The Internet，search engines，virtual worlds.Have you ever got the feeling that you're living in a science fiction？
   Well，indeed you are.
   For more than a century，inventors have been driven to create what sci-fi writers have imagined long before.Buck Rogers inspired a generation of scientists excited about space exploration.Ray Bradbury predicted home-theater systems.William Gibson dreamed up the Internet while writing Neuromancer on a typewriter.Not long after him，Neal Stephenson predicted virtual worlds in his 1991 novel Snow Crash.One of his readers was Philip Rosedale，who loved it so much that he wanted to build a virtual world based on it.
   By the late 1990s，technology caught up to the novel，and Rosedale built the virtual world Second Life based on the "Metaverse" from the novel.With 1 million active users，Second Life offers virtual shops，bars，houses and even virtual television studios with virtual celebrities （名人） on virtual talk shows.
   "I think it is pretty much what I imagined，" Stephenson says. "I just shoot for the stars，while he makes great things happen."
   But Snow Crash is a dark book.The world in the novel is filled with criminals，violence and environmental problems.
   "Science fiction not only puts stars in our hands，it also helps us see the meaning of our work，" Philip Rosedale admits. "It makes it possible for us to see what all of our efforts could eventually lead to."
   In fact，most science fiction authors admit that their work is usually cautionary （警示性的）. "While the inventors are rushing ahead and excited about this possibility or that possibility，we're always standing there warning， 'Hang on just a second.Let's think about this a little more'" author William Gibson says. "But most of them will ignore you because they think they already know all things about any given hot topic of the day.But if you can convince them that you're talking about a planet millions of miles away and hundreds of years in the future or the past，you can actually get them to examine more closely what's going on right now."

（1）Who was inspired by Neal Stephenson's work？
A．Buck Rogers.
B．Ray Bradbury.
C．William Gibson.
D．Philip Rosedale.
（2）What does Neal Stephenson say about Second Life？
A．It is a very violent virtual world.
B．It is not based on his fiction strictly.
C．He is satisfied with the "Metaverse".
D．More activities should be added to it.
（3）What does William Gibson mean in the last paragraph？
A．Sci-fi writers are much wiser than inventors.
B．Most inventors do not respect sci-fi writers.
C．Sci-fi can help inventors to think more carefully.
D．People can easily get excited about the inventions.
（4）In which section of a newspaper may this text appear？
A．Book review.
B．Technology.
C．Economy.
D．Psychology.

【考點(diǎn)】文學(xué)與藝術(shù)；說明文．

【答案】D；C；C；B