A great deal of attention is being paid today to the so-called digital divide--the division of the world into the info(information) rich and the info poor. And that __1__ does exist today. My wife and I lectured about this looming danger twenty years ago. What was less __2__ then, however, were the new, positive __3__ that work against the digital divide. __4__,there are reasons to be __5__.
There are technological reasons to hope the digital divide will narrow. As the Internet becomes more and more __6__, it is in the interest of business to universalize access-after all, the more people online, the more potential __7__ there are. More and more __8__, afraid their countries will be left __9__, want to spread Internet access. Within the next decade or two, one to two billion people on the planet will be __10__ together. As a result, I now believe the digital divide will __11__ rather than widen in the years ahead. And that is very good news because the Internet may well be the most powerful tool for __12__ world poverty that we’ve ever had.
Of course, the use of the Internet isn’t the only way to __13__ poverty. And the Internet is not the only tool we have. But it has __14__ potential.
To __15__ advantage of this tool, some poor countries will have to get over their outdated anti-colonial prejudices __16__ respect to foreign investment. Countries that still think foreign investment is a/an __17__ of their sovereignty might well study the history of __18__ (the basic structural foundations of a society) in the United States. When the United States built its industrial infrastructure, it didn’t have the capital to do so. And that is __19__ America’s Second Wave infrastructure-__20__ roads, harbors, highways, ports and so on-were built with foreign investment.
1. A) divide B) information C) world D) lecture
2. A) obscure B) visible C) invisible D) indistinct
3. A) forces B) obstacles C) events D) surprises
4. A) Seriously B) Entirely C) Actually D) Continuously
5. A) negative B) optimistic C) pleasant D) disappointed
6. A) developed B) centralized C) realized D) commercialized
7. A) users B) producers C) customers D) citizens
8. A) enterprises B) governments C) officials D) customers
9. A) away B) for C) aside D) behind
10. A) netted B) worked C) put D) organized
11. A) decrease B) narrow C) neglect D) low
12. A) containing B) preventing C) keeping D) combating
13. A) win B) detail C) defeat D) fear
14. A) enormous B) countless C) numerical D) big
15. A) bring B) keep C) hold D) take
16. A) at B) with C) of D) for
17. A) offence B) investment C) invasion D) insult
18. A) construction B) facility C) infrastructure D) institution
19. A) why B) where C) when D) how
20. A) concerning B) concluding C) according D) including
