The key issue in the reported investigation is
A. whether similar cases could have occurred.
B. how the computers could have been sold to Russia.
C. why Moscow offers to move them to new locations.
D. if they are being used in Russia's nuclear programme.
1 We often hear people ask such a question: Why do bad things happen to good people? The problem is. What kind of people are good? Some people make a distinction between two kinds of "good" people. One kind of "good" refers to innocence, as in a 2-year-old child who dies in an accident and who never intentionally hurt anyone. Another kind of "good" refers to people who have lived long lives of humility or service, like Martin Luther King, Jr. To really answer this question, though, we have to challenge our assumptions. Why do we assume that people always get what they deserve? What if being "good" was dependent on a lot of bad things happening to you?
2 Looking at being "good" as increasing strength of self, it would take trials and tribulations to increase our appreciation of what we have. Losing my life savings in an identity theft ring definitely wouldn't be a good thing, but the subsequent realization that I need to focus less on material things and more on my emotional, social and spiritual being would be priceless. Suffering can be a blessing.
3 In fact, not only is such stress necessary for increasing strength, but if bad things don't happen to good people, then perhaps they would lose those inner qualities that identify them as "good."
4 When we think of "good" people, we often imagine them with some sort of amazing intrinsic motivation, such as utter humility or divine inspiration. But perhaps it's not that these "good" people have such a high intrinsic motivation, but rather that others' motivation is shifted to more extrinsic factors.
5 Social psychologists call this shift the overjustification effect. They've found in various experiments that people who first started a task with inner motivation could lose that drive when given external rewards. For instance, let's say some students really like to study and end up doing well in school. Half of those students are then given money as a reward for their good grades. Eventually, those students will tend to get good grades for the money and not for their original passion. In fact, the paid students' performance will decrease if you take away any money.
6 This brings us back to why bad things happen to good people. If good things happened to me every time I did a good thing, then eventually I would only be good because I expected rewards and not for the sake of being good itself. Maybe this is why we think of people like Mother Teresa as good; she works hard without expecting lavish pay, whereas we're trying to get highest-possible paying jobs coming out of college. There is an intrinsic motivation beyond our simple societal rules of karma.
7 In any case, these are just a few things to think about. Obviously, if little Billy gets hurt in a horrible accident, it wouldn't be really meaningful to tell his mom about the overjustification effect.
8 But it's worth considering that not only do bad things happen to good people, but perhaps it's those bad things that make them good.
The author mentions all BUT ______ of the following assumptions that people may have.
A. bad things should not happen to good people
B. people always get what they deserve
C. good people are intrinsically good
D. no good people intentionally hurt anyone
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
Directions: In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. At the end of each news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the questions.
听力原文: Colombian Police say they've dismantled an international heroin trafficking network in cooperation with the United States Drug Enforcement Agency. The Colombian Police Chief said that 16 suspected heroin traffickers had been arrested, 12 in Colombia, in simultaneous operations in both countries. The Colombia authorities said the drug smuggling network also had connections in Venezuela, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Europe. Colombia, the world's leading supplier of cocaine, is also becoming a major exporter of heroin.
The dismantled heroin trafficking network is characterized by
A. its being multinational.
B. its simultaneous operation.
C. its major role of heroin supplier.
D. its major role of cocaine supplier.
1 Researchers uncovered a serious flaw in the underlying technology for nearly all Internet traffic, a discovery that led to an urgent and secretive international effort to prevent global disruptions of Web surfing, e-mails and instant messages.
2 The British government announced the vulnerability in core Internet technology on Tuesday. Left unaddressed, experts said, it could allow hackers to knock computers offline and broadly disrupt vital traffic-directing devices, called routers, that coordinate the flow of data among distant groups of computers.
3 "Exploitation of this vulnerability could have affected the glue that holds the Internet together," said Roger Cumming, director for England's National Infrastructure Security Coordination Centre.
4 The Homeland Security Department issued its own cyberalert hours later that attacks "could affect a large segment of the Internet community." It said normal Internet operations probably would resume after such attacks stopped. Experts said there were no reports of attacks using this technique.
5 The risk was similar to Internet users "running naked through the jungle, which didn't matter until somebody released some tigers," said Paul Vixie of the Internet Systems Consortium Inc.
6 "It's a significant risk," Vixie said. "The larger Internet providers are jumping on this big time. It's really important this just gets fixed before the bad guys start exploiting it for fun and recognition."
7 The flaw affecting the Internet's "transmission control protocol," or TCP, was discovered late last year by a computer researcher in Milwaukee. Paul Watson said he identified a method to reliably trick personal computers and routers into shutting down electronic conversations by resetting the machines remotely.
8 Routers continually exchange important updates about the most efficient traffic routes between large networks. Continued successful attacks against routers can cause them to go into a standby mode, known as "dampening," that can persist for hours.
9 Experts previously said such attacks could take between four years and 142 years to succeed because they require guessing a rotating number from roughly 4 billion possible combinations. Watson said he can guess the proper number with as few as four attempts, which can be accomplished within seconds.
10 Cisco Systems Inc., which acknowledged its popular routers were among those vulnerable, distributed software repairs and tips to otherwise protect large corporate customers. There were few steps for home users to take; Microsoft Corp. said it did not believe Windows users were too vulnerable and made no immediate plans to update its software.
11 Using Watson's technique to attack a computer running Windows "would not be something that would be easy to do," said Steve Lipner, Microsoft's director for security engineering strategy.
12 Already in recent weeks, some U. S. government agencies and companies operating the most important digital pipelines have fortified their own vulnerable systems because of early warnings communicated by some security organizations. The White House has expressed concerns especially about risks to crucial Internet routers because attacks against them could profoundly disrupt online traffic.
13 "Any flaw to a fundamental protocol would raise significant concern and require significant attention by the folks who run the major infrastructures of the Internet," said Amit Yoran, the government's cyber security chief. The flaw has dominated discussions since last week among experts in security circles.
14 The public announcement coincides with a presentation Watson expects to make Thursday at an Internet security conference in V
A. Serious flaw uncovered in a core Internet technology had attracted international attention.
B. The Internet is held together by the glue.
C. Normal Internet operations may survive the hacker attacks.
D. Hackers could attack computers without getting online.