{#blank#}1{#/blank#}We achieve it actively by direct experience, by testing and proving an idea, or by reasoning. We achieve knowledge passively by being told by someone else. Most of the learning that takes place in the classroom and the kind that happens when we watch TV or read newspapers or magazines is passive. Conditioned as we are to passive learning, it's not surprising that we depend on it in our everyday communication with friends and co-workers.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} It makes us tend to accept what we are told even when it is little more than hearsay and rumor.

    Did you ever play the game Rumor? It begins when one person writes down a message but doesn't show it to anyone. Then the person whispers it, word for word, to another person. That person, in turn, whispers it to still another, and so on, through all the people playing the game. The last person writes down the message word for word as he or she hears it. Then the two written statements are compared.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}．

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} The simple fact that people repeat a story in their own words changes the story. Then, too, most people listen imperfectly. And many enjoy adding their own creative touch to a story, trying to improve on it, stamping it with their own personal style. Yet those who hear it think they know.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} A statement of opinion by one writer may be restated as a fact by another, who may in turn be quoted by yet another; and this process may continue, unless it occurs to someone to question the facts on which the original writer based his opinion or to challenge the interpretation he placed upon those facts.

A. Typically, the original message has changed.

B. Finally everybody gets the meaning.

C. Unfortunately, passive learning has a serious problem.

D. Knowledge is passed down from generation to generation.

E. That's what happens in daily life.

F. This process is also found among scholars and authors.

G. We can achieve knowledge either actively or passively.

    I had just moved to San Antonio, Texas. I worked for the tour bus service taking tourists on a short tour of the city's historic places and would end up at the Alamo.

    I was driving back from my last tour on a cool February day on my way back from the San Femando Catholic church with no one on my bus when I saw a man dressed in rags, thinking this person must be an actor or something walking around. I stopped and asked him, “Need a ride?” Without saying anything he just walked on broad and sat down in seat behind me.

    “Where are you heading?” I asked him. He looked up into the mirror at me and replied. “I've got to get to the fort(要塞)and report to Colonel(上校)Travis that the Mexicans are here!” I laughed to myself thinking that this man was a serious actor.

    “I'm guessing you mean the Alamo?” I said back to him. I looked up and saw he wasn't smiling nor laughing. All throughout the ride he was staring in amazement at all the towering skyscrapers and the buildings along the street.

    “I remember when this town was nothing more than a little trading village!” He finally said to me.

    “So what's your name?” I asked him.

    “Daniel Cloud, yours?”

    “David Zime.” I replied as I turned the corner of the street and laid eyes upon the Alamo.

    I pulled up to the sidewalk and opened the door. Cloud got out of his seat and came up to me.

    “Thanks for the ride.” He said extending his hand. I took his palm and it was freezing cold like he just stepped out of the freezer.

    “Not a problem, Mr. Cloud, and don't worry about the fee. It's on the house.” He nodded his head in gratitude like all us Texans do and walked away.

    It wasn't until then that I noticed that he was soaked(浸；泡)to the bone in dripping water and we had not a single drop of rain in a month or more. I just shook my head and closed the door behind him. When I turned around. Discovered amazingly how fast Cloud had gone away!

    A few days later I was reading a book about the Battle of the Alamo when I discovered the most shocking thing I had ever discovered. The names of the 183 defenders of the Alamo were listed on the roll of honor, including Daniel Cloud, who spotted the Mexicans before they took over the streets of San Antonio in February of 1836, and his post was on top of the San Femando Church where I had picked him up!

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案，并将选定答案的字母标号填在题前括号内。

    Watson entered Mr. Smith's office. The boss was a hard man. He fired people who didn't do well without giving them a second chance.

    “Watson,” said Mr. Smith, “this past year your department hasn't earned money. We're going to drop that department. It's finished. I'm sorry, —but you'll have to go.” “But, sir — if I just had a little more time. For the moment I need the job to keep my son at Riverside School.”

    “What's that!” said the boss. “Riverside! I didn't know you had a boy there. That's an expensive school for a man with your salary.”

    “I know, sir. But he likes it there so much! He's a star athlete and the best boxer in the school. The boys call him Champ there.”

    The boss sat perfectly still for a long time — a faraway (恍惚的) look in his eyes. Then, suddenly, he said, “We've got to close your department, Watson. But you'll take over a new job in another department. It means longer hours—maybe more pay. Now get out. You're here for life.”

