ALA（America Library Associate）

A.杜威

B.阮冈纳赞

C.杜定友

D.刘国钧

The passage aims to inform. us that __________．

[A] national libraries start to preserve the web

[B] national libraries cannot save everything

[C] national libraries have found a solution

[D] America's Library of Congress has a budget

ful Internet material is being fought on a rather unlikely field—the public library. In almost every city, town and village in the United States there is a public library, and every one of them now has computer terminals for public use. On one side of the battle, the American Library Association (ALA) is opposed to content filters on library computers with Internet access. On the opposing side, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that libraries must install filters to block indecent websites from library patrons under the age of eighteen. For the time being, the battle scene has stilled, but the ultimate winners in the all-out war for access versus control of the Web in public libraries have yet to be declared.

The debate first raged in the U. S. due to the enactment of the federal Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) in 1999. Public libraries, including school libraries, were forced to install content filters on Internet access terminals or lose certain federal funding. In response, the ALA started a legal battle to have the requirement reversed. In its 1943 Bill of Rights, the ALA said that libraries should present materials that represent many points of view on current and historical issues and not remove materials with unpopular viewpoints. At the same time, it is the responsibility of libraries to challenge censorship if they suspect it. However, in 2003, the Supreme Court ruled that the filtering was constitutional, and the law should stand.

In its decision, the Supreme Court found that filters are "at least as effective" as government regulation of website operators. Earlier laws imposed criminal punishments on website operators for publishing harmful material. In contrast, CIPA places the burden on those who receive federal funds—public libraries and school districts—to ensure that children do not have access to obscene, pornographic, or other harmful images and text. According to supporters of the law, filters effectively keep out harmful Web content and do not have a negative impact on users.

Whereas some libraries such as the San Francisco library system oppose the law and have stated they will not abide by it. Other libraries favor the filters and had even used blocking software on their computers before the law required it. In 1998, 15 percent of U. S. libraries used Internet filters, according to one survey. In the middle are libraries that have compromised by installing filters only on library terminals reserved for children.

Opponents rightly argue that legitimate research sites are being blocked by excessive and harmful filters. They point to numerous examples of harmless websites—such as home pages of religious and academic institutions- that are blocked by the filter software. Anti-filter groups also charge that the devices do not filter out a substantial portion of inappropriate Internet material. A recent study found that the filters failed to block the transmission of pornography, violence, and hate speech 25 percent of the time.

Dr. Martha McCarthy, an education professor at Indiana University, expects the Web war between law-makers and librarians to continue to produce court battles. "Despite the Supreme Court decision, there may be challenges to the application of CIPA in some public libraries," said McCarthy. For instance, she said that adults may allege that it is too complicated to turn off the filters when they want to use the computers. She went on to say that the battle between freedom of speech and protection of children is likely to continue with regard to content on the Internet. Clearly, the government needs to find a more viable solution, or the free expression war will continue to rage.

What is the passage mainly about？

A．The reasons that libraries oppose Internet censorship.

B．The effects of Internet censorship on children in libraries.

C．The debate over blocking harmful Internet sites at libraries.

D．The disadvantages of Internet blocking software in libraries.

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

A．Andrew Carnegie became the wealthiest men in America by his hard work.

B．Andrew Carnegie's noteworthy contributions to society are those that bear his name.

C．Most Americans have benefited from Andrew Carnegie's generosity.

D．Libraries donated by Andrew Carnegie formed the basis of the public library system.

Every year, the American Lung Association (ALA) releases its annual report card on smog, and every year it gives an "F" to over half the nation's counties and cities. When ALA's "State of the Air 2002" recently came out, dozens of credulous local journalists once again took the bait, ominously reporting that their corner of the nation received a failing grade. The national coverage was no better, repeating as fact ALA's statement that it is "gravely concerned" about air quality, and neglecting to solicit the views of even one scientist with a differing view. Too bad, because this report card says a lot less about actual air quality than it does about the tactics and motives of the ALA.

The very fact that 60 percent of counties were giver an "F" seems to be alarmist. This is particularly tree given that smog levels have been trending downward for several decades. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) statistics, ozone, the primary constituent of smog, progress will likely continue, even without the wave of new regulations ALA is now demanding.

ALA is correct that some areas still occasionally exceed the federal standard for ozone, but such spikes are far less frequent than in the past. Even Los Angeles, the undisputed smog capital of America, has cleaned up its act considerably. Los Angeles, which exceeded federal smog standards for 154 days in 1989, has had 75 percent fewer such spikes in recent years. But an ALA-assigned "F" misleadingly implies that air quality has not improved at all.

Most of the nation is currently in attainment with the current smog standard, and much of the rest is getting close. Nonetheless, ALA chose to assign an "F" to entire county based on just a few readings above a strict new EPA standard enacted in 1997 but not yet in force. In effect, ALA demanded a standard even more stringent than the federal government's, which allows some leeway for a few anomalously high readings in otherwise clean areas. ALA further exaggerated the public-health hazard by grossly over stating the risks of these relatively minor and sporadic increases above the standard.

The media's response to ALA's "State of the Air 2002" can best be described as ______.

A．trusting

B．suspicious

C．critical

D．hesitant

's spectacular collection on the America's native people. The exhibition features many of the collection's finest books and manuscripts, as well as photographs, artwork, and related materials covering a period of more than four centuries. Included are published accounts of early encounters with native peoples, stunning illustrated books depicting native communities and leaders, documents that preserve the history of native languages, manuscripts that record the work of early anthropologists and those who fought for native rights, and materials that record the histories of tribal communities.

