According to the passage, the Lion Worm is ______.
A. similar to Cheese Worm
B. dangerous to a wide range of computers
C. hazardous to the Linux operating system
D. a computer program for nefarious purposes
From the last paragraph we may conclude that the author ______.
A. does not like staple diet of candy bars
B. values the virtues of honesty, kindness and integrity
C. worries about the moral decline of the society
D. blames the phenomenon of the worthless inside
Gold is used to ensure flexibility, because ______.
A. it is the most malleable and highly conductive metal known
B. it is pricey
C. little is needed and the cost is tiny
D. all of the above
Part A
Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. (40 points)
Can computer viruses ever be a force for progress? In the wild west of the online world, the archetypal baddies are computer viruses and worms. These self-replicating programs are notorious for wreaking havoc in the systems of unwary users. But, as in the west, not all gunslingers wear black hats. Some virus writers wish their fellow users well, and have been spreading viruses that are designed to do good, not harm.
Cheese Worm, which appeared a few weeks ago, attempts to fix computers that have been compromised by the Lion Worm. The Lion Worm is dangerous. It infects computers that use the Linux operating system, and creates multiple "backdoors" into the infected computer. It then e-mails information about these backdoors to people who wish to misuse that computer for nefarious purposes such as "denial of service" attacks on websites. (Such attacks bombard a site with so many simultaneous requests for access that it comes out with its hands up.)
That might sound like a good thing. So might VBS.Noped.A@mm. This virus, which arrives as an e-mail attachment, searches a user's hard drive for specific files which the (unknown) virus writer believes contain child pornography. If the virus finds any files on the proscribed list, it e-mails a copy of the file in question to a random recipient from a list of American government agencies, with an explanatory note.
The notion of "good" viruses may sound novel; but, according to Vesselin Bontchev, a virus expert with Frisk Software International in Iceland, it is not. However, early attempts to create beneficial viruses—for example, programs that compressed or encrypted files without asking a user's permission—were resented, because they represented a loss of control over a user's computer, and a diversion of data-processing resources. Inoculating computers against infection sounds like a good idea, but fails because any unauthorised changes are suspicious.
Cheese Worm, even though it is designed to help the user whose disk it ends up on, suffers from the same objection. And VBS.Noped.A@mm, whatever social benefits its author might think it has, is not even meant to do that. If it works, it will harm the user rather than help him. It is little more than cyber-vigilantism. Appropriate to the wild west, perhaps, but if cyberspace is to be civilised, other solutions will have to be found.
From the passage we can infer that ______.
A. computer viruses might be a force for progress
B. computers are full of viruses and worms
C. computers are wild in the west
D. viruses are spreading online