英语阅读汇总.docxVIP

Questions 11 to 15 are based on the following passage. A little noticed change has been taking place in our time-world. The arrival of digital ( 数字的 ) time has been changing the way we act and think. I believe that it has put us to a higher level of anxiety, with greater expectations of efficiency. The old, round, hand-moved time still kept a certain connection to the natural flow of things, to the roundness of the earth, and to the changes of light and seasons. Old, round time was outside ourselves, far enough removed from us so we could ignore it if we so chose. It is not so with digital time, which is a beat. It beats instead of turning. It makes a sound like the sound of the heart and thus places itself smoothly into the body. More and more, we mistake its regular beat for our own, thus mistaking the demands of the world for our wishes. Before wrist watches, time used to live in towers in the centers of towns. At that distance, it could be seen by everybody, but only if they so wished. It took an effort, an actual visit to time. But then something happened. Time began to live with us, and now it is beginning to live in us. I remember what it was like to be a child, absorbed in the endlessly changeable thing of time. For me there was only child time, divided meaninglessly and quite painfully by the orders of the parents into Bedtime, Wakeup Time, and School Time. But within each of those divisions ( 分割 ), Eternity still ruled. Later, of course, they managed to infect me with the anxious demands of clock time. Very soon, all that remained was the anxiety of that which was exact. The fast beats of the timepiece ( 时钟 ) cut Eternity to pieces. Occasionally, I stop long enough to recall the times of childhood, but not often enough. Like everybody else, I am helpless before the new technologies. Time is a virus, and it is growing stronger. Digital time has changed how we act and think by ____________________. allowing us to work with more efficiency giving us more time