Professor Barry Wellman of the University of Toronto in Canada has invented a term to describe the way many North Americans interact(互动)these days. The term is “networked individualism”. This concept is not easy to understand because the words seem to have opposite meanings. How can we be individuals(个体)and be networked at the same time? You need other people for networks.

Here is what Professor Wellman means. Before the invention of the Internet and e-mail, our social networks included live interactions with relatives, neighbors, and friends. Some of the interaction was by phone, but it was still voice to voice, person to person, in real time.

A recent research study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project showed that for a lot of people, electronic interaction through the computer has replaced this person-to-person interaction. However, a lot of people interviewed for the Pew study say that’s a good thing. Why?

In the past, many people were worried that the internet isolated(孤立)us and caused us to spend too much time in the imaginary world of the computer. But the Pew study discovered that the opposite is true. The Internet connects us with more real people than expected—helpful people who can give advice on careers, medical problems, raising children, and choosing a school or college. About 60 million Americans told Pew that the Internet plays an important role in helping them make major life decisions.

Thanks to the computer, we are able to be alone an together with other people—at the same time!

1.The underlined phrase “networked individualism” probably means that by using computers people       .

A.stick to their own ways no matter what other people say

B.have the rights and freedom to do things of their own interest

C.do things in their own ways and express opinions different from other people

D.are able to keep to themselves but at the same time reach out to other people

2.According to the Pew study, what do many people rely on to make major life decisions?

A.Networks.

B.Friends.

C.Phones.

D.Parents.

3.It can be inferred from the Pew study that         .

A.people have been separated from each other by using computers

B.the Internet makes people waste a lot of time and feel very lonely

C.the Internet has become a new tool for a new kind of social communication

D.a lot of people regard the person-to-person communication as a good thing

4.Which would be the best title for this passage?

A.We’re Alone on the Internet

B.We’re Communicating on the Internet

C.We’re Alone Together on the Internet

D.We’re in the Imaginary World of the Internet.

 

In 1956 Phoenix, Arizona, was a city with boundless blue   1 . One day as I walked around the house with my sister Kathy’s new parakeet (小鹦鹉)on my finger, I wanted to show Perky what the sky looked like. I took him into the backyard, and then, to my horror , Perky flew off. The enormous, blue sky swallowed up my sister’s blue  2   and suddenly he had gone, clipped wings and all. 

I told Kathy about Perky's disappearance and I was anxious that she would blame me. But , unexpectedly, Kathy managed to   3  me. With fake optimism, she even tried to convince me that Perky would find a new    4   . But I was far too clever to   5   that such a thing was possible.

Decades later, I watched my own    6  growing. We shared their activities, spending soccer Saturdays in folding chairs with the   7 of the kids’ friends, the Kissells. The two families went camping around Arizona together. We became the best of friends. One evening, the game was to tell Great Pet stories. One person claimed(宣称) to  8  the oldest living goldfish. Someone else had a psychic dog. Then Barry, the father of the other family, took the floor and ___9___that the Greatest Pet of All Time was his blue parakeet, Sweetie Pie.

"The best thing about Sweetie Pie," he said, "was the  10   we got him. One day, when I was about eight, out of the clear, blue sky, a little blue parakeet just  11   down and landed on my finger."

When I was finally able to  12 , we examined the amazing evidence. The dates and the locations and the pictures of the bird all  13 . It seems our two families had been  14  long before we ever met. Forty years later, I ran to my sister and said, "You were  15 ! Perky lived!"

1.

A.lake

B.sky

C.parakeet

D.backyard

 

2.

A.pleasure

B.sadness

C.treasure

D.sense

 

3.

A.forgive

B.comfort

C.help

D.delight

 

4.

A.parent

B.home

C.nest

D.fellow

 

5.

A.imagine

B.suppose

C.doubt

D.believe

 

6.

A.birds

B.happiness

C.worries

D.children

 

7.

A.parents

B.birds

C.interests

D.games

 

8.

A.catch

B.find

C.buy

D.have

 

9.

A.announced

B.said

C.retold

D.hoped

 

10.

A.day

B.place

C.way

D.story

 

11.

A.floated

B.dived

C.settled

D.went

 

12.

A.think

B.speak

C.interrupt

D.explain

 

13.

A.came up

B.turned up

C.turned out

D.matched up

 

14.

A.known

B.fastened

C.connected

D.introduced

 

15.

A.right

B.wrong

C.silly

D.mad

 

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