    Watson got out, with surprise on his face. Then the boss took a letter from the top drawer of his desk. It was Herbie's last letter from Riverside School —written a few days before he died. He had read it over and over again with sick pain. The letter read:

    I can't say the boys here are any nicer to me than the others were. I guess it's the same everywhere when you're a cripple (跛脚的人). But don't worry about me, Dad, They've got a good chemistry department here. And there's one boy here who is really great. He's a track star and boxing champ (冠军) and just tops in chemistry.

    The boys call him Champ. He made them stop throwing my books around. And he knocked a boy down who hit me. He is the best friend I ever had. Dad, when I grow up, I want to do something for Champ. Something big — that he won't even know about.

Your son,

Herbie

    Rapid advances in a new technology will soon transform science fiction into reality — meaning people will have driverless cars, small robots at their command and the ability to experience being in another place without leaving home, predicted Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the planet's largest cell phone trade show.

    Introduction of books available online, Internet translation of languages and voice recognition for computers all happened much faster than anyone could foresee and that technological research into even more previously unheard of advances is progressing at a fast speed.

    “People who predict that holograms（全息图）and self-driving cars will become reality soon are absolutely right,” Schmidt told thousands of attendees. Research under way will lead to situations where people can put themselves at events like a rock concert so that they can see, hear and even feel the event. And turn down the volume, if it's too loud.

    One attendee said she was scared that the possibility could be dehumanizing, but Schmidt replied by holding up his cell phone into the air. “It has an off button and it is here on the right,” Schmidt said. “My point is that it is all about your control. If you don't like my version of a rock concert, I'm not forcing you to go.” In the future, small robots could be used so busy people can send them to events for video and voice transmissions when their presence isn't required, Schmidt said.

    Technology in the near future will redefine the relationship among people in the world. “With technology comes power and with power comes choice, and smarter resourceful citizens are going to demand a better deal for their new life,” Schmidt said.

    E-mail systems at thousands of companies and government offices around the world were attacked by a virus(病毒)called “Melissa” that disguises(伪装)itself as an “important message from a friend. In spite of a weekend of warnings，more than 50 000 computers at about 100 places around the world have been attacked by the virus，computer security experts said on Monday.

    The virus began to show up last Friday and spread rapidly on Monday by making computers fire off dozens of infected(被传染的)e-mails. Although the virus causes no serious damage to a computer，its effect was far reaching.

    To make matters worse，a similar virus called “Papa” was discovered on Monday. Papa is programmed to send out even more infected e-mails than Melissa.

    The Melissa virus comes in the form of an e-mail，usually containing the subject line“Important Message”. It appears to be from a friend. The body of the e-mail message says，“Here is that document you asked for...,don't show it to anyone else.” Attached(附)to the message is a document file.

    Once the user opens that file，the virus digs into the user's address book and sends infected documents to the first 50 addresses. E-mails from the Papa virus include an attached spreadsheet(电子数据文件)file. When the user opens that file，the virus sends 60 infected e-mails.

    The reason why this is spreading so fast is that you are getting it from people you know. You should never open documents or attachments from people you don't know. People who get an unexpected e-mail with the “important message” subject line should delete it immediately and not open the message.

Do's and Don'ts in Whale (鲸) Watching

    The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has developed guidelines for whale watching in Johnstone Strait, where killer whales are found on a daily basis each summer. It is strongly recommended that vessel (船只) operators follow these guidelines for all kinds of whales.

•Approach whales from the side, not from the front or the back.

•Approach no closer than 100 metres, then stop the boat but keep the engine on.

•Keep noise levels down — no horns, whistles or racing of engines.

•Start your boat only after the whales are more than 100 metres from your vessel

•Leave the area slowly, gradually moving faster when you are more than 300 metres from the whales.

•Approach and leave slowly, avoiding sudden changes in speed or direction.

•Avoid disturbing groups of resting whales.

•Keep at low speeds and remain in the same direction if traveling side by side with whales.

•When whales are traveling close to shore, avoid crowding them near the shore or coming between the whales and the shore.

•Limit the time spent with any group of whales to less than 30 minutes at a time when within 100 to 200 metres of whales.

•If there is more than one vessel at the same observation spot, be sure to avoid any boat position that would result in surrounding the whales.

•Work together by communicating with other vessels, and make sure that all operators are aware of the whale watching guidelines.