On a more mundane level,
third-generation mobile telephones, despite all the delays and the billions
squandered on 3G licenses by telecom firms, are still expected to offer
consumers high-speed, always on mobile internet access, complete with video, in
the next few years. Rapidly proliferating "WiFi" networks already offer wireless
access on a local basis. Tiny tracking chips called radio-frequency
identification devices are being used as pet passports. Soon they will be small,
powerful and cheap enough to be implanted into everything form humans to
milkcartons recording and transmitting real-time medical data, or serving as a
form of inventory control. Sensors of every kind, including video cameras,
should also become much smaller and cheaper. Forrester Research, a technology
consultancy, predicts that 14 billion such devices will be connected to the
internet by 2005. How rapidly such new technology is introduced
will depend on a number of factors the state of the economy, the supply of
investment capital and the appetite of consumers for new products or services!
Fortunes will be made and lost many times over. But whatever happens, the power
of computing and communications look set to continue to grow, and its price to
fall, at a steady rate for the next few decades. That will make it possible, at
least in rich countries, to record most human interactions, wherever and
whenever they take place, and to store and analyze this ocean of data at low
cost. For the sake of argument, this survey will assume that we
are heading towards a networked society of ubiquitous, mobile communication
capable of constant monitoring. Whether this arrives in 20, 30 or 4o years does
not really matter. The point is that the destination seems not merely possible,
but probable, so it is not too soon to ask: What do we want this technology to
do? The internet has already thrown up a host of legal and
political conundrums, but, these are only a small foretaste of the dilemmas
about privacy, security, intellectual property and the nature of government
itself that will have to be faced over the coming decades. The debate has
already begun. This survey will outline some of main issues, and speculate on
the way they are likely to go.
B. are usually used to offer high-speed, mobile internet access
C. are already cheap enough to be used as passports
D. ale expected to be used as a means to control inventory
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】[解析] 本题答案在原文第一段。“Soon they will be small, powerful enough to be implanted into everything from humans to milk cartons, ...or serve as form of inventory control.”由此可见，D“无线电频率识别装置将可用来控制存货”为正确选项。
单选题
The first paragraph is mainly about ______.
A. the prospect of third-generation mobile telephones
B. the electronic devices which can be connected to the internet
C. the bright future of new technology application
D. the prediction given by Forrester Research, a technology
consultancy
单选题
According to this passage, may not be what people are trying to pull
off ______.
A. a networked society capable of constant monitoring
B. the widespread application of internet and related technologies
C. the invention of more devices which can be connected to the
internet
D. mobile communications capable of internet access
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] 原文第三段提到，我们有望在几十年内建成能够对所有的人际交往不间断监视的网络社会，然后提出问题：“What do we want this technology to do?”意味着这并不是我们所要实现的目标。
单选题
The dilemmas created by the use of internet may be about all of the
following aspects, except ______.
A. copyrights
B. inventory control
C. constant monitoring
D. intellectual property
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[解析] 从原文第四段中，从句子“The internet has already thrown up a host of legal and political conundrums, but these are only a small foretaste of the dilemmas about privacy security intellectual property and the nature of government itself that will have to be faced over the coming decades”看出，版权、知识产权、隐私都是它带来的问题，只有B“库存控制”不是。