A great deal of attention is being paid today to the so-called digital divide--the division of the world into the info(information) rich and the info poor. And that __1__ does exist today. My wife and I lectured about this looming danger twenty years ago. What was less __2__ then, however, were the new, positive __3__ that work against the digital divide. __4__,there are reasons to be __5__.

    There are technological reasons to hope the digital divide will narrow. As the Internet becomes more and more __6__, it is in the interest of business to universalize access-after all, the more people online, the more potential __7__ there are. More and more __8__, afraid their countries will be left __9__, want to spread Internet access. Within the next decade or two, one to two billion people on the planet will be __10__ together. As a result, I now believe the digital divide will __11__ rather than widen in the years ahead. And that is very good news because the Internet may well be the most powerful tool for __12__ world poverty that we've ever had.

    Of course, the use of the Internet isn't the only way to __13__ poverty. And the Internet is not the only tool we have. But it has __14__ potential.

    To __15__ advantage of this tool, some poor countries will have to get over their outdated anti-colonial prejudices __16__ respect to foreign investment. Countries that still think foreign investment is a/an __17__ of their sovereignty might well study the history of __18__ (the basic structural foundations of a society) in the United States. When the United States built its industrial infrastructure, it didn't have the capital to do so. And that is __19__ America's Second Wave infrastructure-__20__ roads, harbors, highways, ports and so on-were built with foreign investment.

__1__1. A) divide B) information C) world D) lecture
__2__2. A) obscure B) visible C) invisible D) indistinct
__3__3. A) forces B) obstacles C) events D) surprises
__4__4. A) Seriously B) Entirely C) Actually D) Continuously
__5__5. A) negative B) optimistic C) pleasant D) disappointed
__6__6. A) developed B) centralized C) realized D) commercialized
__7__7. A) users B) producers C) customers D) citizens
__8__8. A) enterprises B) governments C) officials D) customers
__9__9. A) away B) for C) aside D) behind
__10__10. A) netted B) worked C) put D) organized
__11__11. A) decrease B) narrow C) neglect D) low
__12__12. A) containing B) preventing C) keeping D) combating
__13__13. A) win B) detail C) defeat D) fear
__14__14. A) enormous B) countless C) numerical D) big
__15__15. A) bring B) keep C) hold D) take
__16__16. A) at B) with C) of D) for
__17__17. A) offence B) investment C) invasion D) insult
__18__18. A) construction B) facility C) infrastructure D) institution
__19__19. A) why B) where C) when D) how
__20__20. A) concerning B) concluding C) according D) including