A great deal of attention is being paid today to the so-called digital divide — the division of the world into the info(information) rich and the info poor. And that divide does exist today. My wife and I lectured about this looming danger twenty years ago. What was less visible then, however, were the new, positive forces that work against the digital divide. There are reasons to be optimistic.

There are technological reasons to hope the digital divide will narrow. As the Internet becomes more and more commercialized, it is in the interest of business to universalize access—after all, the more people online, the more potential customers there are. More and more governments, afraid their countries will be left behind, want to spread Internet access. Within the next decade or two, one to two billion people on the planet will be netted together. As a result, I now believe the digital divide will narrow rather than widen in the years ahead. And that is very good news because the Internet may well be the most powerful tool for combating world poverty that we’ve ever had.

Of course, the use of the Internet isn’t the only way to defeat poverty. And the Internet is not the only tool we have. But it has enormous potential.

To take advantage of this tool, some impoverished countries will have to get over their outdated anti-coloni a l prejudices with respect to foreign investment. Countries that still think foreign investment is an invasion of their sovereignty might well study the history of infrastructure (the basic structural foundations of a society) in the United States. When the United States built its industrials infrastructure, it didn’t have the capital to do so. And that is why America’s Second Wave infrastructure—including roads, barbors, highways, ports and so on—were built with foreign investment. The English, the Germans, the Dutch and the French were investing in Britain’s former colony. They financed them. Immigrant Americans built them. Guess who owns them now? The Americans. I believe the same thing would be true in places like Brazil or anywhere else for that matter. The more foreign capital you have helping you build your Third Wave infrastructure, which today is an electronic infrastructure, the better off you’re going to be. That doesn’t mean lying down and becoming fooled, or letting foreign corporations run uncontrolled. But it does mean recognizing how important they can be in building the energy and telecom infrastructures needed to take full advantage of the Internet.

25. Digital divide is something _________.

[A]getting worse because of the Internet

[B]the rich countries are responsible for

[C]the world must guard against

[D]considered positive today

26. Governments attach importance to the Internet because it _________.

[A]offers economic potentials

[B]can bring foreign funds

[C]can soon wipe out world poverty

[D]connects people all over the world

27. The writer mentioned the case of the United States to justify the policy of _________.

[A]providing financial support overseas

[B]preventing foreign capital’s control

[C]building industrial infrastructure

[D]accepting foreign investment

28. It seems that now a country’s economy depends much on _________.

[A]how well-developed it is electronically

[B]whether it is prejudiced against immigrants

[C]whether it adopts America’s industrial pattern

[D]how much control it has over foreign corporations

25. Digital divide is something _______. 数字鸿沟是 ______ 。

[A]getting worse because of the Internet 因为因特网而变得更加糟糕

[B]the rich countries are responsible for 由富裕国家应该承担责任的

[C]the world must guard against 全世界都要警惕的

[D]considered positive today 今天被认为是积极的

【答案】 C

【考点】 事实细节题。

【分析】 通过题干关键词“数字鸿沟”定位到第一段。第一句是对“数字鸿沟”所下的一个定义。其后作者提到，他和妻子 20 年前就谈到这种隐伏的的危险，这里的“ looming danger ”指的就是“ the digital divide ”。早在 20 年前，防止产生这种鸿沟的积极因素还不太明显，而今天作者认为是乐观的。同时定位到第二段，作者提到了“因特网的普及使这种鸿沟正得到缩小”，可见，选项 [A] 是错误的，“因为因特网而变得糟糕”与原文意思相左。 [B] 不对，是因为作者没有提到这个方面。在作者看来，这种鸿沟是不好的现象，而网络的普及能帮助世界战胜贫困。 [D] 的说法显然是错误的，因为作者就是要消除这个鸿沟。

26. Governments attach importance to the Internet because it ______.

政府重视因特网是因为它 ________ 。

[A]offers economic potentials 提供很多经济可能

[B]can bring foreign funds 能够带来外国资金

[C]can soon wipe out world poverty 能够很快消除世界贫困

[D]connects people all over the world 将世界人民连在一起

【答案】 A

【考点】 事实细节题。

【分析】 定位到第二段，文中提到“政府之所以大力推广因特网是出于因特网可能成为消除贫困的最好的工具的考虑”。第三段更是提到“因特网可能具有巨大的潜力”。因此可以判断 [A] 是正确的。 [B] 选项认为“可以带来海外投资”，这仅仅是局部因素。 [C] 选项中，虽然作者提到了“国际互联网的利用可能是战胜贫困的工具”，但这仅仅是一种潜在的力量，并没有说能够很快消除贫困。 [D] 选项也是因特网的一个主要功能，但是也不是政府重视的主要原因。

