How computers can cure cultural diabetes

Think  of those fleeting moments when you look out of an aero-plane window and realize that you are flying, higher than a bird. Now think of your laptop, thinner than a brown-paper envelope, or your cell-phone in the palm of your hand. Take a moment or two to wonder at those marvels. You are the lucky inheritor of a dream come true.

The second half of the 20th century saw a collection of geniuses, warriors,  entrepreneurs and visionaries labor to create a fabulous machine that could function as a typewriter and printing press, studio and theatre, paintbrush and gallery, piano and radio, the mail as well as the mail carrier. 41. Not only did they develop such a device but by the turn of the millennium they had also managed to embed it in a worldwide system accessed by billions of people every day.

41. 选[C]; 理由是上文提到一些人士，比如天才geniuses, 武士warriors,  企业家entrepreneurs and 翻唱组合(visionaries) 等发明了一台神奇的机器(create a fabulous machine, 后面又提到这些机器的例子。【C】选项中出现了关键的代词they，它用来指代前面提到的一些人名，谓语代词develop such a device属于同义词替换来达到主题一致这一重要原则。

  The networked computer is an amazing device, the first media machine that serves as the mode of production (you can make stuff), means of distribution (you can upload stuff to the network), site of reception (you can download stuff and interact with it), and locus of praise and critique (you can talk about the stuff you have downloaded or uploaded). The computer is the 21st century's culture machine.

  But for all the reasons there are to celebrate the computer, we must also tread with caution. 42. This is because the networked computer has sparked a secret war between downloading and uploading - between passive consumption and active creation - whose outcome will shape our collective future in ways we can only begin to imagine. I call it a secret war for two reasons. First, most people do not realize that there are strong commercial agendas at work to keep them in passive consumption mode. Second, the majority of people who use networked computers to upload are not even aware of the significance of what they are doing.

42. 选[D]，主要理由是整个段落是在分析原因。第一句讲到有理由来庆祝电脑带来的好处（即上一段提到的好处），但我们必须也要谨慎小心(tread with caution),因此作者在这一段是要转折其对电脑的态度了。接下来这句话I call it a secret war很重要，说明这一句前面应该提到这些关键词a secret war, 最后作者列出了其中的两个理由。解题关键：转折关系；关键词重复；代词指代。

All animals download, but only a few upload anything besides faces and their own bodies. Beavers build dams, birds make nests and termites create mounds, yet for the most part, the animal kingdom moves through the world downloading. Humans are unique in their capacity to not only make tools but then turn around and use them to create superfluous material goods - paintings, sculpture and architecture - and superfluous experiences - music, literature, religion and philosophy. 43. Of course, it is precisely these superfluous things that define human culture and ultimately what it is to be human. Downloading and consuming culture requires great skills, but failing to move beyond downloading is to strip oneself of a defining constituent of humanity.

43. 选[A]。上文提到动物和人的一些区别特征，[A]选项里刚好有these superfluous things 这些指示代词来指代前面提到的这些东西，所以这个选项也恰好是对前面的句子内容在总结归纳。

For all the possibilities of our new culture machines, most people are still stuck in download mode. Even after the advent of widespread social media, a pyramid of production remains, with a small number of people uploading material, a slightly larger group commenting on or modifying that content, and a huge percentage remaining content to just consume. 44. One reason for the persistence of this pyramid of production is that for the past half-century, much of the world's media culture has been defined by a single medium - television - and television is defined by downloading.

44. 选[F]，是在分析原因，选项中出现了关键词重复pyramid of production，和选项[D]构成强烈的干扰，但是一比较我们发现，尽管都是在说原因，但是原因离得关键名词不同，选项[D]的关键词是computer(电脑)，也就是主题词不同，属于主题词要一致的做题依据。

  Television is a one-way spigot gushing into our homes. The hardest task that television asks of anyone is to turn the power off after they have turned it on. 45. The networked computer offers the first chance in 50 years to reverse the flow, to encourage thoughtful downloading and, even more importantly, meaningful uploading.

45. 选[G]，networked computer和上文的TV构成转折关系（Reverse the flow）。