2. 外语
  3. Remember the Stone Age days of research back in elementary school and middle school? We would spend countless hours digesting t

Remember the Stone Age days of research back in elementary school and middle school? We would spend countless hours digesting t

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问题    Remember the Stone Age days of research back in elementary school and middle school?  We would spend countless hours digesting the information we could find on index cards. Do you recall using those ancient com- puters that ran with the Gopher program or some generic database whose name connoted a marmot that could take half an hour to find Moby Dick?
      Well, all I have to say can be summed up in five words: Thank God For The Internet! Screw going to the library! I have access to dozens of databases, journals, and collections of literature right at my fingertips. I can complete all of my research at home and no longer must run amok in the library, stressing out while trying to find Shakespeare’s The Tempest or some other book, all the while trying to block out the noisy study groups who have forgotten what the "silence policy of libraries" means.
     If you recall the flood epidemic that hit Colorado State University just a couple summers ago, that natural disaster wreaked havoc all over campus. A large portion of journals and texts were located in our libraries’ basement which completely filled up with about 10 feet of rain water in a matter of hours.
      The Lory Student Center’s basement was also flooded and that was where the university bookstore was lo- cated. This forced almost every professor to order new textbooks and that really put a dent in our wallets. Many students here, myself included, still have to face the disappointment of searching for a particular book or journal for a last minute paper, only to find out that the certain item was a casualty of the flood.
    Thanks to the Internet, the university implemented the Inter-Library Loan system. Several universities around Colorado have generously aided us in our research endeavors by loaning any resource we need for at least two to three weeks. All we have to do is type in a request and five other university libraries automatically search for that information.
     Without this program, I may have failed several papers and projects. I would have had to spend my nights running from public library to public library around the state just to find a certain article or novel. The World Wide Web has also given us the capability to order any textbook at a much lower price than the university bookstores charge. Hey, we’re all college students and we’re usually broke, so anytime we can find a deal or discount that will save us a few bucks, we will gladly take it.
     And last but not least, for those of us who are constantly homesick, have a special someone far away or still want to keep in touch with pals, we have e-mail. Like most of you, I moved away from home to go to school and my high school friends spread out across the globe. Instead of wasting money on stationery and envelopes and stamps (which seem to increase in price about every year), I can chat with everyone through the Internet. Plus, scanning has allowed us to send pictures to our sweethearts, friends, and family who have forgot- ten what we look like. So, I’m asking everyone to get on their hands and knees and to pay homage to the telecommunications god, the Internet.
The word "havoc" in the third paragraph means
选项 A、great concern.
B、widespread horror.
C、long-lasting influence.
D、great damage or destruction.
答案D
解析 词义题。文章第3段举科罗拉多州立大学爆发洪水的例子，来说明互联网出现以前的落后情形。第3段第2句说大量期刊和教材被淹，且接下来的第4段说明了因这次洪水而造成的损失和给学生带来的麻烦。因此可推断此处havoc的意思应该是“巨大破坏”。
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