historic shift from analog to digital technologies. They began with computing and are now spreading to industries from banking to publishing. Products and services are shedding the limits of their physical form to become encoded information that never degrades, can be reproduced perfectly and distributed around the world in minutes, or less.
Another example is photography: by the end of this year, the number of images captured digitally each day is expected to surpass the number of images captured on film. With digital cameras and other devices linked to personal computers, we can collect vast amounts of data, which fortunately takes up little or no closet space. Today''s average personal computer has a hard drive that can store 300 times more information than a decade ago. Technologies, such as broadband e-commerce, are expected to be the primary means of delivering entertainment and media by the end of this decade. Even life itself is increasingly digitized. The human genome, the recipe for our genetic makeup, has been mapped and encoded and researchers are harnessing the power of computing to accelerate the development of new, lifesaving drugs.
The implications of this broad, digital revolution are enormous, although they tend to be over-shadowed by the struggles of high-tech industries to recover from the go-go years of the 1990s. Those struggles are real, yet there are reasons for optimism about a return to robust economic growth and job creation in the next several years. The digital innovations(创新)of the past two decades continue to bear fruit, so stay tuned for good news--digitally, of course.
单选题
Digital technologies really began to take form when _______.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】事实细节题。从题干中的take form when“成形于．．．之时”可以判断，此题考查的是Digital technologies的起始时间。而关键词Digital technologies首次出现在第一段第三句。第四句的They指代的就是digital technologies，这句话说明了digital technologies的起源，即began with computing。选项[C]的内容与之相符。第一段第三句和第二段第一句分别指出，DVD和photography只是模拟技术向数字技术转变的例子而已，因此排除选项[A]和[B]。根据第一段末句可知，encoded information that never degrades，．．．是数字技术产品的特征，因此排除选项[D]。
单选题
The example of photography is used to show _______.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】事实细节题。The example of photography出现在第二段第一句。从题干中is used to show可以判断此题考查的是，文章举摄影为例的目的是什么。从第二段第二句中的collect vast amounts of data和第三句中的store 300 times more information than a decade ago可以看出，作者要通过这个例子说明数字技术有“信息存储量大”的优势。这正是选项[B]的内容。
单选题
The author implies that excitement over the digital revolution may be hindered by _______.
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】推理判断题。题干中的hindered“阻碍”暗示了the digital revolution的背后除了excitement之外，还有不如意的地方。关键词digital revolution出现在第二段第一句，前半句总结上文，说明数字技术革命好的一面；后半句用although引导，则应该是不好的一面。over-shadowed与hindered意义相近，也就是说，the struggles of high-tech industries对数字技术革命造成了负面影响，而the struggles的目的是recover from the go- go years of the 1990s，也就是下句中的a return to robust economic growth，归根结底是这些高科技企业的经济问题。因此，选项[D]符合题意。
单选题
By using the phrase "stay tuned for good news" (Line 5, Para. 3) the author wants us to _______.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】语义理解题。从第三段最后一句中的so可以看出，这两个分句之间是因果关系。stay tuned for good news的原因是，历经了二十年的数字技术革命continue to bear fruit。该句中的digitally是指from the digital innovations。按照本句逻辑和对digitally的理解进行判断，作者是用展望未来的口吻让读者期待digital innovations有更多的good news。还可以按照字面意思进行理解，stay tuned for．．．常用于广播节目或电视节目中，意思是“请继续收听或收看．．．”。因此，选项[C]的内容最为接近。第三段第二句中的there are reasons for optimism说明作者对消除负面影响的乐观态度。强干扰项[A]和[B]只是在表面意义上对此进行转述，并没有表达出“期待good news”这层含义，因此被排除。
单选题
The passage is based on the author''s _______.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】观点态度题。文章第一段以DVD为例，引发了对a historic shift from analog to digital technologies的赞叹；第二段以photography为例，说明了数字产品的优势以及生活本身数字化的好处；第三段第一句话后半句虽然淡及负面影响，但作者仍在强调digital revolution的优势。由此可以看出，作者主要在文中表达了自己对数字技术的变革(changes)的admiration“赞赏”，因此选[B]。虽然文章结尾对the digital innovations寄予极大的期望，但这并不是作者在本文中所要表达的主要态度，因此排除强干扰项[D]。