A funny thing happened on the way to the communication revolution: we stopped talking to one another.

I was walking in the park with a friend recently, and his cell phone rang, interrupting our conversation. There we were, walking and talking on a beautiful sunny day and suddenly, I became invisible, absent from the conversation.

The telephone used to connect you to the absent. Now it makes people sitting next to you feel absent. Why is it that the more connected we get, the more disconnected I feel? Every advance in communication technology is a tragedy to the closeness of human interaction. With email and instant messaging over the Internet, we can now communicate without seeing or talking to one another. With voice-mail, you can conduct entire conversations without ever reaching anyone. If my mom has a question, I just leave the answer on her machine.

As almost every contact we can imagine between human beings gets automated, the emotional distance index goes up. You can’t even call a person to get the phone number of another person any more. Directory assistance is almost always fully automated.

I am not against modern technology. I own a cell phone, an ATM card, a voice-mail system, and an email account. Giving them up isn’t wise. They’re a great help to us. It's some of their possible consequences that make me feel uneasy.

More and more, I find myself hiding behind e­mail to do a job meant for conversations or being relieved with voice-mail picking up because I don't really have time to talk. The industry devoted to helping me keep in touch is making me lonelier.

1.Which of the following would be the best title of the passage?

A. The Advance of Modern Technology

B. The Consequences of Communication Technology

C. The Story of Communication Revolution

D. The Automation of Modern Communication

2.Which is NOT TURE according to the passage?

A. The author has decided not to use his phone when he is with his friend.

B. Modern technology makes it hard for people to have a face-to-face talk.

C. The limited use of communication device brings much inconvenience to the author.

D. The industry intended to keep people in touch is taking them away from each other.

3.The writer feels that the use of modern communication is ______.

A. satisfying          B. encouraging

C. disappointing       D. embarrassing

4.The passage implies that ______.

A. modern technology is bridging the people   

B. modern technology is separating the people

C. modern technology is developing too fast

D. modern technology is interrupting people

A funny thing happened on the way to the communication revolution: we stopped talking to one another.
I was walking in the park with a friend recently, and his cell phone rang, interrupting our conversation. There we were, walking and talking on a beautiful sunny day and suddenly, I became invisible, absent from the conversation.
The telephone used to connect you to the absent. Now it makes people sitting next to you feel absent. Why is it that the more connected we get, the more disconnected I feel? Every advance in communication technology is a tragedy to the closeness of human interaction. With email and instant messaging over the Internet, we can now communicate without seeing or talking to one another. With voice-mail, you can conduct entire conversations without ever reaching anyone. If my mom has a question, I just leave the answer on her machine.
As almost every contact we can imagine between human beings gets automated, the emotional distance index goes up. You can’t even call a person to get the phone number of another person any more. Directory assistance is almost always fully automated.
I am not against modern technology. I own a cell phone, an ATM card, a voice-mail system, and an email account. Giving them up isn’t wise. They’re a great help to us. It's some of their possible consequences that make me feel uneasy.
More and more, I find myself hiding behind e­mail to do a job meant for conversations or being relieved with voice-mail picking up because I don't really have time to talk. The industry devoted to helping me keep in touch is making me lonelier

1. 1.

   Which of the following would be the best title of the passage?

   1. A.
      The Advance of Modern Technology
   2. B.
      The Consequences of Communication Technology
   3. C.
      The Story of Communication Revolution
   4. D.
      The Automation of Modern Communication
2. 2.

   Which is NOT TURE according to the passage?

   1. A.
      The author has decided not to use his phone when he is with his friend
   2. B.
      Modern technology makes it hard for people to have a face-to-face talk
   3. C.
      The limited use of communication device brings much inconvenience to the author
   4. D.
      The industry intended to keep people in touch is taking them away from each other
3. 3.

   The writer feels that the use of modern communication is ______

   1. A.
      satisfying
   2. B.
      encouraging
   3. C.
      disappointing
   4. D.
      embarrassing
4. 4.

   The passage implies that ______

   1. A.
      modern technology is bridging the people
   2. B.
      modern technology is separating the people
   3. C.
      modern technology is developing too fast
   4. D.
      modern technology is interrupting people

Flight Distance

Any observant people have noticed that a wild animal will allow a man or other potential enemy to approach only up to a given distance before it escapes. “Flight distance” is the terms used for this interspecies spacing. As a general rule, there is a positive relationship between the size of an animal and its flight distance --- the larger the animal, the greater the distance it must keep between itself and the enemy. An antelope will escape when the enemy is as much as five hundred yards away. The wall lizard’s flight distance, on the other hand, is about six feet. Flight is the basic means of survival for mobile creatures.

Critical Distance

Critical distance apparently is present wherever and whenever there is a flight reaction. “Critical distance” includes the narrow zone separating flight distance from attack distance. A lion in a zoo will flee from an approaching man until it meets a barrier that it cannot overcome. If the man continues the approach, he soon penetrates（穿过，透过）the lion’s critical distance, at which point the cornered lion turns back and begins slowly stalk（逼近）the man.

Social Distance

Social animals need to stay in touch with each other. Loss of contact with the group can be fatal （致命的）for a variety of reasons including exposure to enemies. Social distance is not simply the distance at which an animal will lose contact with his group --- that is, the distance at which it can no longer see, hear, or smell the group --- it is rather a psychological distance, one at which the animal apparently begins to feel anxious when it goes beyond its limits. We can think of it as a hidden band that contains the group.

