Question

Cellphones are the new cigarettes When you get in your car,you reach for it. When you're at work,you take a break to have a moment alone with it. When you get into a lift,you play with it.

Cigarettes? Cup of coffee? No,it's the third most ad?dictive thing in modern life,the cellphone. And experts say it is becoming more difficult for many people to curb their desire to hug it more tightly than most of their per?sonal relationships.

With its shiny surface,its smooth and satisfying touch,its air of complexity,the cellphone connects us to the world even as it disconnects us from people three feet away. In just the past couple of years,the cellphone has challenged individuals,employers,phone makers and counselors (顧問) in ways its inventors in the late 1940s never imagined.

The costs are becoming even more evident,and I don't mean just the monthly bill. Dr Chris Knippers,a counselor at the Betty Ford Centre in Southern California,reports that the overuse of cellphones has become a social problem not much different from other harmful addic?tions; a barrier to one-on-one personal contact,and an es?cape from reality.

Sounds extreme,but we've all witnessed the evi?dence: the person at a restaurant who talks on the phone through an entire meal,ignoring his kids around the ta?ble; the woman who talks on the phone in the car,igno?ring her husband; the teen who texts messages all the way home from school,avoiding contact with kids all around him.

Is it just rude,or is it a kind of unhealthiness? And pardon me,but how is this improving the quality of life?

Jim Williams? an industrial sociologist based in Mas?sachusetts,notes that cellphone addiction is part of a set of symptoms in a widening gulf of personal separation. He points to a study by Duke University researchers that found one quarter of Americans say they have no one to discuss their most important personal business with. De?spite the growing use of phones* email and instant messa?ging,in other words? Williams says studies show that we don't have as many friends as our parents. "Just as more information has led to less wisdom,more acquaintances via the Internet and cellphones have produced fewer friends," he says.

If the cellphone has truly had these effects,it's be?cause it has become very widespread. Consider that in 1987,there were only 1 million cellphones in use. Today,something like 300 million Americans carry them. They far outnumber wired phones in the United States.

20. Which of the following best explains the title of the passage?

   A. Cellphone users smoke less than they used to.

   B. More people use cellphones than smoke ciga?rettes.

   C. Cellphones have become as addictive as ciga?rettes.

   D. Using cellphone is just as cool as smoking ciga?rettes.

21. The underlined word " curb" in Paragraph 2 means      

   A. control   B. ignore   C. develop   D. rescue

22. The example of a woman talking on the phone in the car supports the idea that       .

   A. women use cellphones more often than men

   B. talking on the phone while driving is dangerous

   C. cellphones make one-on-one personal contact easy

   D. cellphones do not necessarily bring people together

Answer 1

本文是篇議論文，主要講述了在日常生活中由于手機的過度使用，人們忽視了與周圍人的相處，從而導致了人與人間的關系更為疏遠。

20. C推理判斷題。文章標題的意思是"手機是一種新型的香煙"，是個比喻，結合第二段中的"Cigarettes? Cup of cof?fee? No,it's the third most addictive thing in modern life,the cellphone."可知手機已經(jīng)成了和香煙、咖啡一樣讓人上癮的東西。故選(：。

21. A詞義猜測題。句中hug后面的it應指的是手機這件令人上癮的東西。既然是件令人上癮的東西，那么對它的迷戀程度對很多人來說就應是很難"控制"了，故選A項con?trol。

ignore忽視;develop發(fā)展;rescue營救。

22. D推理判斷題。結合文章第四段的"…a barrier to oneonone personal contact,and an escape from reality."可知手機已成為一個人與人之間面對面交流的阻礙，沒有拉近人們的關系，故選   D.