首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
There’s no reason for a city to be there, just a stream and a broad Appalachian valley. But Joseph Anderson wanted a city, and i
There’s no reason for a city to be there, just a stream and a broad Appalachian valley. But Joseph Anderson wanted a city, and i
admin
2013-09-26
39
问题
There’s no reason for a city to be there, just a stream and a broad Appalachian valley. But Joseph Anderson wanted a city, and in the 1850s he willed one from the ground after a railway company built its state-line terminus(终端)on his father-in-law’s farmland. He named it, Bristol.
"Paradise" was his second choice. Now, after the decline of the area’s timber and coal industries, paradise is what Bristol has left to sell. The city’s cost of living is 20% below the national average. And Bristol offers what 87% of America’s towns and counties lack: the optic-fiber Internet.
Bristol, Virginia and Bristol, Tennessee face each other across State Street. To the north, electricity comes from Bristol Virginia Utilities(BVU), which answers to the city council, a common arrangement in rural America. In 1999 BVU ran optical fiber among its substations and city offices, at first purely for internal use. It used its fiber to save the city money on its phone exchange, but local businesses soon wanted the same service. Home Internet service followed in 2002. Then, with $9 million in state and federal grants, BVU pushed its fiber north to eight counties in Virginia’s Coalfield region.
And the fiber brought jobs. In 2007 both Northrop Grumman, a big American defense contractor, and CGI, an international IT consultancy, said they would hire between them 700 technicians, consultants and call-operators at offices in nearby Lebanon, Virginia, part of BVU’s fiber backbone. Both cited the area’s universities and low cost of living, but neither would have come without BVU’s investment, which Northrop calls absolutely critical. A 2010 paper by Jed Kolko for the Public Policy Institute of California found evidence of a causal relationship in America between the arrival of broadband and employment growth; and the lower the population density, the stronger the effect. Wes Rosenbalm, BVU’s boss, sees the equation much as Joseph Anderson did 150 years ago. "Broadband is jobs," he says. "This is the next depot, the next highway. "
Should cities be in the business of providing fast Internet access? It depends on whether the Internet is an investment or a product. BVU could not afford to maintain its fiber backbone without selling the Internet to consumers. And it could not build a subscriber base without offering cable television and a telephone line as well; households these days expect a single price for all three services. This has put it in direct competition with firms that already offered limited DSL and cable-modem access, which are fast enough for watching YouTube but not for Northrop Grumman. Fiber is expensive, and a purely commercial business would not have been minded to pay for it.
All this is true for much of rural America, and it is a parallel of the reason why municipal utility companies were launched in the first place: to electrify thinly-populated areas where commercial utilities would not go. But it also raises the biting question of competition.
Compared with firms who offered limited DSL and cable-modem access, BVU______.
选项
A、has to cope with higher cost due to its use of fiber
B、delivers considerate services for its customers
C、covers three services within a single price
D、is still under local government’s support
答案
A
解析
推理判断题。根据第四段可知,BVU面临与那些给用户提供有限DSL及电缆调制解调路径的公司竞争的局面。根据段落内逻辑关系,可推断最后一句说明了原因,即光纤维是昂贵的,纯粹的商业企业是不会考虑为该纤维支付费用的,因此A)是本题答案。B)“为用户提供周到的服务”,与原文无关,故排除;C)“一个价钱包括三项服务”,与题干问题无关,故排除;D)“仍然受到当地政府的扶植”,是对原文的主观臆断,故排除。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/LI27777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
Courtesyalsoincludesproperbehavioronthestreet.Properstreetbehaviorrequiresanice【C1】______ofattentionandinattent
Largecompaniesneedawaytoreachthesavingsofthepublicatlarge.Thesameproblem,onasmalle【B1】______facespracticall
A、Tocreateahumaneenvironment.B、Tosavetimeandmoney.C、Toeducatethem.D、Toreplacethefamily.AWhichofthefollowing
A、Harvard.B、Princeton.C、Stanford.D、Pepperdine.C细节辨认题。女士最后指出,总体来讲,斯坦福大学的学生幸福程度最高,故答案为C)。
A、Shebroughthersweateralongincaseitisgettingcold.B、Shedoesn’tthinktheweatheriscoldenough.C、Sheagreesthatth
Nowadays,incominggenerationsreallyrelynowonthepowerofthe"Internet"whenitcomestosearchingforinformation.Justt
A、Hecan’trecallwherehelefthisportablecomputer.B、He’sgotaterribleheadacheandforgetsthingseasily.C、He’ssometro
SuggestionsforYourWorkAnnieisalongtimesecretary/receptionistfortwoseniorvicepresidentsatabigcompany.They
A、Hurryupandmakethedecision.B、Hurryupandmakeareservation.C、ChooseaChineserestaurant.D、Gotobothrestaurantssin
随机试题
2013年,我国一例感染某型禽流感的患者在医院不幸病逝。其家属认为“人死医院就得赔,并以医院采取的救治措施不当”为由,向医院索赔100万元。而该病毒是人类首次发现的新病毒,在疫情初期,医院(医生)根本无法预见。医院按重症肺炎诊治,符合诊疗常规,又不存在医疗
对整个工程实际发生的合理成本与原成本之差额提出的索赔属于()。
(操作员:李主管;账套:501账套;操作日期:2015年1月31日)在“生产人员”工资表中,录入以下人员的工资变动数据。
股权投资基金对企业进行书面初审的主要方式是()。
托管业务准人条件中要求,基金托管部门拟从事基金清算、核算、投资监督、信息披露等业务的执业人员应不少于5人,并具有证券从业资格。( )
甲向乙兜售毒品时,虽然提供了真实的毒品作为样品,但实际交付的却是面粉。下列关于该民事行为效力的表述中,正确的是()。(2014年)
某房产开发公司建造一栋普通标准住宅并进行销售,销售收入800万元,支付的地价款为100万元,建筑成本为420万元,该公司支付银行的借款利息为30万元(但该借款也用于其他工程),并根据税法规定缴纳了营业税(税率为5%)、城建税(税率为7%)、教育费附加(费率
MoreAmericanmothersthaneverareworking,andmoreworkersaremothers.Yettheirmarchintotheworldofpaidworkcontinues
中国共产党领导全国人民战胜敌人的两个基本武器是()
在PowerPoint2010演示文稿的一页幻灯片中,有两个图片文件,其中图片1把图片2覆盖了,若要设置为图片2覆盖住图片1,以下最佳的操作方法是()
最新回复
(
0
)