Whatdoyoudowhenyouneedtolooksomethingup?Gotothelibrary?Openanencyclopedia（百科全书）?ClickontotheInternet?ThesedaysmostpeoplegostraighttoWikipediatheonlineencyclopedia.Buthowreliableisit?Therei

Question

What do you do when you need to look something up? Go to the library? Open an encyclopedia（百科全书）? Click onto the Internet? These days most people go straight to Wikipedia the online encyclopedia. But how reliable is it?

There is no denying the popularity and usefulness of Wikipedia. It attracts as many as 78 million visitors every month and the site is available in more than 270 different languages. It’s one of the most comprehensive resources available which includes almost all details facts and information that maybe concerned. It's got much more information than an ordinary encyclopedia. The site is updated on a daily basis by thousands of people around the world. Anyone with an Internet connection can log on and edit the contents or add a new page. And you don't need any formal training.

Of course there are some controls. Wikipedia has a team of more than 1 500 administrators who check for false information. And main targets for harmful comments(such as politicians) are off-limits to public editing. But with more than 16 million articles to keep an eye on it isn't easy. So while Wikipedia benefits from being constantly updated with information from all over the world it's also open to “vandals” (破坏他人财产者).

Some of the damage is easy to notice. One person drew devil horns and a moustache on Microsoft chairman Bill Gates’ photo while another edited Greek philosopher Plato’s biography to say he was a “Hawaiian weather man who is wildly believed to have been a student of‘Barney the purple Dinosaur’ and to have been deeply influenced by his dog Cutie”.

But other things are harder to spot. The most common form of vandalism involves adding tiny items of false information into the biography of a famous person. Unbelievably some of this misinformation has appeared in newspapers with The Daily Mail The Guardian and The Independent all having fallen victim to the dirty tricks. For example in an article about British comedian Sir Norman Wisdom one newspaper claimed that he co-wrote Dame Vera Lynn’s wartime hit There’ll be bluebirds over the White Cliffs of Dover. He did no such thing. And in another article it was reported that TV Theme tune composer Ronnie Hazlehurst had written the S Club 7’s hit Reach. Once again not true.

So if you are going to use any information from Wikipedia make sure you double-check it first.

1.Which of the following would the author most probably agree with?

A.Before using the information from Wikipedia one should first check it.

B.Though popular and wildly used Wikipedia provides little reliable information.

C.It is understandable that some people add false information to Wikipedia.

D.Updated on a daily basis any information from Wikipedia is reliable.

2.We can learn from the passage that _______________ .

A.because of its popularity 78 million people from 270 countries visit Wikipedia monthly

B.Wikipedia is the most comprehensive resource with all information we need

C.anyone who has access to the Internet can edit any contents of Wikipedia as they like

D.the primary job of the administrator is to make sure true information is conveyed

3.What does the underlined part “off-limits” in paragraph 3 mean?

A. Not convenient B. Not welcome

C. Not accessible D. Not boundless

4.What’s the writer’s attitude to Wikipedia?

A. Negative B. Worried

C. Indifferent D. Objective

 

Answer 1

1.A 2.D 3.C 4.D 试题分析:本文是一篇说明文，主要介绍了在线百科全书—维基百科，一部人人可编辑的自由百科全书。它是一个"自由"、免费、"内容开放"的网络百科全书，维基百科是一个基于维基技术的多...