Passage Four
What will people use the Internet for? Shopping and banking will be big growth areas. Henley predicts that, from under 1% of all purchases today, it will account for 6.4% of purchases within four years, amounting to 42 billion. Sales have already started with dry goods such as books and CDs and, as people learn to trust it, will move on to regular purchases such as food. Iceland, the supermarket chain, began computer shopping trials two weeks ago and has already signed up at least 15,000 customers, ranging from busy executives to the housebound. When it links up with digital television, Iceland expects to double that immediately.
Yet internet-linked televisions and phones may be only the start. One potential breakthrough is Bluetooth named after a 10th century Danish king famed for his rotten front tooth and uniting warring factions in Denmark and Norway.
The modern Bluetooth allows an unlikely array of machines to talk to each other, so that a phone tucked away in a briefcase can remember to send out a signal that turns on a video machine 50 miles away, switches on the heating or starts the cooker. Cars, offices and kitchens will all speak to each other. In Finland, the idea of phones communicating with computerized tills so that you press a button and pay for your supermarket goods or drink from a vending machine is being tested.Said one enthusiast:“Your phone will be your remote control for life.”
As with all revolutions, there are reservations. Health concerns about mobile phones are unresolved, with microwave radiation linked to increased tiredness and headaches in one recent study in Sweden.
Some argue that more sophisticated entertainment at home will deepen antisocial “cocooning” trends, that internet grocery deliveries will kill off the last comer shops, and that a “couch potato” generation of children will grow even more over-fat.
The most significant impact, however, will be in the way we work. Adrian Hosford, director of millennial projects at BT, predicts it will encourage more people to work at home. “People have talked about telecommuting for years, but at last it makes economic sense. Many offices will turn into touchdown centers, where people will only occasionally call in. This is already the case for one in five at BT,” he said.
Questions 16-20 are based on Passage Four.
16. According to the passage, internet purchases ______.
A. will have great growth in dry goods
B.will be accepted by more and more people
C. will be used in Iceland, the supermarket chain
D. will become a major form of purchase within four years
17. What do we know about Bluetooth?
A. It is a talking software.
B.It is named after a Danish king.
C. It is widely used in internet purchases.
D. It is a remote controller to turn on your phone.
18. The widespread use of Bluetooth might ______.
A. make people’s life more sophisticated
B. spare people more social time
C. be harmful to one’s health
D. violate people’s privacy
19. With the development of phone communication, it seems that ______.
A. people will have more time to stay at home
B. comer shops will be the only place for people to go
C. phone will help people to do all kinds of office work
D. children will be even more over-fat because of having potato
20. The most noticeable effect of Bluetooth will be on ______.
A. people’s diet B. people’s weight
C. people’s health condition D. people’s way of work
