Unit 4 Making the news.阅读理解A(2017昆明高三两区七校模拟)Every day we are exposed to images，videos，music and news.In this age of visual and aural hyperstimulation (过度刺激)，the medium of radio is making a great comeback.“Were at the beginning of a golden age of audio，” said USbased podcaster Alex Blumberg in an article in The Sydney Morning Herald.In the last month alone，15 percent of US adults listened to a radio podcast (播客)The term “podcast” was invented in 2004，but the trend only started gaining popularity in recent years.With the sharp increase in consumer demand for smartphones and tablets，podcast sales have jumped.The appeal of the podcast partly lies in its various platform deliveries and ondemand functions.You can listen during those extra minutes of the day when youre walking to the shops，waiting in a queue or riding the subway.Similar to television shows，podcasts are generally free to download and most offer new content every week.Donna Jackson，22，media graduate of the University of Sydney，listens to podcasts two or three times a week，via iTunes.“I listen while Im wandering around the house doing something else.It makes completing a boring task much more enjoyable.And its an easy way of keeping in touch with whats going on in the rest of the world，” she said，“I mainly listen to BBC podcasts，but recently Ive also been listening to This American Life and Serial.They have a special skill to really draw you in.”Unlike television and music，this kind of audio has the potential to create a deep impression on readers.Blumberg says this owes to the podcasts ability to create close relationship and emotional connection.The University of Sydney undergraduate Hazel Proust，majoring in social work and arts，agrees.“When youre listening，it feels as if the voice of the podcasts storyteller is talking directly to you.Its comforting，” said Proust.It seems the ageold tradition of storytelling is very much alive and well.【语篇解读】本文介绍了播客的强势回归。1From the first two paragraphs，we can learn that Athe medium of radio is disappearingBAmericans love listening to the radioCsmartphones sell well because of podcastsDmore people are interested in podcasts todayD推理判断题。根据第一段中的“In this age of visual and aural hyperstimulation (过度刺激)，the medium of radio is making a great comeback”和第二段的第三句“The term podcast was invented in 2004，but the trend only started gaining popularity in recent years”可推知，如今播客开始流行起来，越来越多的人对播客感兴趣。2The writer mentions Donna Jackson mainly to Atell how young people entertain themselvesBexplain why young people like podcastsCintroduce what programs podcasts are presentingDshow how popular podcasts areB推理判断题。文章的第三段主要讲了播客的优势，即流行的原因，第四段举了Donna Jackson的实例，进一步论证这一观点，故选B项。3According to the passage，we can learn that Amore people are increasingly interested in visual and aural hyperstimulationBtelevision has the potential to create a deep impression on readersCthe popularity of podcasts involves the sharp increase in smartphones and tabletsD15 percent of US teenagers like listening to radio podcastC细节理解题。根据第二段的最后一句“With the sharp increase in consumer demand for smartphones and tablets，podcast sales have jumped”可知，消费者对智能手机和平板电脑的需求增加导致了播客的流行。4What is probably the best title of the passage?AOpinions of PodcastsBPopularity of Radio PodcastsCFeatures of RadioDTechnology of PodcastsB标题判断题。根据第一段的最后一句“In this age of visual and aural hyperstimulation (过度刺激)，the medium of radio is making a great comeback”和第二段的第三句“The term podcast was invented in 2004，but the trend only started gaining popularity in recent years”并结合全文的内容可知，本文主要介绍了播客的流行。B(2017广州高三测试)Earlier this year，the social media website Facebook announced that it would work with several news organisationsincluding The New York Times，The Guardian，and the BBCto place news stories directly into users personal Facebook webpage.Stories published using Facebook Instant Articles will load more quickly and keep the style of the original publisher，who will keep all the advertising income the stories earn，at least for now.The deal shows how important social media has become to news organisations，and is a clear sign of how the world of news is changing and has been for a while.When Google News began in 2002，many saw it as the death of the newspaper.It had no human editor.Instead Google used and still uses a secret computer program that selects and displays news stories according to the readers personal interests.More recently，Associated Press and Yahoo！have been publishing computerwritten articles.Both use special software to automatically produce stories about company financial results and sports reportsareas where the quality of writing is felt to be of secondary importance to the accuracy of the data.Should we be worried about such developments？I think we should.One concern is that Facebook，Google and other social media websites see journalism as