Question

    Before Douglas Engelbart, computers were as big as rooms and used mostly for handling numbers. But in the late ‘60s’at the Stanford Research Institute, Engelbart invented almost everything your personal computer has today: a mouse, hypertext, screen sharing and more. In 1968 he made real-time edits to documents nearly 40 years before Google Docs hit screens; video chatted with friends long before Skype’s 2003 arrival; and resized windows years before Microsoft entered the field in 1975. Engelbart was adding graphics (图形), hyperlinking and sharing screens — all before the birth of the World Wide Web. “The digital revolution is far more significant than the invention of writing or even of printing,” said Engelbart, and as it turns out, he held all the right cards.

If he’d been British，Engelbart would have been knighted (授爵), but the Portland, Oregon, native instead lived out the rest of his years as an unsung hero, trying to fry even bigger fish in Silicon Valley. His blueprint of the Internet was radically different from today’s profit- driven, streamlined version. Engelbart imagined an information system built on the backbones of cooperation and education, all meant to enhance the collective human mind. He wanted a computerized network of real-time, human-wide cooperation, with the open-source spirit of Wikipedia and the purposefulness of Change.org.

By the late 70s and early ‘80s’ Engelbart and his ideas were cast aside in favor of Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows, along with their profit-generating vision for personal computing, and a user-friendly approach to the Internet. Engelbart’s team of researchers abandoned him, and he had a lesser position at a company called Tymshare while still battling with his pie-in-the-sky visions of a better world. Even worse, when Engelbart’s mouse invention gained widespread use years later, he never gained the profits — it had been licensed to Apple for around $40,000, Engelbart revealed.

And if Engelbart had won? “Hard to say,” says Jefferson Bailey of the Internet Archive in San Francisco. The Web was bound to grow in ways its founders never intended, he says. He notes his belief that the same spirit of knowledge-sharing and cooperation Engelbart tirelessly pushed for will one day become part of our fast-evolving Internet, even if a commercial layer clouds the original vision. But even so，fame is difficult to achieve; it often ridicules great thinkers like Galileo or Tesla, only to meet them decades after death. Granted, Engelbart was eventually allowed into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, in 1988, and into the Pioneers Circle in the Internet Hall of Fame after his death, but the heart of his dream has yet to be realized.

1.The expression “his pie-in-the-sky visions of a better world” in Para. 3 refers to______________.

A.the function of computer data processing

B.a real-time video chat on the Internet

C.a user-friendly approach to the Internet

D.an Internet of knowledge-sharing and cooperation

2.Most probably Engelbart’s greatest regret was that___________________.

A.he was too crazy about his vision of the Internet when totally ignored

B.he was not profitably rewarded for his landmark inventions of computer

C.he was admitted to the U. S. National Inventors Hall of Fame too late

D.the Internet was commercially oriented against his original intention

3.Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

A.Engelbart rose and fell in his all-out battle over the future of the Internet.

B.Engelbart could have succeeded in the Internet with his landmark inventions.

C.Engelbart failed to realize his ambition due to his humble position in Tymshare.

D.Engelbart could hardly resist the profit-driven trend of the growing Internet.

4.Which of the following is the best title of the passage?

A.Who Benefits from the Internet? B.Who lost the Internet Wars?

C.Who Pioneered the World Wide Web? D.Who Commercialized the Internet?

Answer

1.D

2.D

3.C

4.B

【解析】

本文是一篇记叙文。文章主要讲述了恩格尔巴特为互联网做出的贡献，恩格尔巴特发明了今天个人电脑所用的几乎一切东西：鼠标以及超文本、屏幕共享等神奇技术，倡导一个全人类合作的计算机网络，但是因为出身他没有获得应有的地位。相信恩格尔巴特不懈倡导的“知识共享和协作精神”有朝一日会成为我们快速发展的互联网的一部分

1.词句猜测题。根据第二段最后一句He wanted a computerized network of real-time, human-wide cooperation, with the open-source spirit of Wikipedia and the purposefulness of Change.org.(他要的是一种能实时展开全人类合作的计算机网络，兼具维基百科的开源精神和“变革”网的坚定目的)以及第三段中的Engelbart’s team of researchers abandoned him, and he had a lesser position at a company called Tymshare while still battling with his pie-in-the-sky visions of a better world.(恩格尔巴特的研究团队抛弃了他，他在一家名为Tymshare的公司里只担任了一个较低的职位，同时还在与自己对更美好世界的不切实际的幻想作斗争)可知，第三段中的“他对更美好世界的不切实际的幻想”是指知识共享和合作的互联网。故选D。

2.细节理解题。根据最后一段的He notes his belief that the same spirit of knowledge-sharing and cooperation Engelbart tirelessly pushed for will one day become part of our fast-evolving Internet, even if a commercial layer clouds the original vision.(他相信恩格尔巴特不懈倡导的“知识共享和协作精神”有朝一日会成为我们快速发展的互联网的一部分，就算商业的外衣遮蔽了最初的设想)可知，很可能恩格尔巴特最大的遗憾是互联网是以商业为导向的，违背了他的初衷。故选D。

3.细节理解题。根据第三段的he had a lesser position at a company called Tymshare while still battling with his pie-in-the-sky visions of a better world(他屈就于一个名为蒂姆沙尔的公司，同时还在为他乌托邦式的梦想而奋斗)可知，C项“恩格尔巴特因为他在蒂姆沙尔的卑微地位没有实现他的野心”是错误的。故选C。

4.主旨大意题。通读全文可知，本文主要讲述了恩格尔巴特为互联网做出的贡献，恩格尔巴特发明了今天个人电脑所用的几乎一切东西：鼠标以及超文本、屏幕共享等神奇技术，倡导一个全人类合作的计算机网络，但是因为出身他没有获得应有的地位。反而是一些后起之秀获得了殊荣。最后一段首句中的And if Engelbart had won?给出了本文的中心主旨，因此推断B项作为题目最佳。故选B。