While western governments worry over the threat of Ebola, a more pervasive but far less harmful 【C1】______ is spreading through their populations like a winter sniffle: mobile personal technology. The similarity between disease organisms and personal devices is 【C2】______. Viruses and other parasites control larger organisms, 【C3】______ resources in order to multiply and spread. Smartphones and other gadgets do the same thing, 【C4】______ever-increasing amounts of human attention and electricity supplied 【C5】______ wire umbilici. It is tempting to【C6】______a "strategy" to both phages and phablets, neither of which is sentient.【C7】______, the process is evolutionary, consisting of many random evolutions, 【C8】______ experimented with by many product designers. This makes it all the more powerful. Tech【C9】______occurs through actively-learnt responses, or "operant conditioning" as animal behaviourists call it. The scientific parallel here also involves a rodent, typically a rat, which occupies a【C10】______cage called a Skinner Box. The animal is【C11】______with a food pellet for solving puzzles and punished with an electric shock when it fails. "Are we getting a positive boost of hormones when we【C12】______look at our phone, seeking rewards?" asks David Shuker, an animal behaviourist at St Andrews university, sounding a little like a man withholding serious scientific endorsement【C13】______an idea that a journalist had in the shower. Research is needed, he says. Tech tycoons would meanwhile【C14】______that the popularity of mobile devices is attributed to the brilliance of their designs. This is precisely what people whose thought processes have been【C15】______by an invasive pseudo-organism would believe. 【C16】______, mobile technology causes symptoms less severe than physiological diseases. There are even benefits to【C17】______sufferers for shortened attention spans and the caffeine overload triggered by visits to Starbucks for the free Wi-Fi. Most importantly, you can 【C18】______ the Financial Times in places as remote as Alaska or Sidcup. In this【C19】______, a mobile device is closer to a symbiotic organism than a parasite. This would make it【C20】______to an intestinal bacterium that helps a person to stay alive, rather than a virus that may kill you.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】解析：此处意为“疾病生物体与个人设备之间的相似性是______”。根据下文，可知本段都在阐述疾病生物体和个人设备之间的相似性，do the same thing是关键信息。故A．striking“引人注目的；显著的”符合题意，为正确答案。obscure“晦涩的，不清楚的”，interesting“令人感兴趣的，有趣的”，mysterious“神秘的；难以理解的”，均不符合题意，故排除。

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】解析：此处意为“智能手机和其他小玩意也做着同样的事，它们靠______人类日益增长的注意力……”，feed on意为“以……为食，以……为能源”，在此处比喻为“靠吸引人类的注意力而获得成功”，故B．feeding on为正确答案。take over“接受，接管”，catch up“赶上，追上”，allow for“考虑到，体谅”，均不符合题意，故排除。

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】解析：此处意为“人们很容易______噬菌体和手机平板都存在什么‘战略’，尽管这两者都没有感觉”。结合下文可知，此处表示因果关系，attribute to“把某事归因于某人(某事)符合题意，故C．atrribute为正确答案。point to“标明，指向”，turn to“(使)转向；(使)变成；求助于”，prefer…to…“更喜欢”，均不符合题意，故排除。

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】解析：根据上文可知，人们很容易认为噬菌体和手机平板都存在什么“战略”，尽管这两者都没有感觉。空格后讲述的内容则与上文不一致，暗含转折意味。故A．Instead“相反地”符合题意，为正确答案。Moreover“再者，此外”，表示递进；Therefore“因此，所以”，表示因果；Otherwise“否则，另外”，均不符合题意，故排除。

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】解析：此处意为“科技______是通过主动习得的反应——也就是动物行为学家所说的‘操作性条件反射’——患上的”。根据上下文可知，addiction“着迷；嗜好”与Tech搭配意为“科技瘾”，故D．addiction符合题意，为正确答案。progress“进步，进展”，term“术语，条款”和crisis“危机”与Tech搭配后，均与文中的“主动习得”不符，故排除。

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】解析：此处意为“如果解开谜题，这只动物会得到一点食物作为______；如果没能解开，便会遭到电击以示惩罚”。此句前后为对称结构，根据后面的punished可推断此处应选与之相对的：rewarded“奖励”，故A．rewarded为正确答案。resist“抵抗，反对”，resume“重新开始，继续”，reverse“反转，交换”，均不符合题意，故排除。

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】解析：此处意为“对那些因常光顾星巴克使用免费Wi—Fi而导致注意力集中时间缩短、体内咖啡因过多的‘患者’来说，移动技术甚至提供了一些好处来______他们”。句中的for暗示此处填入与for搭配的动词。compensate for意为“赔偿……的损失”符合题意，故A．compensate为正确答案。help“帮助”，comfort“安慰”，improve“改善，提高”，均不符合题意，故排除。