[考研类试卷]考研英语(阅读)模拟试卷218.doc.pdfVIP

[考研类试卷]考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷218 Part A Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. (40 points) 0 The staggering variety of free stuff available on the Internet sometimes seems to have repealed the first law of economics: Theres no such thing as a free lunch. But as so often happens, the dismal science actually has it right. When it looks like youre getting something for nothing, somebody is paying, and its often instructive to know who that is. Ive been testing a new phone service called ooma that provides an interesting case in point. Once you pay $399 up front for a box called the ooma Hub and connect it to your phone and the Internet via your home network, you are promised free, unlimited phone calls over two lines, plus voice mail. The system works fine and is simple to set up. When a voice-over-Internet call has to go to a regular phone number, a service such as ooma usually has to pay a termination fee to a carrier such as Verizon. Skype, for example, charges 2% per minute for calls outside the Skype network. But ooma avoids this by using some of its customers—those who have kept regular phone lines—to serve as gateways onto the local phone network at no charge. When you want to call outside the ooma network, the call moves from your Hub over the Internet to a second landline-connected Hub within the destinations local calling area. The Hub dials the target number and patches the call through. In effect, ooma customers with landlines pay to keep the whole system going. You dont even notice if your landline is being used because your own phone calls go out over your broadband connection, with your flat-rate monthly phone bill covering the ooma traffic. In fact, this improves the efficiency of the phone system by putting idle lines to work. But if ooma ever gains real traction, I expect a legal assault from big phone companies, which are losing income fr