单选题
Internet Technology Influence on Information Industry

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 remade 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 signups 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] 本题问的是互联网出现之后的影响。原文第一段的最后一句话明确说到，“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. ”前文中提到Donovan建立了情报服务行业，因此，该句话中的Donovan"s vocation指的是intelligence services(情报行业)。B选项就是对该句话的另一种表述方式。因此，本题的正确答案为B。
单选题 Donovan"s story is mentioned in the text to ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 本题问的是作者提起Donovan的目的。根据全文内容可知，本文主要介绍的互联网对情报工作的影响，原文第一段的第一句话自然地从介绍Donovan过渡到了介绍互联网对情报工作的影响。可见，作者提到Donovan只是为了引出本文的主题，即互联网情报业务。因此，本题的正确答案为A。
单选题 The phrase "making the biggest splash" (line 1, paragraph 3) most probably means ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 本题问的是原文第三段第一行出现的“making the biggest splash”这一词组的含义。make a splash为固定搭配，意为“引起轰动”。即使不知道这个用法也可从下文中推出：后文中说到，Straitford公司是这个新领域的佼佼者，也就是说该公司取得了巨大的成功。因此，本题的正确答案为C。
单选题 It can he learned from paragraph 4 that ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 本题问的是从第四段中可得知什么信息。根据题干定位至原文的第四段。本段主要介绍的是：Friedman将互联网作为一个双向的工具，既用来收集信息，又用来发布信息。接着就以乌克兰(Ukraine)的例子说明网络互动的实际作用。原文中只说了Straitford公司作出了关于乌克兰局势的预测，并没有提到该预言是否成真，因此，A选项的说法没有根据，可排除。C选项说“Straitford公司生意的特点是不可预测性”，原文中也没有提到，故排除。该段的最后一句话明确说到，利用互联网收集情报是有风险的，因为情报的真伪难辨，Straitford公司就是靠辨别真伪情报吃饭的。由此可知，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。由此可知，D选项的说法正确，而B选项的说法过于绝对。因此，本题的正确答案为D。
单选题 Straitford is most proud of its ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 本题问的是Straitford最引以为豪的是什么。原文的最后一句话明确说到，“Straitford, says Friedman, takes pride in its independent voice. ”由此可知，Straitford公司引以为豪的是其独立的立场。B选项其实就是“independent voice”的另一种说法。因此，本题的正确答案为B。