2. 外语
  3. Not long ago, friends of mine confessed over dinner that they had put spyware on their 15-year-oht son’s computer so they could

Not long ago, friends of mine confessed over dinner that they had put spyware on their 15-year-oht son’s computer so they could

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问题     Not long ago, friends of mine confessed over dinner that they had put spyware on their 15-year-oht son’s computer so they could monitor all he did ratline. At first I was repelled at this invasion of privacy. Now, after doing a fair amount of research, I get it.
    Make no mistake: If you put spyare on your computer, you have the ability to log every keystroke your child makes and thus a good portion of his or her private world. That’s what spyware is—at least the parental monitoring kind. You don’t have to be an expert to put it on your computer. You just download the software from a vendor and you will receive reports—weekly, daily, whatever—showing you everything your child is doing on the machine.
    Scary. But a good idea. Most parents won’t even consider it.
    Maybe it’s the word: spyware. It brings up associations of Dick Cheney sitting in a dark room, rubbing his hands together and reading your most private thoughts.  But this isn’t the government we are talking about—this is your family. It’s a mistake to confuse the two. Loving parents are doing the surveillance here, not faceless bureaucrats. And most parents already monitor their children, watching over their home environment, their school.
    Today’s overprotective parents fight their kids’ battles on the playground, berate coaches about playing time and fill out college applications—yet when it comes to chatting with pedophiles or watching beheadings or gambling away their entire life savings, then...then their children deserve independence?
    Some will say that you should simply trust your child, and that if he is old enough to go on the Internet he is old enough to know the dangers. Trust is one thing, but surrendering parental responsibility to a machine that allows the entire world access to your home borders on negligence.
    Some will say that it’s better just to use parental blocks that deny access to risky sites. I have found that they don’t work.  Children know how to get around them.  But more than that—and this is where it gets tough—I want to know what’s being said in e-mail and instant messages and in chat rooms.
    There are two reasons for this. First, we’ve all read about the young boy unknowingly conversing with a pedophile or the girl who was cyberbullied to the point where she committed suicide. Would a watchful eye have helped? We rely in the real world on teachers and parents to guard against bullies—do we just dismiss bullying on the Internet and all it entails because we are entering difficult ethical ground?
    Second, everything your" child types can already be seen by the world—teachers, potential employers, friends, neighbors, future dates. Shouldn’t he learn now that the Internet is not a haven of privacy?
    One of the most popular" arguments against spyware is the claim that you are reading your teenager’s every thought, and that in today’s world, a computer is the little key-locked diary of the past. But posting thoughts on the Internet isn’t the same thing as hiding them under your mattress. Maybe you should buy your children one of those little key-locked diaries so that they too can understand the difference.
    Am I suggesting eavesdropping on every conversation? No. With new technology comes new responsibility. That works both ways. There is a fine line between being responsibly protective and irresponsibly nosy. You shouldn’t monitor to find out if your daughter’s friend has a crush on Kevin next door or that Mrs. Peterson gives too much homework or what schoolmate snubbed your son. You are there to start conversations and to be a safety net. To borrow from the national intelligence lexicon—and yes, that’s uncomfortable—you’re listening for dangerous chatter.
    Will your teenagers find other ways of communicating with their friends when they realize you may be watching? Yes. But text messages and cellphones don’t offer the anonymity and danger of the Internet. They are usually one-on-one with someone you know. It is far easier for a predator to troll chat rooms and MySpace and Facebook.
    Parenting has never been for the faint of heart. One friend of mine, using spyware to monitor his college-bound, straight-A daughter, found out that not only was she using drugs but she was sleeping with her dealer. He wisely took a deep breath before confronting her. Then he decided to come clean, to let her know how he had found out, to speak with her about the dangers inherent in her behavior. He’d had these conversations before, of course, but this time he had context. She listened. There was no anger. Things seem better now.
    Our knee-jerk reaction as freedom-loving Americans is to be suspicions of anything that hints at invasion of privacy. That’s a good and noble thing. But it’s not an absolute, particularly in the face of the new and evolving challenges presented by the Internet. And particularly when it comes to our children.
    Do you tell your children that the spyware is on the computer? I side with yes, but it might be enough to show them this article, have a discussion about your concerns and let them know the possibility is there.
What’s the meaning of the word "predator" in the 12th paragraph?
选项 A、Chatter.
B、Teenager.
C、Dangerous person.
D、On-line friend.
答案C
解析 语义题。在第十二段，作者将网络聊天的危险与打电话、发短信进行比较，指出It is far easier for a predator to troll chat rooms and MySpace and Facebook。predator的原意是“食肉动物”，stroll的含义是to obtain something，这里的比喻意是危险的人物更容易在网络聊天室和交友网站上寻找猎物，故答案为[C]，排除[B]；这种危险人物不是普通的chatter或者on-line friend，故排除[A]和[D]。
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