单选题 Wild Bill Donovan would have loved the Internet. The American spymaster who built the Office of Strategic Services in 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 remade pastimes as buying books and sending mail, is reshaping Donovan's vocation as well. The last 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 the 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. Straiford 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 in Austin. Several of his staff members have military intelligence backgrounds. He sees the firms, outsider status as the key to its success. Straitford's briefs don't sound like the usual Washington back and forth, 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:本题是细节题。题干要求考生判断互联网出现后产生了什么结果。文章第1段结尾说:“如今,互联网已经改变了买书和寄信这样的日常消遣活动,也正在改变多诺万曾经从事的职业。”多诺万曾经从事的职业就是谍报工作,因此B选项“改变了情报收集工作”是正确答案。A选项“得到了多诺万这样的网迷的支持”不正确,因为多诺万生活在互联网之前的年代,不可能是网迷。文章开头作者只是在假设多诺万如果生活在网络时代,一定会利用它来进行情报工作。C选项“恢复了许多平常的消遣活动”不正确,因为文中提到的消遣活动从未消失过,所以也谈不上恢复。D选项“使谍报复兴成为一个职业”不正确,因为谍报活动在互联网之前一直是一种职业。
单选题 Donovan's story is mentioned in the text to ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】解析:本题是推断题。题干要求考生判断提到多诺万的故事在全文中起什么作用,即识别作者的写作意图。本文只在第1段提到比尔·多诺万,其余部分讨论的都是情报工作在互联网时代的巨大变化,以及它面临的机会和挑战。文章以司特雷福公司为例去说明互联网为谍报工作提供了巨大的可能性,因此文章的中心议题是情报工作和互联网的关系。多诺万作为一个大间谍只是为文章展开讨论前提供了一个引子,因此A选项“为网上谍报这个话题提供开头”为正确答案。B选项“展示多诺万是如何为美国效力的”、C选项“提供信息战的一个片段”和D选项“表彰他为中情局所做的杰出贡献”可能都与多诺万的生平事迹有关,但是与文章主题无关,因此都不正确。
单选题 The phrase "making the biggest splash"(Line 1, Para. 3)most probably means ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】解析:本题是词义细节题。题干要求考生根据上下文猜测短语“making the biggest splash”的意思。文章第2段谈到,在互联网时代,对“公开来源情报”的收集具有越来越重要的影响,中央情报局也对它充分重视。然后第3段又列举了“司特雷福公司”这个典型的例子,说它在这个领域“making the biggest splash”。因此,可以推测这个短语在这里的意思是C选项“取得最大的成功”,而不是A选项“引起最大的麻烦”。B选项“做出最大努力”应该排除,因为如果“做出最大努力”而未取得成功,它也不会成为一个典型例子。D选项“受到最广泛的欢迎”在文中未提及。
单选题 It can be learned from paragraph 4 that ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】解析:本题是推理引申题。题干要求考生从文章第4段推论出其中的暗示。第4段最后两句说:“公开来源的谍报活动有它的风险,因此很难区分正确信息与错误信息,但这却正是司特雷福公司挣饭吃的地方。”最后一句话暗示区分正确信息与错误信息是该公司的优势所在,是它挣钱吃饭的本领,因此可推出D选项“司特雷福公司能够提供相当可靠的信息”为正确选项。B选项“司特雷福公司保证它提供的信息的真实性”不正确,因为司特雷福公司既然担有风险,它就不能够保证信息100%可靠。A选项“司特雷福公司关于乌克兰的预测已被证实”不正确,因为文章只提到一旦信息被公布,会收到一些人的反馈,而没有提到预测已经被证实是真的。文中提到司特雷福公司提供的信息具有不可预测的特点,并不是说它的业务也有不可预测的特征,因此C选项“司特雷福公司的业务特征是不可预测性"不正确。
单选题 Straitford is most proud of its ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】解析:本题是细节题。题干要求考生判断司特雷福公司最引以为豪的是什么。文章最后一句直接指出,司特雷福公司对其“独立的声音”感到自豪。公司不同于政府,具有“局外人”的地位,不对官方的腔调随声附和,可以独立地宣称自己的主张,因此它给人的印象是B选项“不随大流的形象”,这也就是它引以为豪的地方。虽然公司某些员工来自军事情报机构,但是公司本身并不附属于军方。因此D选项“它的军方背景”不正确,文中也未提到C选项“它的有效率的员工”是该公司最引以为豪的地方。
单选题 In line 4 paragraph 1, the word "espionage" probably means ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】解析:本题是词义细节题。“espionage”在此泛指间谍活动。A是指具体的间谍活动,即工业情报刺探活动。C是对间谍的释义。D是动词,意思是“观察”。
单选题 What is the possible meaning of the word "outsider" in line 2 in the last paragraph?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】解析:本题是词义细节题。“outsider”有很多意思。在此的意思是“局外人”。B的意思是“不受欢迎的人”,不合题意。C的意思是“不大可能获胜的竞争者”。D的意思是“在外面,向外面”,是对副词“outside”的解释。