In the early days of the internet, the idea that it represented an entirely new and separate realm, distinct from the real world, was seized upon by both advocates and critics of the new technology. Advocates liked the idea that the virtual world was a placeless datasphere, liberated from constraints and restrictions of the real world, and an opportunity for a fresh start. For instance, John Perry Barlow, an internet activist, issued the "Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace" in February 1996. He thundered, "Governments of the industrial world, I come from cyberspace, the new home of mind. Cyberspace does not lie within your borders. We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth."
Where Mr. Barlow and other cyber-Utopians found the separation between the real and virtual worlds exciting, however, critics regarded it as a cause for concern. They worried that people were spending too much time online, communicating with people they had never even met in person in chat rooms, virtual game worlds and, more recently, on social-networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. A study carried out by the Stanford Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society in 2000, for example, found that heavy internet users spent less time talking to friends and family, and warned that the internet could be "the ultimate isolating technology".
Both groups were wrong, of course. The internet has not turned out to be a thing apart. Unpleasant aspects of the real world, such as taxes, censorship, crime and fraud are now features of the virtual world, too. Garners who make real money selling swords, gold and other items in virtual game worlds may now find that the tax man wants to know about it. Designers of virtual objects in Second Life, an online virtual world, are resorting to real-world lawsuits in order to protect their intellectual property.
At the same time, however, some of the most exciting uses of the internet rely on coupling it with the real world. Social networking allows people to stay in touch with their friends online, and plan social activities in the real world. The distinction between online and offline chatter ceases to matter. Or consider Google Earth, which puts satellite images of the whole world on your desktop and allows users to link online data with specific physical locations.
All these approaches treat the internet as an extension or an attachment to the physical world, not a separate space. Rather than seeing the real and virtual realms as distinct and conflicting, in short, it makes sense to see them as complementary and connected. The resulting fusion is not what the Utopians or the critics foresaw, but it suits the rest of us just fine.
The passage suggests that critics of the new technology（）
A. were concerned about the separation of people from the real world
B. worried that friends would never meet in person
C. were concerned that people were too engaged in social networks
D. would believe the internet could isolate people online
参考答案：A
解析：
[试题类型] 推理引申题。
[解题思路] 本题就互联网批评者的观点设问。文章第二段指出了互联网批评者的担忧，即许多人在网上花费了太多的时间(They worried that people were spending too much time online...)，这会减少他们与家人、朋友交流的时间。并以2000年斯坦福社会定量研究所的研究证明这种担忧：互联网可能将人与真实的世界分隔开，成为“最终让人孤立的技术”(the ultimate isolating technology)。由此可知，选项[A]最符合文意。
[干扰排除] 选项[B]根据第二段第二句中in person设置干扰，该句指出人们花费太多时间与索未谋面的对象在网上交流，会使与家人、朋友交流的时间减少，并不是说朋友会永远不见面，故排除选项[B]。文中提到，批评者担心人们花费在社交网站(social-networking sites)的时间过多，而不是社交圈子(social networks)，故排除选项[C]。批评者认为互联网可能将人与真实世界隔离开，而不是将上网的人分离开，故排除选项[D]。