Timothy Berners-Lee might be giving Bill Gates a run for the money, but he passed up his shot at fabulous wealth—intentionally—in 1990. That’s when he decided not to patent the technology used to create the most important software innovation in the final decade of the 20th century: the World Wide Web. Berners-Lee wanted to make the world a richer place, not a mass personal wealth. So he gave his brainchild to us all.
Berners-Lee regards today’s Web as a rebellious adolescent that can never fulfill his original expectations. By 2005, he hopes to begin replacing it with the Semantic Web—a smart network that will finally understand human languages and make computers virtually as easy to work with as other humans.
As envisioned by Berners-Lee, the new Web would understand not only the meaning of words and concepts but also the logical relationships among them. That has awesome potential. Most knowledge is built on two pillars: semantics and mathematics. In number-crunching, computers already outclass people. Machines that are equally adroit at dealing with language and reason won’t just help people uncover new insights; they could blaze new trails on their own.
Even with a fairly crude version of this future Web, mining online repositories for nuggets of knowledge would no longer force people to wade through screen after screen of extraneous data. Instead, computers would dispatch intelligent agents, or software messengers, to explore Web sites by the thousands and logically sift out just what’s relevant. That alone would provide a major boost in productivity at work and at home. But there’s far more.
Software agents could also take on many routine business chores, such as helping manufacturers find and negotiate with lowest-cost parts suppliers and handling help-desk questions. The Semantic Web would also be a bottomless trove of eureka insights. Most inventions and scientific breakthroughs, including today’s Web, spring from novel combinations of existing knowledge. The Semantic Web would make it possible to evaluate more combinations overnight than a person could juggle in a lifetime. Sure scientists and other people can post ideas on the Web today for others to read. But with machines doing the reading and translating technical terms, related ideas from millions of Web pages could be distilled and summarized. That will lift the ability to assess and integrate information to new heights. The Semantic Web, Berners-Lee predicts, will help more people become more intuitive as well as more analytical. It will foster global collaborations among people with diverse cultural perspectives, so we have a better chance of finding the right solutions to the really big issues—like the environment and climate warming.
1. Had he liked, Berners-Lee could have _____.
[A]created the most important innovation in the 1990s
[B]accumulated as much personal wealth as Bill Gates
[C]patented the technology of Microsoft software
[D]given his brainchild to us all
2. The Semantic Web will be superior to today’s web in that it _____.
[A]surpasses people in processing numbers
[B]fulfills user’s original expectations
[C]deals with language and reason as well as number
[D]responds like a rebellious adult
3. To search for any information needed on tomorrow’s Web, one only has to _____.
[A]wade through screen after screen of extraneous data
[B]ask the Web to dispatch some messenger to his door
[C]use smart software programs called “agents”
[D]explore Web sites by the thousands and pick out what’s relevant
4. Thanks to the Web of the future, _____.
[A]millions of web pages can be translated overnight
[B]one can find most inventions and breakthroughs online
[C]software manufacturers can lower the cost of computer parts
[D]scientists using different specialty terms can collaborate much better
5. The most appropriate title for this text is.
[A]Differences between Two Webs
[B]The Humanization of Computer Software
[C]A New Solution to World Problems
[D]The Creator and His Next Creation
参考答案
1. B 2.C 3.C 4.D 5.D
1.【金考网银行招聘答案解析】本题考查考生根据上下文进行推理的能力。文章一开始就提到,“伯纳斯?李原本可以在财富上与比尔?盖茨一比高低,但是1990年他主动放弃了获得巨额财富的机会。give sb a (good) run for their money“不让……轻易取胜,与……进行激烈竟争”,pass up “放弃,不要(机会等)”。第一段倒数第二句又接着提到,“他想让世界变得更加富有,而不是积累个人财富,所以他把互联网这个他个人智慧的结晶无偿给了我们”。由此我们可以推出[B]项表述了他有能力却不愿意做的事情。
文章第一段中间部分说到:伯纳斯?李决定不为用来创造20世纪90年代最重要的软件发明(万维网)的技术申请专利。[A]、[C]项是对文意的曲解。[D]项在首段末句提到,是伯纳斯?李已经做到的事情。
2.【金考网银行招聘答案解析】本题考查事实细节。由文章的第三段首句可知:新的万维网将不止能理解词语和概念的意思,还能理解它们之间的逻辑关系。[C]项的language对应原文中的the meaning of words and concepts, reason对应the logic relationships among them,因此是正确项。
第三段第四句提到:现在的计算机(即今天的网络)在处理数据方面已超过了人类,因此[A]项不是语义万维网比现在网络优越的理由。第二段首句提到伯纳斯?李认为今天的网络像一个反叛的青少年,永远达不到他(发明者)最初的期望。[B]、[D]项替换词汇为“使用者”和“成年人”,是对该句的歪曲引申。
3.【金考网银行招聘答案解析】本题考查事实细节。可用排除法。文章第四段提到,“即使使用未来网络的一个很原始版本,在巨大的网络资源库中寻找所需信息时,人们也不必在一屏一屏的无关信息中艰难搜索了。相反,电脑将派出智能代理商或软件使者(代替你)查询上千个网站,并按逻辑滤出相关信息。”[A]、[D]项是在未来网络中人不用做的,与题目要求不符。[B]项是对文章望文生义,本身错误。只有[C]项正确,第四段中所述未来网络的优势,都是你使用它的智能程序这个前提下的结果。
4.【金考网银行招聘答案解析】本题考查事实细节题。题干要求选出未来网络带来的好处。第五段最后三句提到:语义万维网可以阅读并翻译专业术语,从上百万的网站提取总结相关信息;促进全球不同文化背景的人之间的合作。[D]项scientists是不同文化背景的人的一个特例,所以是正确项。
[A]项错误,因为该段第四句提到overnight时,是说语义万维网可以在一夜之间比一个人一辈子评估的知识的联合还要多,而不是翻译网页。[B]项的内容是现在的网络就能做到的,不能作为未来网络的好处。[C]项文章没有提及,文中只是说到软件代理商能帮助制造商找到成本最低的零件供应商,并和他们洽谈。
5.[精解]本题通过选标题的形式考查了文章的主旨。文章主要介绍了著名科学家伯纳斯?李以及他将要研究出的语义万维网,所以[D]项正确。在分析中,为了说明将来的网络,把它和现在的万维网进行了比较,但这仅仅是为了更好说明语义万维网的优点。所以不选[A]项。[B]项是未来万维网的一个目标,只是文章所述内容的一个方面,不能作为文章主旨。[C]项在文章最后点到,也不是主旨。
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