题目内容
C
Wikipedia was founded as a branch of Nupedia, a now-abandoned project to produce a free encyclopedia (百科全书). Nupedia required highly qualified contributors, but the writing of articles was slow. During 2000, Jimmy Wales, founder of Nupedia, and Larry Sanger, whom Wales had employed to work on the project, discussed ways of supplementing (补充) Nupedia with a more open project. Multiple sources are suggested for the idea that a wiki might allow members of the public to contribute material, and Nupedia’s first wiki went online on January 10.
There was considerable resistance on the part of Nupedia’s editors and reviewers to the idea of associating Nupedia with a Web site in the wiki format (格式), so the new project was given the name “Wikipedia” and launched on its own domain (域名), wikipedia.com, on January 15. The domain was eventually changed to the present wikipedia.org when the not-for-profit Wikimedia Foundation was launched as its new parent organization. In March 2007, the word wiki became a newly-recognized English word.
In May 2001, a wave of non-English Wikipedias was launched — in Catalan, Chinese, Dutch, Esperanto, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish. These were soon joined by Arabic and Hungarian. In September, Polish was added. At the end of the year, Afrikaans, Norwegian, and Serbocroatian versions were announced.
Anyone with Web access can edit Wikipedia, and this openness encourages inclusion of a great amount of content. About 75,000 editors — from expert scholars to casual readers — regularly edit Wikipedia, and these experienced editors often help to create a consistent style throughout the encyclopedia.
Editors are able to watch pages and techies (科技人员) can write editing programs to keep track of or correct bad edits. Where there’re disagreements on how to present facts, editors work together to arrive at an article that fairly represents current expert opinion on the subject. Although the Wikimedia Foundation owns the site, it’s largely uninvolved in writing and daily operations.
66. Jimmy Wales wanted a more open project because ______.
A. he wanted to found Wikipedia
B. Nupedia had its own disadvantages
C. he earned less money from Nupedia
D. Nupedia had been abandoned
67. The idea of connecting Nupedia with a Web site in the wiki format ______.
A. gained a wide support
B. came into being on January 15, 2000
C. made Nupedia better and better known to the public
D. weren’t welcomed by all Nupedia’s editors
68. Which of the following versions joined the Wikipedia in or after October 2001?
A. English version. B. Norwegian version.
C. Hebrew version. D. Arabic version.
69. Who are responsible to create the main style for the Wikipedia?
A. Any readers of the Wikipedia B. The techies.
C. The Wikimedia Foundation. D. The experienced editors.
70. Which of the following facts about Wikipedia most probably surprises readers?
A. Its owner contributes less to its writing.
B. It appeals to a wider audience.
C. Its owner was founded only recently.
D. It was evolved from Nupedia.
66---70 BDBDA
解析:
本文是一篇说明文，主要是介绍了维基百科——开放性的百科全书。介绍了它的创立、运作等。
66. B。 细节理解题。根据文章第一段，Jimmy Wales只所以需要一个更为开放的方案，是因为原来的Nupedia存在弊端：文章的写入非常的慢（the writing of articles was slow）。当时，Nupedia并没有被放弃，而Jimmy Wales也没有想到Wikipedi，因此A、D不对；Nupedia是非盈利性，因此C不对。
67. D。 细节理解题。根据文章第二段的第一句话。当时这一观点遭到了部分Nupedia的编辑和读者的反对。
68. B。 细节判断题。根据文章第三段，“Afrikaans、Norwegian、Serbocroatian”是在9月份之后加入这一行列中的。
69. D。 细节判断题。根据文章第四段，“these experienced editors often help to create a consistent style throughout the encyclopedia”，创立“the Wikipedia”风格的是那些熟悉的而有经验编辑。
70. A。 推理判断题。关于Wikipedia的一些事实，从最后一段的最后一句可以知道，尽管Wikipedia为the Wikimedia Foundation所拥有，但是Wikipedia的运作和文章并不是来自the Wikimedia Foundation，而是广大的读者。
We like to think our intelligence is self-made; it happens inside our heads, the product of our inner thoughts alone. But the rise of Google, Wikipedia and other online tools has made many people question the impact of these technologies on our brains. Is typing in “Who has played James Bond in the movies?” the same as our knowledge about the names like Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig? Can we say we know the answer as long as we know how to rapidly get the information on Google?
Here the question is about how we define intelligence itself. The answer appears to be interesting, because the evidence from psychological studies suggests that much of our intelligence comes from how we coordinate ourselves with other people and our environment.
An influential theory among psychologists is that we're cognitive misers(认知吝啬者). This is the idea that we are unwilling to do mental work unless we have to. We try to avoid thinking things fully when a short cut is available. If you've ever voted for the presidential candidate(总统候选人) with the most honest smile, or chosen a restaurant based on how many people are already sitting in there, then you are a cognitive miser. The theory explains why we'd much rather type a zip code into Google Maps than memorize and recall the location of a place – it's so much easier to do so.
Research shows that people don't tend to rely on their memories for things they can easily access. Buildings can somehow disappear from pictures we're looking at, or the people we're talking to can be changed with someone else, and often we won't notice – a phenomenon called “change blindness”. This isn't an example of human stupidity – far from it, in fact – this is an example of mental efficiency. The mind relies on the world as a better record than memory.
Philosophers have suggested that thinking is really happening in the environment as much as it is happening in our brains. The philosopher Andy Clark called humans "natural born cyborgs(电子人)", those naturally capable of absorbing and combining new tools, ideas and abilities. In Clark's view, the route to a solution is not the issue – having the right tools really does mean you know the answers, just as much as already knowing the answer.
Rather than being forced to rely on our own resources for everything, we can share our knowledge. Technology keeps track of things for us so we don't have to, while large systems of knowledge serve the needs of society as a whole. I don't know how a computer works, or how to grow vegetables, but that knowledge is out there and I can get to benefit. The internet provides even more potential to share this knowledge. Wikipedia is one of the best examples – an increasingly large database of knowledge from which everyone can benefit.
So as well as having a physical environment – like the rooms or buildings we live or work in – we also have a mental environment, which means that when I ask you where your mind is, you shouldn’t point toward the centre of your forehead. As research shows, our minds are made up just as much by the people and tools around us as they are by the brain cells inside our skull.
【小题1】Why did the writer raise the questions in Paragraph 1?
| A．To find out who has played James Bond in the movies. |
| B．To introduce the topic to be discussed in the passage. |
| C．To show that he knows the answer to the questions. |
| D．To attract readers’ attention by mentioning James Bond. |
| A．Supportive | B．Objective | C．Indifferent | D．Neutral |
| A．Intelligence is something that is made by one’s brain itself. |
| B．Intelligence is something that only happens inside one’s head. |
| C．Intelligence is the product of one’s inner thoughts alone. |
| D．Intelligence is a mixture of the environment, people and one’s brain cells. |
| A．are stupid not to notice the changes |
| B．are efficient in mental work |
| C．are blind to changes around them |
| D．rely on memory when dealing with things |
| A．They make us much more intelligent. |
| B．They make us lazier and more stupid. |
| C．They have little to do with our intelligence. |
| D．They have a negative effect on our intelligence. |