The Internet, E-commerce and globalization are making a new economic era possible. By the middle of the 21st century, capitalist markets will largely be replaced by a new kind of economic system based on networked relationships, contractual arrangements and access rights.
Has the quality of our lives at work, at home and in our communities increased in direct proportion to all the new Internet and business-to-business Internet services being introduced into our lives? I have asked this question of hundreds of CEOS and corporate executives in Europe and the United States. Surprisingly, virtually everyone has said, “No, quite contrary.”
The very people responsible for ushering in what some have called a “technological renaissance” say they are working longer hours, feel more stressed, are more impatient, and are even less civil in their dealings with colleagues and friends—not to mention strangers. And what’s more revealing, they place much of the blame on the very same technologies they are so aggressively championing.
The techno gurus promised us that access would make life more convenient and give us more time. Instead, the very technological wonders that were supposed to liberate us have begun to enslave us in a web of connections from which there seems to be no easy escape.
If an earlier generation was preoccupied with the quest to enclose a vast geographic frontier, the .com generation, it seems, is more caught up in the colonization of time. Every spare moment of our time is being filled with some form of commercial connection, making time itself the most scarce of all resources. Our e-mail, voice mail and cell phones, our 24-hour Internet news and entertainment all seize for our attention.
And while we have created every kind of labor-and time-saving device to service our needs, we are beginning to feel like we have less time available to us than any other humans in history. That is because the great proliferation of labor-and-time-saving services only increases the diversity, pace and flow of commodified activity around us. For example, e-mail is a great convenience. However, we now find ourselves spending much of our day frantically responding to each other’s electronic messages. The cell phone is a great time-saver. Except now we are always potentially in reach of someone else who wants our attention.
Social conservatives talk about the decline in civility and blame it on the loss of a moral compass and religious values. Has anyone bothered to ask whether the hyper speed culture is making all of us less patient and less willing to listen and defer, consider and reflect?
Maybe we need to ask what kinds of connections really count and what types of access really matter in the e-economy era. If this new technology revolution is only about hyper efficiency, then we risk losing something even precious than time—our sense of what it means to be a caring human being.
1. The author suggests that the most valuable resource in today’s society is ____.
2. We learn from this passage that many executives feel that ____.
3. The phrase “the colonization of time” (Para. 5) refers to ____.
4. In the seventh paragraph the author suggests that ____.
5. The best title for the passage could be ____.
问题1选项
A.Technology
B.Economic assets
C.Access to information
D.Time
问题2选项
A.technological advances are essential to today’s economic system
B.technology has actually led to decline in their quality of life
C.longer hours are making their workers more impatient and uncivil
D.technology can be blamed for many of today’s social problems
问题3选项
A.the filling of every moment of time with commercial transactions
B.the quest for efficiency in the workplace
C.the growing use of electronic mail and other time-saving services
D.the impact of technology on our sense of time
