阅读理解。
Everywhere you look, large quantities of information in the world are pouring. This data flood is
already starting to transform business, government, science and everyday life. It has great potential for
good - aslong as consumers, companies and governments make the right choices about when to restrict
the flow ofdata, and when to encourage it.
A few industries have led the way in their ability to gather and take advantage of the data.
Credit-cardcompanies monitor every purchase and can identify cheats with a high degree of accuracy.
Stolen credit cards are more likely to be used to buy hard liquor than wine, for example, because it is
easier to overlook. Insurance firms are also good at combining clues to spot doubtful claims: dishonest
claims are more likely to be made on a Monday than a Tuesday, since policyholders (保险客户) who
stage accidents tend to assemble friends as false witnesses over the weekend. By combining many such
rules, it is possible to work out which cards are likeliest to have been stolen, and which claims are
untrue. By analyzing "basket data", supermarkets can make promotions to appeal to particular
customers' preferences. The oil industry uses supercomputers to help them before drilling wells.
But the data flood also poses risks. There are many examples of databases being stolen: disks
full of social-security data go missing, laptops loaded with tax records are left in taxis, credit-card
numbers are stolen by online purchase. The result can be privacy made public, identity stolen and
cheats permitted large space. Rather than owning and controlling their own personal data, they very
often find that they have lost control of it.
The best way to deal with the data flood is to make more data available in the right way, by requiring
greater transparency in several areas. First, users should be given greater access to and control over the
information held about them, including whom it is shared with. Google allows users to see what information
it holds about them, and lets them delete their search histories or modify the targeting of advertising, for
example. Second, organizations should be required to disclose details of security breaches, as is already
the case in some parts of the world, to encourage bosses to take information security more seriously.
Third, organizations should be subject to an annual security check, with the resulting grade made public
(though details of any problems exposed would not be). This would encourage companies to keep their
security measures up to date.
1. What is the best title for this passage?
A. Information Flood
B. Benefits of Data Flood
C. Harms of Data Flood
D. How to Use Data in a Right Way
2. From the passage we can infer that ________.
A. lots of data are lost because of hardware problems
B. online purchases are becoming more and more popular
C. credit cards are not so secure to use and will go out of use very soon
D. insurance firms have to investigate before they confirm their policyholders' claims
3. From the passage we can conclude that _________.
A. the data flood makes peoples' life less convenient and more expensive
B. companies and insurance firms are responsible for the data flood
C. the information flood is more useful to organizations than to individuals
D. the information flood has both positive and negative influence on modern life
