After too long on the Net，even a phone call can be a shock. My boyfriend's Liverpudlian accent
suddenly becomes too difficult to understand after his clear words on screen; a secretary's tone seems
more rejecting than I'd imagined it would be. Time itself becomes fluid- hours becomes minutes, and alternately seconds stretch into days. Weekends, once a highlight of my week, are now just two ordinary days.
For the last three years，since I stopped working as a producer for Charlie Rose, I have done much of my work as a telecommuter. I submit articles and edit them by E-mail and communicate with colleagues on Internet mailing lists. My boyfriend lives in England, so much of our relationship is computer-mediated.
If I desired, I could stay inside for weeks without wanting anything. I can order food, and manage my
money，love and work. In fact，at times I have spent as long as three weeks alone at home, going out
only to get mail and buy newspapers and groceries.  I watched most of the blizzard of 96 on TV.
But after a while, life itself begins to feel unreal. I start to feel as though I've merged (融合) with my
machines，taking data in spitting them back out, just another node （波节）on the Net. Others on line report the same symptoms. We start to strongly dislike the outside forms of socializing. It's like attending
an A. A. meeting in a bar with everyone holding a half-sipped drink. We have become the Net opponents' worst nightmare.
What first seemed like a luxury, crawling from bed to computer, not worrying about hair, and clothes
and face，has become an avoidance，a lack of discipline. And once you start replacing real human
contact with cyber-interaction,coming back out of the cavecan be quite difficult.
At times, I turn on the television and just leave it to chatter in the background, something that I'd never
done previously. The voices of the programs soothe (安慰) me, but then I'm jarred (使感不快) by the
commercials. I find myself sucked in by soap operas, or compulsively (强制性能地) needing to keep up with the latest news and the weather. "Dateline," "Frontline," "Nightline," CNN, every possible angle of
every story over and over and over, even when they are of no possible use to me. Work moves from
foreground to background.
1. Compared to the clear words of her boyfriend on screen, his accent becomes____
A. unreal
B. unbearable
C. misleading
D. not understandable
2. What does the last paragraph mean      ?
A. Having worked on the computer for too long, she became a bit strange.
B. She is so interested in TV programs that she often forgets her work.
C. She watches TV a lot in order to keep up with the latest news and the weather.
D. She turns on TV now and then in order to get some comfort from TV program.
3. What is the author's attitude to the computer?
A. She has become bored with it.
B. She dislikes it because TV is more attractive.
C. She dislikes it because it cuts off her relation with the outside world.
D. She likes it because it is very convenient.
4. The underlined phrase "coming back out of the cave" probably means_______.
A. going back to the dreaming world
B. coming back home from the outside world
C. restoring direct human contact
D. getting away from living a strange life

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