Personal computers and the Internet give people new choices about how to spend their time.

Some may use this freedom to share less time with certain friends or family members, but new technology will also let them stay in closer touch with those they care most about. I know this from personal experience.

E-mail makes it easy to work at home, which is where I now spend most weekends and evenings. My working hours aren’t necessarily much shorter than they once were but I spend fewer of them at the office. This lets me share more time with my young daughter than I might have if she’d been born before electronic mail became such a practical tool.

The Internet also makes it easy to share thoughts with a group of friends. Say you do something fun see a great movie perhaps-and there are four or five friends who might want to hear about it. If you call each one, you may tire of telling the story.

With E-mail, you just write one note about your experience, at your convenience, and address it to all the friends you think might be interested. They can read your message when they have time, and read only as much as they want to. They can reply at their convenience, and you can read what they have to say at your convenience.

E-mail is also an inexpensive way stay in close touch with people who live far away. More than a few parents use E-mail to keep in touch, even daily touch, with their children off at college.

We just have to keep in mind that computers and the Internet offer another way of staying in touch. They don’t take the place of any of the old ways.

1.The purpose of this passage is to ________.

2.The use of E-mail has made it possible for the writer to ________.

3.According to the writer, E-mail has an obvious advantage over the telephone because the former helps one ________.

4. The best title for this passage is ________.

If you have been joining in chat room conversations, or trading email with web pals （网友） , you have become one of the millions who write in a peculiarly short form of English.

And you’ve got a sense of humor about short forms like SOHF （= sense of humor failure） to describe Internet newcomers who don’t understand you.

Across the globe, every night teenagers and their elders are “talking online”, many of them all talking at the same time.

It’s fast: try talking to six people at once．It’s brief: three or four words per exchange．It takes wit, concentration, and quick fingers.

And it requires tremendous linguistic economy （语言省略）．There’s neither time nor space for explanations．Why consume precious key-strokes （键盘敲击） telling six friends you have to leave for a moment to take care of your little brother when BRB（ = be right back） will do?

Want to enter a conversation? Just type PMFJI （= pardon me for jumping in）.

Interested in whom you are talking to? Type A/S/L, the nearly universal request to know your pal’s age, sex and location．You may get 15/M/NY as a response from your pal.

If something makes you laugh, say you are OTF （= on the floor）, or LOL （= laughing out loud）, or combing the two into ROTFL （ = rolling on the floor laughing） .

And when it is time to get back to work or go to bed, you type GTG （= got to go） or TTYL （=talk to you later）.

People want to write as fast as possible, and they want to get their ideas across as quickly as they can．Capital letters are left in the dust, except when expressing emotion, as it takes, more time to hold down the “shift” key and capitals．Punctuation （标点） is going, too．

Many people talk on the Internet ______.

       A．by sending short emails                     

       B．by using a particular short form of English

       C．by using peculiar English words and expression   

       D．in a funny way

In order to talk to several people at the same time on the Internet ______.

       A．you have to speak fast and fluently

       B．you should speak with wit and humor

       C．you have to express your ideas in a brief way

       D．one should pay much attention to the accuracy of words

If you get 17/F/NY as an answer to your A/S/L, it means______.

       A．the person on the other end is 17 from New York and he is fine

       B．you are talking to a girl who is 17 and lives in New York

       C．you are talking to 17 girls who are from New York

       D．the person who you are talking to is a 17-foot tall New York girl

To save time on the Internet, __________.

       A．some people leave their letters in the dustbin  

       B．some people never use “shift” in their writing

       C．many people leave the capital and punctuation 

       D．people seldom use capital letters or punctuation

          is not yet decided.

补全对话（10分）

根据对话内容，从方框内的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项，选项中有两项为多余选项。

Mrs Lee: Hello. 68178502.

David:  Hello.   56  ?                                

Mrs Lee: Sorry.   57 . Can I take a message??

David:  Yes. This is David, Bruce’s friend. I want to ask him for some Chinese ancient coins. He told me he had got some recently.   58  . I don’t care if they were made of different metals. I just want to add some more coins in my collection.

Mrs Lee: OK. I’ll tell him. Would you like him to ring you back later?

David:  Well, I won’t be at home later this day. Would you please ask him to ring me tomorrow morning??

Mrs Lee: Sure.   59  ?

David:   Oh, sorry.  60  .  The new number is 66129853.

Mrs Lee: OK. I’ll write a message for him.

David:   It’s really nice of you, Madam. Thank you very much. Goodbye!

Mrs Lee:  Bye!

E. Could I speak to Bruce, please?

F.I am very happpy to hear that.

G. Has he got your telephone number?

My newly-rented small apartment was far away from the centre of London and it was becoming essential for me to find a job，so finally I spent a whole morning getting to town and putting my name down to be considered by London Transport for a job on the underground. They were looking for guards，not drivers．This suited me．I couldn’t drive a car but thought that I could probably guard a train，and perhaps continue to write my poems between stations．The writers Keats and Chekhov had been doctors．T.S. Eliot had worked in a bank and Wallace Stevens for an insurance company．I’d be a subway guard．I could see myself being cheerful，useful，a good man in a crisis. Obviously I’d be over qualified but I was willing to forget about that in return for a steady income and travel privileges-those being particularly welcome to someone living a long way from the city centre．

The next day I sat down，with almost a hundred other candidates，for the intelligence test．I must have done all right because after about half an hour’s wait I was sent into another room for a psychological test．This time there were only about fifty candidates．The interviewer sat at a desk．Candidates were signaled forward to occupy the seat opposite him when the previous occupant had been dismissed，after a greater or shorter time．Obviously the long interviews were the more successful ones．Some of the interviews were as short as five minutes．Mine was the only one that lasted a minute and a half．

I can remember the questions now：“Why did you leave your last job?”“Why did you leave your job before that?”“And the one before that?”I can’t recall my answers，except that they were short at first and grew progressively shorter．His closing statement，I thought，evealed(揭示)a lack of sensitivity which helped to explain why as a psychologist，he had risen no higher than the underground railway．“You’ve failed the psychological test and we are unable to offer you a position．”

Failing to get that job was my low point．Or so I thought，believing that the work was easy．Actually，such jobs—being a postman is another one I still desire—demand exactly the sort of elementary yet responsible awareness that the habitual dreamer is least qualified to give．But I was still far short of full self-understanding．I was also short of cash．

【小题1】The writer applied for the job chiefly because         .

       A．he wanted to work in the centre of London

       B．he could no longer afford to live without one

       C．he was not interested in any other available job

       D．he had received some suitable training

【小题2】The writer thought he was overqualified for the job because         .

       A．he often traveled underground

       B．he had written many poems

       C．he could deal with difficult situations

       D．he had worked in a company

【小题3】The length of his interview meant that         .

       A．he was not going to be offered the job

       B．he had not done well in the intelligence test

       C．he did not like the interviewer at all

       D．he had little work experience to talk about

【小题4】What does the writer realize now that he did not realize then?

       A．How unpleasant ordinary jobs can be

   B．How difficult it is to be a poet

       C．How unsuitable he was for the job

       D．How badly he did in the interview

【小题5】What’s the writer’s opinion of the psychologist?

       A．He was very aggressive

       B．He was unhappy with his job

       C．He was quite inefficient

       D．He was rather unsympathetic