Read the article below about " China Enters Cyberspace" and the questions.For each questio

Read the article below about " China Enters Cyberspace" and the questions.

For each question 13—18, mark one letter (A, B, C or D) on your Answer Sheet for the, answer you choose.

China Enters Cyberspace

Although research into the Internet began in the 1980's in China, it was not until the mid 90's that the country cautiously joined the information highway. These days however, it seems that China is ready to jump onto the " Net" with both feet. Personal Computers (PCs) are the hottest selling item on the market in major Chinese cities. At night, hundreds of Chinese who don't own a PC crowd into the now familiar Internet Cafes, where Net time costs US$ 3. 60 an hour. Web sites from around the world can be flashing on the screens of most high-tech companies, and many believe the Net is the perfect vehicle to transport China into the through the 21st century.

Even though Chinese government officials are somewhat concerned about the Western content on the Internet, it is clear they want to make use of what the superhighway has to offer. The Net is so appealing in improvement-obsessed China that usage is growing more than 40% a year. " It's a daily necessity, " says a Beijing Foreign Studies University student. " I plan to get online soon. I feel like I miss a lot of things and I don't want to lag behind." It seems everywhere you go the air is buzzing with talk of how to best use this modern technology.

Possibilities

The country has 350 million children to educate—what better vehicle than interactive televisions. The Finance Ministry needs to establish bank and savings accounts for China's 284 million worker—what more effective solution than smart cards？

Agricultural planners dream of more productive Chinese farms—how easier to send weather and agricultural information to 323 million farmers than over the Web？

To tap these benefits, China has embarked on a series of nine " golden projects" that will require state-of-the-art technology in everything from health-care to finance. By 2010 hundreds of millions of Chinese will be wired with a golden smart card, all part of health and financial network.

This smart card or identification card, will contain vital statistics about each person, and will automatically take a proportion of that persons salary as government " golden tax" via a microchip. Bryan Nelson, Mi-crosofts director in the region, says, " China is going to be the ultimate proof of all that the Internet can do. And the amazing thing is the Chinese seem to understand that better than some people in the West actually. " The window is still small though—only 3, 000, 000 Chinese have access to the Internet, vs. some 25 million in the U. S.—but it is opening quickly. Officials at China's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications say they hope to have 4 million Chinese connected by 2000. At the same time, access to the outside world from China—once tightly controlled over a narrow pipeline has quadrupled in 1998, the result of newly liberalized government regulations. As late as 1996, most Net traffic to and from China had to flow through a single 56 kilobit—some U. S. homes have more bandwidth than that. Now china has a pipeline a hundred times wider, and the company ATT has just been hired to make it even bigger. Will china really have 4 million citizens on line by 2000？ " Try 20 million. " says Internet Cafe owner Charles Zhang, who has watched the governement exceed growth targets in everything from telephones to agricultural output. The theory behind Chinese leaders' enthusiasm is that technology and competitiveness are deeply linked.

Obstacles

There are plenty of obstacles to overcome between now and 2010. but the two biggest-limited ownership of both personal computers and the telephones—are fading. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to growth of computers and the Net in China is that Western-style. keyboards aren't set up to type Chin

A．number of people

B．university students

C．children

D．Western content