Question

For centuries, the only form of written correspondence（通信）was the letter. Letters were, and are sent by some form of postal service, the history of which goes back a long way. Indeed, the Egyptians began sending letters from about 2000 BC, as did the Chinese a thousand years later.

Of course, modern postal services now are much more developed and faster, depending as they do on cars and planes for delivery. Yet they are still too slow for some people to send urgent documents（紧急文件）and letters.

The invention of the fax（传真）machine increased the speed of delivering documents even more. When you send a fax , your are sending a copy of a piece of correspondence to someone by telephone service. It was not until the early 1980s that such a service was developed enough for business to be able to fax documents to each other.

The fax service is still very much in use when copies of documents require to be sent, but, as a way of fast correspondence, it has been largely taken the place of by email. Email is used to describe messages sent from one computer user to another.

There are advantages and disadvantages with emails. If you send someone an email, then he will receive it extremely quickly. Normal postal services are rather slow as far as speed of delivery is concerned.

However, if you write something by email, which you might later regret, and send it immediately, there is no chance for second thoughts. At least, if your posting a letter you have to address and seal（封）the envelope and take it to the post box. There is plenty of time to change your mind. The message is think before your email!

1.We can learn from the text that_______.

A. the postal service has over the years become slower

B. email is less popular than the fax service

C. the postal service has over the years become faster

D. the fax service has a history as long as the postal service does

2.It can be inferred from the text that ______.

A. the fax machine was invented after the 1980s

B. letters have been used in China for about 1,000 years

C. the fax service had been fully developed by the 1980s

D. letters have been used in Egypt for about 2,000 years

3.In the last paragraph , the writer mentions “think before you email” to show that______.

A. you’d better not send your email in a hurry

B. you may regret if you don’t seal your envelope

C. you may regret before you send something by email

D. you need plenty of time to send an email

4.The text mainly deals with ________.

A. the invention of fax machines

B. the advantage of fax machines

C. the advantage of emails

D. the progress in correspondence

Answer

1.C

【解析】几个世纪以来，从早期的书信到后来的传真一直到现在的email，我们的通信技术发生了很大变化，最主要体现在它的速度上。

【考点】细节归纳题。

2.C

【解析】根据第三段It was not until the early 1980s …developed enough …可知到20世纪80年代，传真技术有了充分的发展。

【考点】推理判断题。

3.A

【解析】从最后一段来看，email一旦发出就不能更改，而传统的书信在投递之前有足够的时间进行修改，所以作者认为我们不能匆忙发出email。

【考点】句意理解题。

4.D

【解析】从整个文章来看，早期的书信通讯非常慢，后来的传真和email都相继提高了速度，这无疑是通讯事业的进步。

【考点】主旨大意题。