What is the theme of the exhibition？

A．Enduring people, Vanished Worlds

B．Vanished people, Enduring Worlds

C．Enduring Worlds, Vanished People

D．Vanished Worlds, Enduring People

hurried to scan books into its digital catalogue, a group of national libraries has begun saving what the online giant leaves behind. ① Although search engines such as Google index the web, they do not archive it. Many websites just disappear when their owner runs out of money or interest. Adam Farquhar，in charge of digital projects for the British Library, points out that the world has in some ways a better record of the beginning of the 20th century than of the beginning of the 21st. ② In 1996 Brewster Kahle，a computer scientist and internet entrepreneur, founded the Internet Archive, anon-profit organisation dedicated to preserving websites．He also began gently harassing national libraries to worry about preserving the web．They started to pay attention when several elections produced interesting material that never touched paper.

In 2003 eleven national libraries and the Internet Archive launched a project to preserve “born-digital”information: the kind that has never existed as anything but digitally. But the task is impossible. One reason is the sheer amount of data on the web. The groups have already collected several petabytes of data.

Another issue is ensuring that the data is stored in a format that makes it available in centuries to come．Ancient manuscripts are still readable. But much digital media from the past is readable only on a handful of fragile and antique machines, if at all. The project has set a single format, making it more likely that future historians will be able to find a machine to read the data. ③ But a single solution cannot capture all content. Web publishers increasingly serve up content-rich pages based on complex data sets. Audio and video programmes based on proprietary formats such as Windows Media Player are another challenge. What happens if Microsoft is bankrupt and forgotten in 2210？

The biggest problem, for now, is money. The British Library estimates that it costs half as much to store a digital document as it does a physical one. But there are a lot more digital ones. America's Library of Congress enjoys a specific mandate, and budget, to save the web. The British Library is still seeking one.

So national libraries have decided to split the task. Each has taken responsibility for the digital works in its national top-level domain (web-address suffixes such as “. uk” or “. fr”). In countries with larger domains，such as Britain and America, curators cannot hope to save everything. They are concentrating on material of national interest, such as elections, news sites and citizen journalism or innovative uses of the web.

阅读以上文章，回答 92～96 题

第 92 题 We can infer from the first paragraph that __________．

[A] there is no record of many websites that have disappeared

[B] Google is expected to be engaged in indexing more websites

[C] national libraries are trying to win over Google in some aspects

[D] the British Library begins to scan books as well as other publications

听力原文：W What led you to open the Cincinnati Glass Center？

M Well, people know about Cincinnati's history as a steel manufacturing center for North America, but not many people know that the town used to be a center of the glass industry as well. We wanted to awaken people to that part of Cincinnati's past.

W What would you say has been your proudest achievement since you opened the museum？

M Since we opened the center, several prominent glass artists have moved here, artists from all over the world. I'm proud that we've attracted so many glass artists to the city.

What is being discussed？

A．A museum

B．A library

C．An art school

D．An art gallery

hurried to scan books into its digital catalogue, a group of national libraries has begun saving what the online giant leaves behind. For although search engines such as Google index the web, they do not archive it. Many websites just disappear when their owner runs out of money or interest, Adam Farquhar, in charge of digital projects for the British Library, points out that the world has in some ways a better record of the beginning of the 20th century than of the beginning of the 21st.

In 1996 Brewster Kahle, a computer scientist and internet entrepreneur, founded the Internet Archive, a non-profit organisation dedicated to preserving websites. He also began gently harassing national libraries to worry about preserving the web. They started to pay attention when several elections produced interesting material that never touched paper.

In 2003 eleven national libraries and the Internet Archive launched a project to preserve "born-digital" information: the kind that has never existed as anything but digitally. Called the-International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC) , it now includes 39 large institutional libraries. But the task is impossible. One reason is the sheer amount of data on the web. The groups have already collected several petabytes of data (a petabyte can hold roughly 10 trillion copies of this article).

Another issue is ensuring that the data is stored in a format that makes it available in centuries to come. Ancient manuscripts are still readable. But much digital media from the past is readable only on a handful of fragile and antique machines, if at all. The IIPC has set a single format, making it more likely that future historians will be able to find a machine to read the data. But a single solution cannot capture all content. Web publishers increasingly serve up content-rich pages based on complex data sets. Audio and video programmes based on proprietary formats such as Windows Media Player are another challenge. What will happen if Microsoft is bankrupt and forgotten in 2210？

The biggest problem, for now, is money. The British Library estimates that it costs half as much to store a digital document as it does a physical one. But there are a lot more digital ones. America's Library of Congress enjoys a specific mandate, and budget, to save the web. The British Library is still seeking one.

So national libraries have decided to split the task. Each has taken responsibility for the digital works in its national top-level domain (web-address suffixes such as ". uk" or ". fr"). In countries with larger domains, such as Britain and America, curators cannot hope to save everything. They are concentrating on material of national interest, such as elections, news sites and citizen journalism or innovative uses of the web.

The daily death of countless websites has brought a new sense of urgency—and forced libraries to adapt culturally as well. Past practice was to tag every new document as it arrived. Now precision must be sacrificed to scale and speed. The task started before standards, goals or budgets are set. And they may yet change. Just like many websites, libraries will be stuck in what is known as "permanent beta".

What does the sentence "things seem always to happen the wrong way round" (in Paragraph 1) mean？

A．New problems arise from the development of the digital technology.

B．Google should save all the books in its web.

C．Websites should be kept for ever.

D．Things turn out to be wrong.