Passage 1

New words

surf  v. 在互联网上冲浪；上网浏览信息 

pastime  n. 消遣；娱乐 

occasional  a. 偶尔（发生）的 

pop-up  a. 弹出式的 

pointlessly  ad. 毫无目的地 

pull  n. 吸引力；影响力 

poll  n. 民意调查 

pointless  a. 无用的 

preserve n.（某人或某个团体的）专有领域，独有活动 

absent-mindedly  ad. 心不在焉地 

Listen to a short passage and choose the best answer to each question you hear.

1 A Virtual image.

B Virtual pastime.

C Virtual equation.

D Window shopping.

2 A Shopping websites.

B Travel websites.

 C Music websites.

 D News websites.

3 A People under 25 were more likely to wilf than those aged 55 and above.

B Women confessed that wilfing damaged the relationship with their partners.

C Internet users spent no more than 30 percent of their Internet time wilfing.

 D Women tended to spend more time wilfing on the Internet than men.

4 A By using appealing advertisements.

B By using transferring mechanisms.

C By linking with popular websites.

D By using pop-up technology and bulk emails.

"Wilfing", or surfing the Web without any real purpose, has become a new national pastime. It is the virtual equivalent of window shopping, and a lot of us seem to be spending a lot of time doing it. 

Although a newly-identified habit, more than two-thirds of the 33.7 million Internet users in the UK admit to at least occasional "wilfing", while browsing the Internet. 

The attraction of pop-up sites and flashing online advertisements is too appealing to resist for many Internet users. Almost a quarter of those surveyed said they spent 30 percent or more of their Internet time wilfing — the equivalent of spending an entire working day every fortnight pointlessly jumping between random pages. 

The YouGov survey of more than 2,400 Web users found that shopping websites are the most likely destinations for wilfers. Other popular pulls include news, music and travel websites. 

The poll found the tendency to wilf is more widespread among men than women. Gazing at a series of pointless web pages also appeared to be the preserve of the young, with people aged 55 or over being three times less likely to browse absent-mindedly than those under 25. 

The time-consuming practice appears to have destructive effects, too: A third of males admitted that wilfing has a damaging effect on the relationship with their partners. 

One in five confessed to being "distracted" from work or study by adult entertainment websites, which often use pop-up mechanisms and bulk emails to trap users into transferring to their pages. 

1 What does the writer compare "wilfing" to? 

2 What websites are the most popular among wilfers? 

3 What did the poll find out about wilfing? 

4 How do adult entertainment websites attract users?