单选题
Comparisons were drawn between the development of television in the 20th century and the diffusion of printing in the 15th and 16th centuries. Yet much has happened
1
. As was discussed before, it was not
2
the 19th century that the newspaper became the dominant pre-electronic
3
, following in the wake of the pamphlet and the book and in the
4
of the periodical. It was during the same time that the communications revolution
5
up, beginning with transport, the railways and leading
6
through the telegraph, the telephone, radio and motion pictures
7
the 20th century world of the motor car and the airplane. Not everyone sees that process in
8
. It is important to do so.
It is generally recognized,
9
, that the introduction of the computer in the early 20th century,
10
by the invention of the integrated circuit during the 1960s, radically changed the process,
11
its impact on the media was not immediately
12
. As time went by, computers became smaller and more powerful, and they became personal too, as well as
13
, with display becoming sharper and storage
14
increasing. They were thought of, like people,
15
generations, with the distance between generations much
16
.
It was within the computer age that the term information society began to be widely used to describe the
17
within which we now live. The communications revolution has
8
both work and leisure and how we think and feel both about place and time, but there have been
19
views about its economic, political, social and cultural implications. Benefits have been weighed
20
harmful outcomes. And generalizations have proved difficult.
【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查考生对“it was not until…that…”句型的把握。until表示“直到…才”,在“it was not until+时间+that+句子”中,句中谓语动词用一般过去时。句意为直到十九世纪,报纸才成为主要媒介。如果用by,句子时态应改为完成时,故B错误。而选A、C均不符合历史事实,报纸就是在19世纪开始发展成为主要媒体的。
【答案解析】[解析] institutional与personal形成相对的关系,意指计算机不仅为个人广泛使用,也被机关单位广泛采用。从as well as推断,所填单词应与personal“个人化的”形成一种对应、比照的关系,而universal“普遍性的”;fundamental“基础性的”:instrumental“工具性的”,都不能满足这种关系。
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】[解析] ability一般指有生命的人、动物的能力;capability指人具体做某事的能力,含“能否胜任某项工作”的意思;而faculty则指人的才能,能力,如the faculty for learning languages“学习语言的才能”;而capacity可指非生命体的能力,有“容量”的意思。storage capacity指“存储容量,内存大小”。
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[解析] 这句话意思是说,人们认为,不同时代的电脑就像人一样,也分为一代、二代…,只是两代电脑之间的相隔时间相对要短得多。in terms of“依据”;by means of则是指“通过…的手段”:with regard to是“鉴于,考虑到”的意思;in line with则是“与…一致”的意思。
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】[解析] 这里考查的是与distance的搭配问题,只有D项small能与其搭配,常用的还有a great distance,long/short distance等。