A great deal of attention is being paid today to the so-called digitaldivide--the division of the world into the info(information) rich and the infopoor. And that __1__ does exist today. My wife and I lectured about this loomingdanger twenty years ago. What was less __2__ then, however, were the new,positive __3__ that work against the digital divide. __4__,there are reasons tobe __5__.

There are technological reasons to hope the digital divide will narrow. Asthe Internet becomes more and more __6__, it is in the interest of business touniversalize access-after all, the more people online, the more potential __7__there are. More and more __8__, afraid their countries will be left __9__, wantto spread Internet access. Within the next decade or two, one to two billionpeople on the planet will be __10__ together. As a result, I now believe thedigital divide will __11__ rather than widen in the years ahead. And that isvery good news because the Internet may well be the most powerful tool for__12__ world poverty that we’ve ever had.

Of course, the use of the Internet isn’t the only way to __13__ poverty.And the Internet is not the only tool we have. But it has __14__ potential.

To __15__ advantage of this tool, some poor countries will have to get overtheir outdated anti-colonial prejudices __16__ respect to foreign investment.Countries that still think foreign investment is a/an __17__ of theirsovereignty might well study the history of __18__ (the basic structuralfoundations of a society) in the United States. When the United States built itsindustrial infrastructure, it didn’t have the capital to do so. And that is__19__ America’s Second Wave infrastructure-__20__ roads, harbors, highways,ports and so on-were built with foreign investment.

1. A) divide B) information C) world D) lecture

2. A) obscure B) visible C) invisible D) indistinct

3. A) forces B) obstacles C) events D) surprises

4. A) Seriously B) Entirely C) Actually D) Continuously

5. A) negative B) optimistic C) pleasant D) disappointed

6. A) developed B) centralized C) realized D) commercialized

7. A) users B) producers C) customers D) citizens

8. A) enterprises B) governments C) officials D) customers

9. A) away B) for C) aside D) behind

10. A) netted B) worked C) put D) organized

11. A) decrease B) narrow C) neglect D) low

12. A) containing B) preventing C) keeping D) combating

13. A) win B) detail C) defeat D) fear

14. A) enormous B) countless C) numerical D) big

15. A) bring B) keep C) hold D) take

16. A) at B) with C) of D) for

17. A) offence B) investment C) invasion D) insult

18. A) construction B) facility C) infrastructure D) institution

19. A) why B) where C) when D) how

20. A) concerning B) concluding C) according D) including

【答案】

1.A 由文中第一行的digital divide得出答案。

2.Bobscure模糊的，不清楚的;visible看得见的，明显的;invisible看不见的;indistinct不清楚的，模糊的。空格前的less已有否定意义

3.A force力量，武力;obstacle障碍;event事件;surprise惊奇，诧异。句意：现在有新的、乐观的力量来对抗数字鸿沟。

4.C seriously认真地;entirely完全的;actually实际上;continuously连续地。

5.Bnegative消极的;optimistic乐观的;pleasant令人愉快的;disappointed令人失望的。前文说有积极的力量在对抗数字鸿沟的不利因素，因此，实际上我们有理由保持乐观的态度。

6.Ddevelop发展;centralize集中;realize认识到;commercialize使商业化，由下文“网络有利于商业途径的普及”，可知此处表述的意思是网络越来越商业化。inthe interest of...为了...的利益

7.C user使用者;producer生产者;customer消费者;citizen公民。句意：越多的人上网就有越多的潜在消费者。

8.B enterprise企业，事业;government政府;official官员;句意：越来越多的政府害怕他们的国家...

9.D leave behind 留下，超过与leave相关的短语：leave aside把某事搁置一边leave out省去，遗漏，不考虑leave off 停止，不再穿

10.A 网络把人们联系在一起，选netted

11.B decrease减少，narrow变窄;neglect忽视，疏忽;low降低 句意：因此，我现在认为数字鸿沟是在变窄而不是在拓宽

12.D contain包含，容纳;prevent防止，阻止;keep保留，保持;combat战斗，搏斗

13.C win赢得;detail详述，细说;defeat击败，战胜;fear畏惧。

14.Aenormous巨大的;countless无数的;numerical数字的。potential作名词为不可数，不能用countless修饰，big一般表示尺寸、数字、范围上的大。

15.D take advantage of 利用

16.B with respect to 关于，至于 with也可换成in.表示关于的还有with regardto,concerning等。

17.C offence冒犯;investment投资;invasion入侵;insult侮辱

18.Cconstruction建筑;facility设备;infrastructure基础设施;institution公共机构，制度。从后文中出现的infrastructure可以轻易得到答案。

19.A 表语从句，表示原因，“这也就是为什么...”

20.D concerning关于;concluding结束的;according根据;including包括