Social distance varies from species to species. It is quite short --- apparently only a few yards --- among some animals, and quite long among others.

Social distance is not always rigidly（刻板的）fixed but is determined in part by the situation. When the young of apes and humans are mobile but not yet under control of the mother’s voice, social distance may be the length of her reach. This is readily observed among baboons（狒狒）in a zoo. When the baby approaches a certain point, the mother reaches out to seize the end of its tail and pull it back to her. When added control is needed because of danger, social distance shortens. To show this in man, one has only to watch a family with a number of small children holding hands as they cross a busy street.

1.Which of the following is the most suitable explanation to “Flight distance”?

2.If a lion’s critical distance is penetrated, it will ________

3.The example of the children holding hands when crossing the street in the last paragraph           

shows that ________.

4.Which of the following one can be the best title of the passage?

Fear is a fact of life everyone faces from time to time. In most cases fear is a healthy reaction to a dangerous situation. But sometimes fear can be so extreme, so overwhelming that it interferes with normal living. That is what happened to me driving cross-country last summer.

I’d agreed to help my brother, Mac, move from the East Coast to California. He would drive a rental truck loaded with his belongings and I would follow him in his sedan, then fly back. We figured it would be a simple trip, with four or five motel ( 摩托旅馆 ) stops along the way.

Living and working in coastal Georgia for most of my life, I didn’t have a great deal of long-distance driving experience. Looking back on it today, I can see that I’d always felt a twinge of fear when driving over small bridges and along hilly highways. And as I was getting ready for the trip I had a vague (模糊的)concern about the steep mountain roads that lay ahead. But I thought I would get used to them.

As we crossed some high bridges near the Blue Ridge Mountains on the first leg of our trip, a kind of breathlessness gripped（抓住）me, a sinking, rolling sensation in the pit of my stomach. I tended to veer slightly away from the edge of the roadway and thedrop-off beyond. My knuckles(手指关节) whitened from my tense grip on the steering wheel. At the end of each bridge, a great rush of relief would come over me, only to be replaced in short order by fear of the next obstacle.

When we stopped in Nashville the first night, I mentioned my feelings to Mac, who is the practical sort. “Oh, that’s nothing,” he said cheerfully. Lots of people hate driving on mountain roads and high bridges. Just turn up the music on your radio and focus on that. Keep your mind occupied.”

1．Which is Not the author’s attitude towards fear?

       A．Fear can sometimes disturb your life.

       B．It is natural to feel fear in everyday life.

       C．In dangerous situations, fear may do good to your body.

       D．Whenever you feel fear, you are likely to make a wrong decision.

2．How did the author and his brother go to California?

  A．They rented a truck and drove it in turn.

  B．The author and his brother drove different vehicles.

  C．The author drove while his brother flew to California.

  D．The author drove a rented car while his brother drove the truck.

3．To the author the trip is ___________.

  A．frightening         B．pleasant               C．nervous             D．exhausting

4．Mac asked his brother to turn on the radio and focus on that in order to let him _______.

  A．keep using his brains                  B．kill time during the long trip

       C．think of other things instead of fear      D．enjoy the beautiful music along the way

Fear is a fact of life everyone faces from time to time. In most cases fear is a healthy reaction to a dangerous situation. But sometimes fear can be so extreme, so overwhelming that it interferes with normal living. That is what happened to me driving cross-country last summer.

I’d agreed to help my brother, Mac, move from the East Coast to California. He would drive a rental truck loaded with his belongings and I would follow him in his sedan, then fly back. We figured it would be a simple trip, with four or five motel ( 摩托旅馆 ) stops along the way.

Living and working in coastal Georgia for most of my life, I didn’t have a great deal of long-distance driving experience. Looking back on it today, I can see that I’d always felt a twinge of fear when driving over small bridges and along hilly highways. And as I was getting ready for the trip I had a vague (模糊的)concern about the steep mountain roads that lay ahead. But I thought I would get used to them.

As we crossed some high bridges near the Blue Ridge Mountains on the first leg of our trip, a kind of breathlessness gripped（抓住）me, a sinking, rolling sensation in the pit of my stomach. I tended to veer slightly away from the edge of the roadway and the drop-off beyond. My knuckles(手指关节) whitened from my tense grip on the steering wheel. At the end of each bridge, a great rush of relief would come over me, only to be replaced in short order by fear of the next obstacle.

When we stopped in Nashville the first night, I mentioned my feelings to Mac, who is the practical sort. “Oh, that’s nothing,” he said cheerfully. Lots of people hate driving on mountain roads and high bridges. Just turn up the music on your radio and focus on that. Keep your mind occupied.”

1．Which is Not the author’s attitude towards fear?

       A．Fear can sometimes disturb your life.

       B．It is natural to feel fear in everyday life.

       C．In dangerous situations, fear may do good to your body.

       D．Whenever you feel fear, you are likely to make a wrong decision.

2．How did the author and his brother go to California?

  A．They rented a truck and drove it in turn.

  B．The author and his brother drove different vehicles.

  C．The author drove while his brother flew to California.

  D．The author drove a rented car while his brother drove the truck.

3．To the author the trip is ___________.

  A．frightening         B．pleasant               C．nervous             D．exhausting

4．Mac asked his brother to turn on the radio and focus on that in order to let him _______.

  A．keep using his brains             

  B．kill time during the long trip

  C．think of other things instead of fear

      D．enjoy the beautiful music along the way