27. The writer mentioned the case of the United States to justify the policy of _________.

作者提到美国的案例是为了证明 __________ 政策是对的。

[A]providing financial support overseas 为海外提供资金支持

[B]preventing foreign capital’s control 防止外国资金控制

[C]building industrial infrastructure 建设工业基础

[D]accepting foreign investment 接受外国投资

【答案】 D

【考点】 作者意图题。

【分析】 在第四段，美国和巴西的例子都被作者用以说明抛弃过去的在那种在利用外资上的，过时的反殖民偏见，提出充分利用外资建立电子基础设施的重要性，并且指出，哪个国家在建设“第三次浪潮”的基础设施上利用外资多，哪个国家就将变得更富裕。因此可以判断正确选项是 [D] 。 [A] 选项把吸收外资的重要性和美国提供海外资金混淆起来。 [B] 的说法无法从美国这个案例中推断出来。 [C] 错在“工业”这个概念上。

28. It seems that now a country’s economy depends much on _____.

现在，一个国家的经济看起来极大地依赖于 _______ 。

[A]how well developed it is electronically 它的电子发展程度

[B]whether it is prejudiced against immigrants 它是否歧视移民

[C]whether it adopts America’s industrial pattern 它是否接受美国的工业模式

[D]how much control it has over foreign corporations 它对外国公司的控制有多大

【答案】 A

【考点】 推断题。

【分析】 文章最后一段提到哪个国家在建设“第三次浪潮”的基础设施上利用外资多，哪个国家就将变得更富裕。这里的“第三次浪潮”指的就是“电子基础建设”。因此选项 [A] 是正确的。其他三个选项中， [B] 和 [D] 文中没有提到。 [C] 再次出现“工业模式”，因此不正确。

难句解析 ：

1. As the Internet becomes more and more commercialized, it is in the interest of business to universalize access — after all, the more people online, the more potential customers there are.

【结构分析】 本句主句是“ It is in the interest of business to universalize access ”，“ as ”引导一个伴随状语，“随着”，而非“因为”，后面破折号的部分是进一步解释说明前面的主句。

2. The more foreign capital you have helping you build your Third Wave infrastructure, which today is an electronic infrastructure, the better off you’re going to be.

【结构分析】 本句是一个“ the more..., the more... ”的句型。“ which today is an electronic infrastructure ”是修饰“ Third Wave infrastructure ”的非限定性定语从句。

全文翻译：

今天，人们十分关注所谓的数字鸿沟问题，即世界被分为信息资源丰富区和信息资源贫乏区两类。这个鸿沟今天确实存在，我和我妻子 20 年前谈过这个隐伏的危险。然而，那时一些抵制数字鸿沟的、新的积极因素还不如今天明显。我们是有理由感到乐观的。

一些技术上的因素使我们有理由希望鸿沟会缩小。随着互联网变得越来越商业化，普及上网对商家是有利的——毕竟，上网人数越多，潜在的客户就越多。越来越多的政府，由于担心自己的国家会落后，都想推广互联网。一二十年之内，全球将有一二十亿人被网在一起。因此，我现在相信，在将来，数字鸿沟将会缩小而不是扩大。这是非常好的消息，因为互联网非常可能成为我们消除所面临的贫困的最强有效的工具。

当然，使用互联网不是唯一战胜贫困的方法。互联网也不是我们所拥有的唯一工具，但它却有巨大的潜力。

要想利用互联网这个工具，某些贫困国家必须克服在外国投资方面的过时的反殖民偏见。那些认为外国投资是对本国主权的侵犯的国家最好还是研究一下美国基础设施 ( 社会的基本结构基础 ) 的历史。当初美国建设自己的工业基础设施时，缺乏资金，这就是为什么美国的第二波基础设施建设——包括公路、港口，高速公路、港口城市等等——都是利用的国外资金。英国人、德国人、荷兰人和法国人都在这片前英国殖民地投资。他们提供资金，美国移民建造。想想看，现在谁拥有这一切?美国人。我想，同样的事情也可以发生在巴西或其他任何地方。你拥有的去建造第三次浪潮基础设施 ( 今天主要指电子基础设施 ) 的外国资金越多，那么你就越富裕。这并不是说卑躬屈膝，任人愚弄，也不是让外国公司为所欲为。但这的确意味着你已认识到外国公司对本国能源及通信基础设施建设的重要性，这些基础设施是充分利用互联网所必要的。