1 . When almost everyone has a mobile phone, why are more than half of Australian homes still paying for a landline (座机)?
These days you’d be hard pressed to find anyone in Australia over the age of 15 who doesn’t own a mobile phone. In fact plenty of younger kids have one in their pocket. Practically everyone can make and receive calls anywhere, anytime.
Still, 55 percent of Australians have a landline phone at home and only just over a quarter (29%) rely only on their smartphones according to a survey (调查). Of those Australians who still have a landline, a third concede that it’s not really necessary and they’re keeping it as a security blanket — 19 percent say they never use it while a further 13 percent keep it in case of emergencies. I think my home falls into that category.
More than half of Australian homes are still choosing to stick with their home phone. Age is naturally a factor (因素)— only 58 percent of Generation Ys still use landlines now and then, compared to 84 percent of Baby Boomers who’ve perhaps had the same home number for 50 years. Age isn’t the only factor; I’d say it’s also to do with the makeup of your household.
Generation Xers with young families, like my wife and I, can still find it convenient to have a home phone rather than providing a mobile phone for every family member. That said, to be honest the only people who ever ring our home phone are our Baby Boomers parents, to the point where we play a game and guess who is calling before we pick up the phone (using Caller ID would take the fun out of it).
How attached are you to your landline? How long until they go the way of gas street lamps and morning milk deliveries?
1. What does paragraph 2 mainly tell us about mobile phones?A.Their target users. | B.Their wide popularity. |
C.Their major functions. | D.Their complex design. |
A.Admit. | B.Argue. |
C.Remember. | D.Remark. |
A.They like smartphone games. | B.They enjoy guessing callers’ identity. |
C.They keep using landline phones. | D.They are attached to their family. |
A.It remains a family necessity. |
B.It will fall out of use some day. |
C.It may increase daily expenses. |
D.It is as important as the gas light. |
2 . Cloud computing will be in use by about 80 percent of about 600 companies. The trend suggests that data management and storage are moving to cloud computing sellers on a large scale.
Touting(兜售)cloud computing as a way to get rid of the costs of buying and maintain in on-site information-technology equipment, sellers offer it in the form of Software AsA. Service(SAAS), a delivery model in which software applications are delivered to customers over a web-based network. SAAS can serve the needs of entire companies through huge, web-based platforms. As cloud computing rapidly bccomes the delivery channel for software developers of all shapes and sizes to get their products to market, offering applications in a cloud is now the rule not the exception. A. relatively small number of sellers are able to offer SAAS to big companies that want company-wide cloud computing, and only the sellers need apply. Although market-share data are hard to come by, the list of company’s large enough to offer cloud-computing on this scale is short: Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Salesforce, Rackspace and not many others.
The concentration of data and virtual (虚拟)computing in the hands of relatively few sellers raises an important risk for their customers if the Internet-based systems of any one seller are hacked, the result could be security problems across entire industries in which their customers do
Can this small group of cloud-computing sellers effectively respond to the needs of their customers to quickly fix such a problem and, most importantly, cut off the damage to these companies' own customers? Don't think such things can't happen. If hackers can penetrate the Department of Defense, the risk that they will penetrate Microsoft or google cannot be ruled out Compromise of just one of these sellers---even one with a modest market share---possibly could shut down, at least temporarily, a sizable part of the U. S. economy.
1. What can cloud computing do?A.Reduce the cost of computers. |
B.Provide software service. |
C.Market various products. |
D.Help companies design websites. |
A.It works under SAAS. |
B.It covers a large part of market-share. |
C.Most companies can provide it. |
D.Most sellers apply for it. |
A.To warn people of the hackers' power. |
B.To show relationship between it and microsoft. |
C.To give an example of the country's loss. |
D.To present the real picture of the U.S.economy. |
A.The Unthinkable risks of the cloud. |
B.Cloud Computing and Smart Sellers. |
C.SAAS and changing Companies. |
D.The Cloud Computing Age. |
3 . Welcome to your future life!
You get up in the morning and look into the mirror. Your face is firm and younglooking. In 2035, medical technology is better than ever. Many people at your age could live to 150, so at 40, you're not old at all. And your parents just had an antiaging (抗衰老的) treatment. Now, all three of you look the same age!
You say to your shirt, "Turn red." It changes from blue to red. In 2035, "smart clothes" contain particles (粒子) much smaller than the cells in your body. The particles can be programmed (编程) to change your clothes' color or pattern.
You walk into the kitchen. You pick up the milk, but a voice says, "You shouldn't drink that!" Your fridge has read the chip (芯片) that contains information about the milk, and it knows the milk is old. In 2035, every article of food in the grocery store has such a chip.
It's time to go to work. In 2035, cars drive themselves. Just tell your "smart car" where to go. On the way, you can call a friend using your jacket sleeve. Such “smart technology" is all around you.
So will all these things come true? "For new technology to succeed," says scientist Andrew Zolli, "It has to be so much better that it replaces what we have already." The Internet is one example—what will be the next?
1. We can learn from the text that in the future .A.people will never get old | B.everyone will look the same |
C.red will be the most popular color | D.clothes will be able to change their pattern |
A.Milk will be harmful to health. |
B.More drinks will be available for sale. |
C.Food in the grocery store will carry electronic information. |
D.Milk in the grocery store will stay fresh much longer. |
A.Food and clothing in 2035. | B.Future technology in everyday life. |
C.Medical treatments of the future. | D.The reason for the success of new technology. |