Passage 2
In the first year or so of Web business, most of the action has revolved around efforts to tap the consumer market. More recently, as the Web proved to be more than a fashion, companies have started to buy and sell products and services with one another. Such business-to-business
sales make sense because businesspeople typically know what product they're looking for.
Nonetheless, many companies still hesitate to use the Web because of doubts about its relia- bility. "Businesses need to feel they can trust the pathway between them and the supplier, " says senior analyst Blane Erwin of Forrester Research. Some companies are limiting the risk by con-
ducting online transactions only with established business partners who are given access to the company ' s private internet .

Another major shift in the model for Internet commerce concerns the technology available for marketing. Until recently, Internet marketing activities have focused on strategies to "pull" cus- tomers into sites. In the past year, however, software companies have developed tools that allow companies to "push" information directly out to consumers , transmitting marketing messages di- rectly to targeted customers. Most notably, the Pointcast Network uses a screen saver to deliver a continualiy updated stream of news and advertisements to subscribers' computer monitors. Sub- scribers can customize the information they want to receive and proceed directly to a company ' s Web site. Companies such as Virtual Vineyards are already starting to use similar technologies to push messages to customers about special sales, product offerings, or other events. But push tech- nology has earned the contempt of many Web users. Online culture thinks highly of the notion that the information flowing onto the screen comes there by specific request. Once commercial promotion begins to fill the screen uninvited, the distinction between the Web and television fades. That's a prospect that horrifies Net purists.
But it is hardly inevitable that companies on the Web will need to resort to push strategies to make money. The examples of Virtual Vineyards, Amazon.com, and other pioneers show that a Web site selling the right kind of products with the right mix of interactivity, hospitality, and se-
curity will attract online customers. And the cost of computing power continues to free fall, which is a good sign for any enterprise setting up shop in silicon. People looking back 5 or 10 years from now may well wonder why so few companies took the online plunge.
55 . We learn from the beginning of the passage that Web business__
[A] has been striving to expand its market
[B]intended to follow a fanciful fashion
[C]tried but in vain to control the market
[D]has been booming for one year or so
56. Speaking of the online technology available for marketing, the author implies that__
[A] the technology is popular with many Web users
[B]businesses have faith in the reliability of online transactions
[C]there is a radical change in strategy
[D] it is accessible limitedly to established partners
57. In the view of Net purists,__
[A]there should be no marketing messages in online culture
[ B]money making should be given priority to on the Web
[C]the Web should be able to function as the television set
[D] there should be no online commercial information without requests
58. We learn from the last paragraph that __
[A]pushing information on the Web is essential to Internet commerce
[ B] interactivity , hospitality and security are important to online customers
[ C]leading companies began to take the online plunge decades ago
[D]setting up shops in silicon is independent of the cost of computing power

Passage 3
An invisible border divides those arguing for computers in the classroom on the behalf of stu- dents' career prospects and those arguing for computers in the classroom for broader reasons of radical educational reform. Very few writers on the subject have explored this distinction-in-
deed, contradiction--which goes to the heart of what is wrong with the campaign to put comput- ers in the classroom.
An education that aims at getting a student a certain kind of job is a technical education, jus- tified for reasons radically different from why education is universally required by law. It is not simply to raise everyone' s job prospects that all children are legally required to attend school into their teens. Rather, we have a certain conception of the American citizen, a character who is in- complete if he cannot competently assess how his livelihood and happiness are affected by things outside of himself. But this was not always the case; before it was legally required for all children to attend school until a certain age, It was widely accepted that some were just not equipped by nature to pursue this kind of education. With optimism characteristic of all industrialized coun- tries , we came to accept that everyone is fit to be educated. Computer-education advocates forsake this optimistic notion for a pessimism that betrays their otherwise cheery outlook. Banking on the
confusion between educational and vocational reasons for bringing computers into schools, com- puter-ed advocates often emphasize the job prospects of graduates over their educational achieve- ment .
There are some good arguments for a technical education given the right kind of student.
Many European schools introduce the concept of professional training early on in order to make sure children are properly equipped for the professions they want to join. It is, however, pre- sumptuous to insist that there will only be so many jobs for so many scientists, so many business- men, so many accountants. Besides, this is unlikely to produce the needed number of every kind of professional in a country as large as ours and where the economy is spread over so many states and involves so many international corporations.
But, for a small group of students, professional training might be the way to go since well- developed skills, all other factors being equal , can be the difference between having a job and not.
Of course, the basics of using any computer these days are very simple. It does not take a lifelong acquaintance to pick up various software programs. If one wanted to become a computer engineer , that is, of course, an entirely different story. Basic computer skills take--at the very longest-a couple of months to learn. In any case, basic computer skills are only complementary to the host of real skills that are necessary to becoming any kind of professional. It should be observed, of course, that no school, vocational or not, is helped by a confusion over its purpose.
59. The author thinks the present rush to put computers in the classroom is__
[ A] far-reaching [ B] dubiously oriented [ C] self-contradictory [ D] radically reformatory
60. The belief that educalion is indispensable to all children__
[A]is indicative of a pessimism in disguise
[B]came into being along with the arrival of computers
[C]is deeply rooted in the minds of computer-ed advocates
[ D]originated from the optimistic attitude of industrialized countries
61 . It could be inferred from the passage that in the author' s country the European model of pro-
fessional training is__
[A]dependent upon the starting age of candidates
[B]worth trying in various social sections
[C]of little practical value
[D] attractive to every kind of professional
62 . According to the author, basic computer skills should be__
[A] included as an auxiliary course in school
[ B] highlighted in acquisition of professional qualifications
[ C]mastered through a life-long course
[ D] equally emphasized by any school , vocational or otherwise