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  3. Sometimes the biggest changes in society are the hardest to spot precisely because they are hiding in plain sight. It could well

Sometimes the biggest changes in society are the hardest to spot precisely because they are hiding in plain sight. It could well

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问题     Sometimes the biggest changes in society are the hardest to spot precisely because they are hiding in plain sight. It could well be that way with wireless communications. Something that people think of as just another technology is beginning to show signs of changing lives, culture, politics, cities, jobs, even marriages dramatically. In particular, it will usher in a new version of a very old idea: nomadism.
    Futurology is a dangerous business, and it is true that most of the important arguments about mobile communications at the moment are to do with technology or regulation—bandwidth, spectrum use and so on. Yet it is worth jumping ahead and wondering what the social effects will be, for two reasons. First, the broad technological future is pretty clear: there will be ever faster cellular networks, and many more gadgets to connect to these networks.  Second, the social changes are already visible:  parents on beaches waving at their children while typing furtively on their BlackBerrys; entrepreneurs discovering they don’t need offices after all. Everybody is doing more on the move.
    Wireless technology is surely not just an easier-to-use phone. The car divided cities into work and home areas; wireless technology may mix them up again, with more people working in suburbs or living in city centers. Traffic patterns are beginning to change again: the rush hours at 9am and 5pm are giving way to more varied patterns, with people going backwards and forwards between the office, home and all sorts of other places throughout the day. Already, architects are redesigning offices and universities,  more flexible spaces for meeting people, fewer private enclosures for sedentary work.
    Will it be a better life? In some ways, yes. Digital nomadism will liberate ever more knowledge workers from the cubicle prisons as depicted in Mr. Dilbert’s cartoons. But the old tyranny of place could become a new tyranny of time, as nomads who are "always on" all too often end up— mentally—anywhere but here. As for friends and family, permanent mobile connectivity could have the same effect as nomadism: it might bring you much closer to family and friends, but it may make it harder to bring in outsiders. Sociologists fret about constant e-mailers and texters losing the everyday connections to casual acquaintances or strangers sitting next to them in the cafe or on the Bus.
    The same tools have another dark side, turning everybody into a fully equipped paparazzo. Some fitness clubs have started banning mobile phones near the treadmills and showers lest exercising people find themselves pictured, flabby and sweaty, on some website. As in the desert, so in the city: nomadism promises the heaven of new freedom,  but it also signals the hell of constant surveillance by the tribe.  
According to the text, sociologists are anxious about digital nomadism in that______.
选项 A、it will reduce people’s contacts with the outside society
B、it will give office workers too much time
C、it will destroy people’s friendship
D、it will cause people to lose their interest in social activities
答案A
解析 此题考查考生根据上下文中的内容进行理解概括作者观点的能力。根据题干社会学家们的忧虑，利用查阅式阅读法可定位在第四段。第四段提出虽然数字移动生活将更多的脑力劳动者从办公间牢房里解放出来，但是古老的地域专制可能会演变成崭新的时间专制。至于朋友和家人，永久的移动联系可能会有与游牧生活相同的效应：也许会拉近你与朋友、家庭间的距离，但也使得外人的介入愈加困难，那些邮件族和短信族丢弃了与一般熟人或陌生人之间的日常寒暄。由此可以推断出A选项为正确答案。
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