Going on a road trip? The St．Louis Arch，Statue of Liberty and Golden Gate Br_[dga are great tourist sites．But if you prefer offbeat destinations, check out the following roadside attractions．

     World's Largest Ball of Paint

     Alexandria, Ind．

     In 1977, Michael Carmichael set out to create the biggest ball of paint anywhere．Starting with a base-ball as center, he painted layer after layer of paint day after day, year after year．The ball weighs more than 1,300 pounds, with more than 20,000 coats of paint, which is recognized by Guinness World Records．Visitors can paint the ball themselves and become part of history．

     The Museum of Dirt

     Boston, Mass．

     The museum is the idea of Glenn Johnson．Labeled （贴有标签的） glass bottles contain such treasures as dirt from the Great Wall of China, as well as sand from a desert in Saudi Arabia and Omaha Beach in France．Best of all, the cost of seeing this museum is dirt cheap: It's free．

     Mount Horeb Mustard Museum

     Mount Horeb，Wis．

     It's heaven for hotdog lovers! This museum claims to have the world's largest collection of prepared mustards （芥末）．Its more than 4,100 bottles of spices come from 60 nations, including Turkey and China．Visitors learn the history of mustard, from how it's made to how it's advertised and sold．The museum's creator, Barry Levenson, loves mustard so much, he even puts it on ice cream!

     Paper House

     Rockport, Mass．

     Swedish immigrant （移民） Ellis Stenman was much ahead of his time in 1922, when he started to build a two-room house almost entirely out of newspaper．At the time, people didn't give much — if any —thought to recycling paper．In fact, "recycling" wasn't even a word yet．The house is framed with wood, but the walls are made of 215 layers of newspaper．In all, he used about 100,000 newspapers．

1．The underlined word "offbeat" in the first paragraph can be best replaced by______．

   A．great           B．foreign           C．unusual           D．historical

2．If you want to add your own work to what you visit, you may choose______ ．

   A．World's Largest Ball of Paint                B．The Museum of Dirt

   C．Mount Horeb Mustard Museum               D．Paper House

3．Which of the following is true of Barry Levenson according to the text?

   A．No spices but mustards can be found in his museum．

   B．He travels around the world to collect mustards．

   C．Mustard is advertised and sold in his museum．

   D．In a way, he shows much preference for mustard．

4．What can be inferred from the text?

   A．Michael must have the largest ball in the world． 

B．Glenn must have paid a visit to China．

   C．Lots of hotdog lovers will travel to Mount Horeb．

D．Ellis could be seen as a pioneer in his time．

 5．According to the text, we know that

   A．Michael will never stop painting the large ball

B．there is no charge at the Museum of Dirt

   C．Barry is the owner of the mustard museum

D．Paper House was completely made of paper

Today the media paint a mixed picture for the public concerning the role hackers play in our society. On the one hand they praise the skill hackers display when breaking into secure networks and causing damage with clever viruses. At the same time they dramatize the damages and think of the activity as a crime. The criminals are painted out to be terrorists. This mixed message begs the question as to whether or not we should view hackers as criminals or thank them for pointing out security problems in sensitive networks.

If we as the general public were unaware of the risks associated with using the Internet to do business or deliver personal information and hacker activities exposed us to this knowledge, we might view them as having helped us. We then would be more careful to protect ourselves. The reality is, however, that the public is aware of the risks they are exposed to on the Internet and the computer industry is aware of weaknesses of security measures in networking already. Hence, no value is generated from hackers taking advantage of the known flaws in order to play a game of cat and mouse with other people’s property(财产). Furthermore, since virus-scanning software is expensive and widely used, hackers are costing the public money and resources to protect themselves from their attacks.

There are laws in every state that address hacker activities either directly or as an extension of existing laws. These laws set fairly clear guidelines on what is considered legal and not legal to do within the field of computer use. If a person violates these laws, then they have committed a crime. If you or I break into a house or business and destroy property we will expect to be held accountable. Hackers are no different are should expect the same treatment. If I break into a house and watch the owners TV or read their personal files I have broken the law. The same is true for a hacker who breaks into a computer network and accessed confidential information. Also, the Federal Government has laws concerning computer use; privacy of information that also apply to the typical activities carried on by the average hacker. Clearly it is a crime to engage in or pursue any activities in violation of these laws.

The conclusion we should all come to is that hackers are criminals by definition of their activities and should not be praised by the media. We do not praise bank robbers or burglars for bypassing the security of our home or savings and loan. A clever or creative criminal can not be excused of his or her crimes. If we continue to do this we encourage them to continue and put ourselves at risk. Furthermore, they need to expect to pay the consequences for their actions. We will all benefit by clearly understanding that a hacker is a criminal and not to be praised or admired by our children or us.

66.   In the article, the author is mainly talking about _________ .

A.    media have a mixed opinion about the role hackers play in society

B.    what we can do to prevent hackers from attacking the Internet

C.    how we can solve the Internet problems without hackers.

D.    hackers are criminals and they do not provide services.

67.   According to the article, which of the following is NOT true?

A. The author thinks the hacker is a terrorist, as media paint out.    

B. hackers generate no value but take advantage of flaws of the Internet.

C. According to the law of the states and the federal, hackers are illegal.             

D. hackers are clever, but we can’t excuse them for this.

68.   The underlined word “dramatize” in the third paragraph probably means _______.

A. enlarge   B. deny    C. lessen   D. decline

69. We can infer from the third paragraph that_______.

A. Every state and the federal government have their own laws.    

B. Some of the laws think hackers are illegal but others don’t think so.

C. The federal laws are completely the same as those of each state. 

D. There is no difference between the federal laws and those of each state.

70. Which of the following shows the reason why the author thinks hackers don’t provide services but are criminals?

  a. Hackers play games with people’s property without generating value for people.

  b. Hackers are costing the public money and resources to protect themselves from their attacks.

  c. Hackers break into secure networks and cause damage with clever viruses.

  d. Hackers are clever, but they, as criminals, can not be excused of his or her crimes.

   A. abcd   B. abc  C. abd   D. acd