问题4选项
A.new technologies may make people more impatient
B.social conservatives do not understand the importance of technology
C.the speed of modern culture may impact our moral and religious values
D.people in the technology sector are less civil than those in other fields
问题5选项
A.The future of the technological Renaissance
B.Even Corporate Executives Get the Blues
C.The New Internet Economy
D.The Disadvantages of Too much Access
第1题:D
第2题:B
第3题:A
第4题:A
第5题:D
第1题:
【选项释义】
The author suggests that the most valuable resource in today’s society is ____. 作者认为，当今社会最有价值的资源是____。
A. Technology A. 技术
B. Economic assets B. 经济资产
C. Access to information C. 获取信息
D. Time D. 时间
【考查点】事实细节题。
【解题思路】根据题干信息可定位到第五段“我们的每一个空闲时间都被某种形式的商业联系所填满，使时间本身成为所有资源中最稀缺的（making time itself the most scarce of all resources）。”因此选D。
【干扰项排除】
A、B、C选项属于过度推断。
第2题:
【选项释义】
We learn from this passage that many executives feel that ____. 我们从这篇文章中了解到，许多高管认为____。
A. technological advances are essential to today’s economic system A. 技术进步对当今的经济体系至关重要
B. technology has actually led to decline in their quality of life B. 科技实际上导致了他们生活质量的下降
C. longer hours are making their workers more impatient and uncivil C. 更长时间的工作让他们的员工更加不耐烦和无礼
D. technology can be blamed for many of today’s social problems D. 今天的许多社会问题都归咎于技术
【考查点】推理判断题。
【解题思路】根据题干信息可定位到第二段“我们在工作、家庭和社区中的生活质量提高是否与所有的这些新型互联网以及企业对企业互联网服务的引入成正比？我曾向欧洲和美国的数百位首席执行官和企业高管提出过这个问题。令人惊讶的是，几乎每个人都说：‘不，恰恰相反。’”也就是说，他们认为，事实上，科技已经导致了生活质量的下降。因此B选项正确。
【干扰项排除】
A选项“技术进步对当今的经济体系至关重要”，文章没有提及，该选项属于无中生有；
C选项“更长时间的工作让他们的员工更加不耐烦和无礼”，文中提到“那些引领所谓‘技术复兴’的人说，他们工作的时间更长了，压力更大了，更没耐心了”，这些引领技术复兴的人指的是公司领导而不是员工，因此该选项属于张冠李戴；
D选项“今天的许多社会问题都归咎于技术”，社会问题太过广泛，该选项属于过度推断。
第3题:
【选项释义】
The phrase “the colonization of time” (Para. 5) refers to ____. “时间的殖民化”（第5段）指的是____。
A. the filling of every moment of time with commercial transactions A. 每时每刻都充斥着商业交易
B. the quest for efficiency in the workplace B. 工作场所对效率的追求
C. the growing use of electronic mail and other time-saving services C. 越来越多地使用电子邮件和其他省时服务
D. the impact of technology on our sense of time D. 科技对我们时间观念的影响
【考查点】推理判断题。
【解题思路】根据出处提示词Paragraph 5与题干信息词the colonization of time可定位到第五段the colonization of time之后“我们的每一个空闲时间都被某种形式的商业联系所填满（Every spare moment of our time is being filled with some form of commercial connection）”由此可推断“时间的殖民化”指的就是每时每刻充满商业交易。因此选A。
【干扰项排除】
B选项“工作场所对效率的追求”，曲解原文，该选项属于过度推断；
C选项“越来越多地使用电子邮件和其他省时服务”，曲解原文，该选项属于过度推断；
D选项“科技对我们时间观念的影响”，曲解原文，该选项属于过度推断。
第4题:
【选项释义】
In the seventh paragraph the author suggests that ____. 在第七段中，作者表示____。
A. new technologies may make people more impatient A. 新技术可能会让人们更没有耐心
B. social conservatives do not understand the importance of technology B. 社会保守派不理解技术的重要性
C. the speed of modern culture may impact our moral and religious values C. 现代文化的发展速度可能会影响我们的道德和宗教价值观
D. people in the technology sector are less civil than those in other fields D. 技术领域的人比其他领域的人更不文明
【考查点】事实细节题。
【解题思路】根据出处提示词Paragraph 7与题干信息可定位到第七段“有没有人问过，高速文化是否让我们所有人变得更没有耐心，更不愿意倾听、推迟、考虑和反思？（less patient and less willing to listen and defer, consider and reflect）”由此可知，作者认为新技术可能会让人们没有耐心。因此选A。
【干扰项排除】
B选项“社会保守派不理解技术的重要性”，文中没有体现，该选项属于无中生有；
C选项“现代文化的发展速度可能会影响我们的道德和宗教价值观”，由第七段可知，这是社会保守派的观点，并不是作者的观点，该选项属于张冠李戴；
D选项“技术领域的人比其他领域的人更不文明”，文中没有体现，该选项属于无中生有。
第5题:
【选项释义】
The best title for the passage could be ____. 这篇文章最好的标题是____。
A. The future of the technological Renaissance A. 技术复兴的未来
B. Even Corporate Executives Get the Blues B. 即使是企业高管也会感到沮丧
C. The New Internet Economy C. 新互联网经济
D. The Disadvantages of Too much Access D. 过多访问的缺点
【考查点】主旨大意题。
【解题思路】作者在第一段提出了“新型经济体系”，接下来的段落主要讨论的是新技术带来的负面影响，最后一段提出“也许我们需要问问，在电子经济时代，什么样的连接才是真正重要的，什么样的访问才是真正重要的。如果这场新技术革命仅仅是关于超高效率，那么我们可能会失去一些比时间更宝贵的东西。”综合全文，文章主要讲了过多访问的缺点，因此选D。
【干扰项排除】
A选项“技术复兴的未来”，文中主要讲新技术带来的负面影响，并没有涉及技术复兴的未来，该选项属于反向干扰；
B选项“即使是企业高管也会感到沮丧”，是对文章的片面概括，属于以偏概全；
C选项“新互联网经济”，文中主要讲互联网经济的缺点，该选项范围太广，属于过度推断。
