Question

【题目】 The Digital Black Hole

Libraries around the world still hold copies of books printed hundreds of years ago. Will e-books still be read by us in hundreds of years’ time? Librarians are __________the fact that digital information and digital books are disappearing. Technology is always changing, and even now, we cannot get information typed in programs we used ten or fifteen years ago. Is digital data in danger of disappearing into a digital black hole?

Amazingly, we still have copies of the first collection of William Shakespeare’s 36 plays（威廉莎士比亚的36 部戏剧）, The First Folio. That’s not bad for a book that’s nearly 500 years old. The Folio was ________ in 1623. Around 800 copies were printed and 234 known copies still survive today.

Books are easy to store and we don’t use any special equipment to read them. But what about the documents（文件）kept on your computer now? Will people be able to read them in 800,500 or even 10 years’ time? Documents we stored on discs（ 磁盘） ten or twenty years ago can’t be ________ on our 21st century laptops. What about all your digital photograph? Every second, thousands of them are uploaded to social media. What will happen to them? Will they be lost in a few years’ time?

Music is in danger of being lost, too, we have to think of new ways to store it. We must copy this music or find the best way of storing it for future generations.

When a website closes down, all the information on it is deleted. It’s gone_______ . It was disappeared into the ‘digital black hole’ Organizations have understood this problem. In 2004, the British Library started to keep important websites for future generations, just like paper-based literature. In the event of a digital black hole, it could all disappear. The only __________ is to print it all out and keep physical copies.

With all the amazing new digital technology available to us today, we still have to rely on the centuries-old technology of printing. For now, printed copies are still the _____________way to store information.

【1】A.surprised atB.satisfied withC.responsible forD.worried about

【2】A.translatedB.publishedC.improvedD.destroyed

【3】A.wastedB.expectedC.openedD.ignored

【4】A.foreverB.insteadC.nowadaysD.again

【5】A.contactB.solutionC.difficultyD.decision

【6】A.cheapestB.newestC.quickestD.safest

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】D

【2】B

【3】C

【4】A

【5】B

【6】D

【解析】

短文主要讲述了数字黑洞，今天我们可以使用所有令人惊叹的新数字技术，但我们仍然必须依赖数百年的印刷技术来保存它们，这是最安全的方式。

【1】句意：图书馆员担心数字信息和数字图书正在消失。

surprised at对……感到惊讶；satisfied with满足于；responsible for负责；worried about担心。根据“Technology is always changing, and even now, we cannot get information typed in programs we used ten or fifteen years ago.技术总是在变化，即使是现在，我们也不能在十年或十五年前使用的程序中输入信息。”可推知应该是担心消失，故选D。

【2】句意：“对开本”出版于1623年。

translated 翻译；published出版；improved 提高，改进；destroyed销毁。根据“Around 800 copies were printed and 234 known copies still survive today. 大约印制了800册，至今仍有234册已知的书幸存下来。”那么应该是出版了，故选B。

【3】句意：我们十年或二十年前存储在光盘上的文件不能在21世纪的笔记本电脑上打开。

wasted浪费；expected期望；opened 打开；ignored忽略。结合句意，应该是文件能否在在电脑打开，符合句意，故选C。

【4】句意：它一去不复返了。

forever永远；instead代替；nowadays如今；again再次。根据“When a website closes down, all the information on it is deleted.当网站关闭时，其上的所有信息都会被删除。”那么可推知应该是永远消失了，故选A。

【5】句意：唯一的解决办法就是把它全部打印出来，并保留实体副本。

contact联系；solution解决方法；difficulty困难；decision结论。根据前面提到如果发生数字黑洞，它可能会全部消失。再结合后面提到把它全部打印出来，并保留实体副本，那么应该是解决方法，故选B。

【6】句意：目前，打印副本仍然是存储信息最安全的方式。

Cheapest最便宜的；newest最新的；quickest最快的；safest最安全的。结合短文大意可知，这里讲述的是关于信息的丢失，那么这里应该是说打印副本仍然是存储信息最安全的方式，故选D。