Direction: In this part, there are four passages followed by questions or unfinished statements, each with four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that you think is the correct answer.
Passage 1
MOSCOW, Nov. 20While the international space station brings new renown to Russia, the nation is gaining from other explorershackers who launch into cyberspace.
Russias reputation as home to some of the worlds most gifted and devious hackers was underscored last month when Microsoft Corp. disclosed that passwords to access its coveted source code had been sent from the company network to an email address in St. Petersburg.
It is by no means clear whether a Russian was behind the breakinthat email account could have been managed remotely. But that doesnt stop Russian hackers“khakeri”, or “vzlomshchiki(housebreakers)”from puffing out their chests at such exploits.
In a recent poll on a hackeroriented Web site, 82 percent said Russia had the worlds best hacker; only 5 percent said Americans were better.
But the bravado is laced with frustration.
Hackers are motivated as much by a lack of opportunity in economically struggling Russia as by criminal leaning, people inside and outside the hacker community say.
Sergei Pokrovsky, editor of the magazine Khaker, said that hackers in his circle have skills that could bring them rich salaries in the West, but they expect to earn only about $300 a month working for Russian companies.
Russias higher education traditionally has been strong in mathematics, a skill at the core of hacking, but the Russian market offers few employment opportunities to such knowledgeable people, said Mikko Hypponen, manager of antivirus research at the Finnish(芬兰) company FSecure. “They have too much time on their hands,” said Hypponen, whose company highly values the Russian computer experts it employs.
Russians have been behind several highprofile — and sometimes highly lucrative — hacking cases. There was the cyberthief known as “Maxus” who stole creditcard numbers from Internet retail trader CD Universe earlier this year and demanded a $100,000 ransom. When denied the money, he posted 25,000 of the numbers on a Web site. Maxus was never caught.
Mathematician Vladimir Levin was caught and in 1998 was sentenced to three years in prison in Florida for a stunning invasion of the Citibank system in which he pilfered $12 million by transferring digital dollars out of the banks accounts.
Russians are also believed to be behind the 1998 theft of Global Positioning System software, used for missiletargeting, from U.S. military computers.
1. From the first two paragraphs, we can know that
A. Russias international reputation on space station was established on Nov.20.
B. Russia is notorious for its hackers who launch into cyberspace.
C. It was confirmed that Russia had stolen the precious source code of Microsoft Corp.
D. The email address issue proved that Russians reputation as home to some of the worlds most gifted hackers was not so high as people had considered.
2. When the author said that “that doesnt stop Russian hackers from puffing out their chests at such exploits”, he meant that
A. Russian hackers became more proud of themselves through the suspected breakin into Microsoft Corp.
B. Russian hackers grew very angry about the suspicion of their breakin.
C. Russian hackers admitted frankly that they managed the email account remotely and they were very proud of it.
D. Russian hackers became reckless in breaking in cyberspace.
3. Which of the following statements is true about Russian hackers?
A. They are mainly motivated by a lack of opportunity of employment in Russia.
B. Their tendency of and interest in committing crime was the most powerful driving force for their breakin.
C. Because they have too much time on hands, they cant help breaking in cyberspace in order to kill time.
D. Most of them are elites in mathematics and much appreciated.
4. Associating with context, we can guess out that “high — profile” means
A. conspicuous and attracting public attention. B. beneficial.
C. gaining extremely bad reputation. D. violating the law desperately.
5. Which of the following statements is true?
A. 12 million dollars out of Citibank.
B. Maxus stole many creditcard numbers from Internet retail trader CD Universe and attempted to sell them to others at the price of $100,000.
C. It is believed that Russians had stolen the Global Positioning system software.
D. Russians had involved in some hacking cases and gained lots of money.