Wild Bill Donovan would have loved the Internet. The American spymaster who built the Office of Strategic Services in World War

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问题 Wild Bill Donovan would have loved the Internet. The American spymaster who built the Office of Strategic Services in World War II and later laid the roots for the CIA was fascinated with information. Donovan believed in using whatever tools came to hand in the "great game" of espionage-spying as a "profession". These days the Net, which has already remade pastimes as buying books and sending mail, is reshaping Donovan’s vocation as well.
The last revolution isn’t simply a matter of gentlemen reading other gentlemen’s e-mail. That kind of electronic spying has been going on for decades. In the past three or four years, the world wide web has given birth to a whole industry of point and click spying. The spooks call it "open source intelligence", and as the Net grows, it is becoming increasingly influential. In 1995, the CIA held a contest to see who could compile the most data about Burundi. The winner, by a large margin, was a tiny Virginia company called Open Source Solutions, whose clear advantage was its mastery of the electronic world.
Among the firms making the biggest splash in the new world is Straitford, Inc. , a private intelligence analysis firm based in Austin, Texas. Straitford makes money by selling the results of spying(covering nations from Chile to Russia)to corporations like energy services firm McDermott International. Many of its predictions are available online at www. Straitford. com. Straiford president George Friedman says he sees the online world as a kind of mutually reinforcing tool for both information collection and distribution, a spymaster’s dream. Last week his firm was busy vacuuming up data bits from the far corners of the world and predicting a crisis in Ukraine. "As soon as that report runs, we’ll suddenly get 500 new Internet sign ups from Ukraine," says Friedman, a former political science professor. "And we’ll hear back from some of them. " Open source spying does have its risks, of course, since it can be difficult to tell good information from bad. That’s where Straitford earns its keep.
Friedman relies on a lean staff in Austin. Several of his staff members have military intelligence backgrounds. He sees the firms, outsider status as the key to its success. Straitford’s briefs don’t sound like the usual Washington back and forth, whereby agencies avoid dramatic declarations on the chance they might be wrong. Straitford, says Friedman, takes pride in its independent voice.
What is the possible meaning of the word "outsider" in line 2 in the last paragraph?

选项 A、Person who is not a member of a social, group.
B、Person who is not accepted as a member of a social group.
C、Competitor thought to have little chance of winning a race or contest.
D、On or to the outside.

答案A

解析本题是词义细节题。“outsider”有很多意思。在此的意思是“局外人”。B的意思是“不受欢迎的人”，不合题意。C的意思是“不大可能获胜的竞争者”。D的意思是“在外面，向外面”，是对副词“outside”的解释。

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Wild Bill Donovan would have loved the Internet. The American spymaster who built the Office of Strategic Services in World War

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国际化人才外语考试（BFT）