译林牛津版高中英语选修10练习与测试 第十模块第四单元.docVIP

练习与测试 第十模块第四单元 Welcome to the unit A Read the following introduction to the history of Cyberspace and answer the questions below. A Brief History of Cyberspace Although it may seem like a new idea, the net has actually been around for over 40 years. It all began in the US during the Cold War, as a university experiment in military communications. By linking lots of computers together in a network, rather than serially (in a straight line), the Pentagon(五角大楼) thought that in the event of a nuclear attack on the US it was unlikely that the entire network would be damaged, and therefore they would still be able to send and receive intelligence. At first each computer was physically linked by cable to the next computer, but this approach has obvious limitations, which led to the development of networks utilizing the telephone system. Predictably, people found that nuclear strike or not, they could talk to each other using this computer network, and some university students started using this network to do their homework together. It seems a natural human characteristic to want to communicate, and once people realized that they could talk to other people via this computer network they began to demand access, although initially the users were only from the university and government sectors. But more and more people could see the potential of computer networks, and various community groups developed networks separate from the official networks for the use of their local communities. The sum of all these various local, regional and national networks is the Internet as we experience it today, an ever expanding network of people, computers and information coming together in ways the Pentagon never dreamed of 40 years ago. So what began as an exercise in military paranoia has become a method of global communication. Cyberspace is a term coined by William Gibson in his fantasy novel Neuromancer to describe the world of computers, and the society that gathers around them.