阅读理解 "What a difference a word makes." The issue of semantics has been an ongoing complaint against the media, which has been characterized by an increasing level of sensationalism and irresponsible reporting over the years, fostered by increasingly fierce competition and struggle for wider distributions and readerships.
A focal point for the criticism is the coverage of high-profile criminal cases. With such headlines as "Mr. X Arrested for First-Degree Murder" prominently displayed across the front page, it has been argued that such provocative language influences public opinion, causing premature assumptions of guilt before the matter can be properly and legally decided in a court of law. The power of the media to influence public opinion and, by extension, legal and political perceptions, has long been established and recognized, spurring outcries when inaccurate or overly embellished stories result in unwarranted destruction of public image or intrusions into privacy of unwilling individuals.
Reporters and editors take the utmost care in their choice of words for use in their articles, but with constant pressure to create provocative headlines in order to sell their papers, the distinction between respectable periodicals and trashy tabloids is becoming thinner every day. The predicament is exacerbated by the public's seeming short attention span, putting the papers under pressure to make their stories as attention-grabbing as they are accurate. Further obfuscating the situation is the fact that the same phrase can be interpreted in a myriad of different ways depending on who reads it, making it hard for one to judge whether a line is excessive or not.
Whatever the causes and effects, however, the freedom of press laws in the United States means that any change to the style employed by the media must be self-imposed. In that respect, it appears that nothing will be changing in the near future, since the public's insatiable hunger for controversy and scandal continues to dominate and set the pace for marketable reporting. As the sensationalism and its related effects continue into the longer term, however, there will no doubt be more outcry as the trend continues. This will possibly result in an upheaval of the system, favoring more accurate, unembellished reporting, consisting of hard facts with a minimum of supposition or commentary and devoid of rumrs and other questionable sources of information. If and when that occurs, we can truly state with pride that our media industry is not only a free one, but a responsible and reliable one.

单选题 1.Accurate representation and reporting is vital in the media because______.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】属事实细节题。相关信息在第二段第二句：有人认为这种引发争议的语言会影响到公众的意见，导致人们过早地下结论。由此可知，选项A正确。选项B(catering to意为“迎合／照顾…的需求或需要”，misrepresentation意为“误传，误说”)、选项D曲解了第二段最后一句的意思，原文意思是：人们早已认识到媒体有能力左右社会舆论，并影响人们的法政观念，一旦不实的或过分渲染的报道不必要地摧毁了公众形象或侵犯了不愿受到打扰的人的隐私，就会立刻激起强烈的抗议。选项C在文中没有提到。

单选题 2.In line 4, paragraph 3, the word "exacerbated" is most similar in use to "______".

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】属词义推断题。由“exacerbated”所在的上下文可知：记者和编辑在文章的措辞上极其小心，但经常要为报纸的销量而编造能激发读者好奇心的标题。因此，报纸迫于压力不得不尽量使报道在准确的同时还要吸引读者的注意力，由此可推知，大众的注意力持久度似乎很短暂应该使上述困境愈演愈烈，故选项B intensified“加剧，增强”符合文意。其余三项放人原文中均不合逻辑。

单选题 3.Some media sources utilize catchy but misleading headlines in order to______.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】属信息归纳题。题目问：一些媒体报道利用既引人注目又误导人的标题的目的是什么?相关信息在第一段最后一句：近些年由于竞争日趋激烈，各媒体努力争取更大的发行量和更多的读者，因此，追求轰动效应的内容和不负责任的报道越来越多。由此可知，选项D正确。此外，在第i段第一句中也有明确的说明(……经常要为报纸编造能激发读者好奇心的标题来促进销量)。选项A(outdo意为“胜过”)、B、C都与这两句意思不符。

单选题 4.From paragraph 4, we can infer that______.

单选题 5.The opinion of the author on media reporting is that______.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】属态度推断题。文章第一段最后一句指出：目前媒体的一大特点就是追求轰动效应的内容和不负责任的报道越来越多。接着第二、三段以例证说明这种现象的形成原因及影响。最后一段总结上文，指出希望：将来会有这么一天，我们能真正骄傲地宣布，我们的媒体产业不仅是自由的，也是负责的和值得信赖的。由此可见，选项C正确。选项A在文中没有推理依据；选项B与第三段第一句意思不符，文中说记者和编辑在文章的措辞上极其小心；选项D表述不准确，媒体报道失实主要还是由于竞争日益激烈，而不是人们对虚假报道的需求。