Questions 56 to 60 are based on the followingpassage.
Terry Wolfisch Cole may seem like an ordinary40-year-old mom, but her neighbors know the truth:She's one of the "Pod People." At the supermarketshe wanders the aisles in a self-contained bubble,thanks to her iPod digital music player. Through those little white ear buds, Wolfisch Cole listensto a playlist mixed by her favorite disc presenter-herself.
At home, when the kids are tucked away, Wolfisch Cole often escapes to another solomedia pod- but in this one, she's transmitting instead of just receiving. On her computer weblog, or "blog", she types an online journal chronicling daily news of her life, then shares it allwith the Web.
Wolfisch Cole-who also gets her daily news customized off the Internet and whose digitalvideo recorder (DVR)scans through the television wasteland to find and record shows that suither tastes-is part of a new breed of people who are filtering, shaping and even creating mediafor themselves. They are increasingly turning their backs on the established system of massmedia that has provided news and entertainment for the past half-century. They've joined theexploding "iMedia" revolution, putting the power of media in the hands of ordinary people.
The tools of the movement consist of a bubbling stew of new technologies that includeiPods, blogs, podcasts, DVRs, customized online newspapers, and satellite radio.
Devotees of iMedia run the gamut (范围)from the 89-year-old New York grandmother,known as Bubby, who has taken up blogging to share her worldly advice, to 11-year-old DylanVerdi of Texas, who has started broadcasting her own homemade TV show or "vlog', for videoweb log. In between are countless iMedia enthusiasts like Rogier van Bakel, 44, of Maine, whoblogs at night, reads a Web- customized news page in the morning, travels with his fully loadediPod and comes home to watch whatever the DVR has chosen for him.
If the old media model was broadcasting, this new phenomenon might" be called ego-casting, says Christine Rosen, a fellow with the Ethics and Public Policy Center. The term fits,she says, because the trend is all about me-me-media -" the idea is to get exactly what youwant, when and where you want it."
Rosen and others trace the beginnings of the iMedia revolution to the invention of the TVremote, which marked the first subtle shift of media control away from broadcasters and intothe hands of the average couch potato. It enabled viewers to vote with their thumbs-making iteasier to abandon dull programs and avoid commercials. With the proliferation (激增)of cableTV channels in the late 1980s followed by the mid-1990s arrival of the Internet, controllingmedia input wasn't just a luxury. "Control has become a necessity," says Bill Rose, "Withoutit, there's no way to sort through all the options that are becoming available."
56. Who is Terry Wolfisch Cole probably according to the passage?
A.A middle-aged housewife.
B.A saleswoman in the supermarket.
C.A disc presenter.
D.An online news writer.
57. Which of the following is the characteristic of the new breed of people according to thepassage ?
A.They provide news and entertainment for the public.
B.They have started the iMedia revolution.
C.They have helped ordinary people control media.
D.They choose what to listen to or watch by themselves.
58. What can be learned about the devotees of iMedia from the passage?
A.They are either very old or very young.
B.They consist of people of all ages.
C.They are located in New York, Texas and Maine.
D.They share the same interests.
59. According to the passage, Christine Rosen calls the iMedia revolution ego-castingbecause _________
A.people show themselves in the media
B.people get their needs for media met
C.people can watch whatever they like
D.it is the invention of an individual
60. Why was the invention of the TV remote important according to the passage?
A.Because it enabled ordinary people to control media to some extent.
B.Because it made more cable TV channels available to people.
C.Because it led to the invention of Internet in the 1990s.
D.Because it made life easier for couch potatoes.
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