Question

How long are you willing to wait for a webpage to open before you start to lose your patience? Half a minute? A few seconds?

Google engineers have discovered that even 400 milliseconds ― as short as the blink (眨眼) of an eye ― is too long for most Internet users.

A millisecond is one thousandth of a second. People hardly notice such a small time difference, but it does cause them to stop searching, reported The New York Times.

“Of course you don’t like to wait,” said Arvind Jain, a Google engineer. “Every millisecond matters.”

Now, millions of smart-phones and computers are always sending out information. With so many people downloading (下载) maps, sports videos, news and restaurant recommendations, you can get online “traffic jams (交通阻塞)”. Users are expecting faster and faster service.

Google found that if one website is 250 milliseconds slower than another website, then people will visit it less often. This is why technology companies try their best to be the fastest.

Achieving a higher speed has always been part of the history of the Internet.

In the 1990s, when the World Wide Web first started to become popular, it was very crowded and slow; people called it the “World Wide Wait”. But engineers managed to fight the problem with new inventions. They improved software so it would work more smoothly; they made computer servers all around the world nearer to users; all these increased speed.

Now we can enjoy much faster Internet. Major search engines (引擎) such as Google and Microsoft’s Bing usually find search results in less than a second. But they will need to keep fighting to keep up with the developing needs of Internet users.

1.What does the report of The New York Times indicate (暗示)?

A. A millisecond is one thousandth of a second.

B. A millisecond has nothing to do with the Internet speed.

C. A millisecond really makes a difference to the Internet users.

D. 400 milliseconds is not so long for most Internet users.

2.How does the writer feel about the future of the Internet speed?

A. Excited.       B. Interested.

C. Confident.     D. Discouraged.

3.What can be the best title of this passage?

A. Don’t make me “www.wait”.

B. Search engines work faster.

C. Traffic jams keep us waiting.

D. The World Wide Web becomes popular.

Answer

1.C

2.C

3.A

【解析】

试题分析：这篇短文主要介绍了网络的发展情况。文章介绍，几百万手机和电脑在连续不断地收集和发送信息，从而导致了“交通堵塞”。目前，主要的搜索引擎，如谷歌和微软的必应(bing)通常在不到一秒就找到搜索结果。

1.C细节理解题。根据短下文“ People hardly notice such a small time difference, but it does cause them to stop searching, reported The New York Times.”的描述可知，纽约《泰晤士报》的报道暗示着对互联网使用者来说（等）一微秒都有区别。结合选项可知应选C。

2.C细节理解题。根据短文“Achieving a higher speed has always been part of the history of the Internet.”以及“Now we can enjoy much faster Internet. ”的描述可知，作者对未来互联网的运行速度是充满信心的。结合选项可知应选C。

3.

考点：科普类短文阅读。