单选题

Electronic Spying

Wild Bill Donovan would have loved the Internet. The American spymaster who built the Office of Strategic Services in the World War II and later laid the roots for the CIA was fascinated with information. Donovan believed in using whatever tools came to hand in the "great game" of espionage-spying as a "profession. " These days the Net, which has already re-made such everyday pastimes as buying books and sending mail, is reshaping Donovan's vocation as well.
The latest revolution isn't simply a matter of gentlemen reading other gentlemen's e-mail. That kind of electronic spying has been going on for decades. In the past three or four years, the World Wide Web has given birth to a whole industry of point-and-click spying. The spooks call it "open-source intelligence," and as the Net grows, it is becoming increasingly influential. In 1995 the CIA held a contest to see who could compile the most data about Burundi. The winner, by a large margin, was a tiny Virginia company called Open-Source Solutions, whose clear advantage was its mastery of the electronic world.
Among the firms making the biggest splash in this new world is Straitford, Inc. , a private intelligence-analysis firm based in Austin, Texas. Straitford makes money by selling the results of spying (covering nations from Chile to Russia) to corporations like energy-services firm McDermott International. Many of its predictions are available online at www. straitford, com.
Straitford president George Friedman says he sees the online world as a kind of mutually reinforcing tool for both information collection and distribution, a spymaster's dream. Last week his firm was busy vacuuming up data bits from the far corners of the world and predicting a crisis in Ukraine. "As soon as that report runs, we'll suddenly get 500 new Internet sign-ups from Ukraine," says Friedman, a former political science professor. "And we'll hear back from some of them. " Open-source spying does have its risks, of course, since it can be difficult to tell good information from bad. That's where Straitford earns its keep.
Friedman relies on a lean staff of 20 in Austin. Several of his staff members have military-intelligence backgrounds. He sees the firm's outsider status as the key to its success. Straitford's briefs don't sound like the usual Washington back-and-forthing, whereby agencies avoid dramatic declarations on the chance they might be wrong. Straitford, says Friedman, takes pride in its independent voice.

单选题 The emergence of the Net has ______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 第一段最后一句话“These days the Net, which has remade such everyday pastimes as buying books and sending mail, is reshaping Donovan's Vocation as well.”从上文中我们已经得知“Donovan's vocation”指的就是“spying”(间谍)，也就是“intelligence services”(情报行业)。关键在于对“：reshape”一词的理解，它的含义是“重新塑造”。B其实就是原文的另一种表述方式。“remold”就是“reshape”的意思，都表示“重新塑造，改造”。干扰项“revive”的意思是“(使)苏醒，(使)复兴，(使)复活，(使)再生效，回想”，言下之意是将某一样已灭亡或已很脆弱的东西重新复活或者复兴。而第一段并没有提到间谍行业曾经消失的信息，从第二段中我们了解到互联网推动了情报行业的发展，也没有找到任何关于情报行业曾经中断的内容，所以D的说法是不正确的。C“restore”的含义是“使恢复，使回复”，言下之意是将原来不完整的或者破碎的东西给复原。原文中没有提到。A的错误在于对第一句话的误读。“would have loved”表示虚拟语气，是对当时情况的一种假设，而这种假设的情况在当时是不存在的。这句话的真实意思是：如果“疯狂的Bill Donovan还在世的话，他会爱上互联网的”。可见“Donovan”在世的时候并没有互联网，所以A将“Donovan”说成是“互联网的爱好者”的说法是错误的。

单选题 Donovan's story is mentioned in the text to ______.

单选题 The phrase " making the biggest splash" (Line 1, Paragraph 3) most probably means ______.

单选题 It can be learned from paragraph 4 that ______.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 第四段首句指出“该公司的总裁乔治·弗莱德曼说，他把网络世界视为情报收集和情报发布两者之间相互增强的工具，这就是间谍们的梦想。上周，他的公司正在收集从远在世界的另一角落传来的零散的信息，预测在乌克兰将发生一场危机。弗莱德曼以前是政治科学教授，他说：‘一旦这个报道公布，我们将从乌克兰突然新增500个注册用户，我们将听到其中一些人的回应。’当然开放源的间谍活动的确有它的风险，因为很难区分正确与错误的信息。这正是Straitford公司挣钱的地方。”A的说法没有根据，因为文中只说了“Straitford”公司作出了关于乌克兰局势的预测，并没有信息说明预言是否成真。B的说法与原文意思有些不符。第四段最后一句说“开放源的间谍活动的确有它的风险，因为很难区分正确与错误的信息。straitford公司就是靠辨别真伪情报赚钱的”，从中考生可以知道“straitford”公司能提供相当可靠的情报，但没有保证情报百分之百准确。C说的是“Straitford”公司生意的特点是“不可预测性”，这种说法在文中也找不到根据。D的说法比较中立，而且也符合原文的意思。