Sadlier-Oxford VOCABULARY WORKSHOP SAT Practice Worksheet
PASSAGE-BASED READING
Level E Unit 7
Name
Date
Questions 1-4 are based on the following
passage.
consuming battle will have much concrete effect.
A third option is to change one’s e-mail address or
to set up temporary, disposable e-mail accounts.
Many users, however, are understandably reluctant
to change their e-mail address; they fear that such
a step would badly disrupt legitimate, and
sometimes urgent, communications. For the time
being, anyway, there does not seem to be much of
an alternative to hitting the “Delete” button.
Read the passage and the questions below.
Then choose the letter of the best answer for
each question.
It is undeniable that e-mail has revolutionized
communications. Besides being convenient, fast,
and cheap, it is relatively easy to send. Threequarters of American adults now have access to
the Internet, and 93% of that group, about 117
million people, use e-mail. In 2003, it was
estimated that at least 30 billion e-mail messages
hurtled around cyberspace on the Internet every
single day.
Yet over 70% of all users are reluctant to give
out their e-mail address. Why are they so bashful?
The culprit is spam.
Spam may be defined as unsolicited, commercial
E-mail from a sender whom the recipient does not
know or cannot identify. Just as the Internet itself
has grown exponentially, spam has grown from a
minor annoyance to a major headache. Unlike junk
“snail mail” that clogs a three-dimensional
mailbox, however, spam can be destructive and
costly. Such messages, for example, often serve as
carriers for computer viruses. Spam can also be
deceptive or downright fraudulent, using “toogood-to-be-true” offers or other inducements to
trick recipients into revealing valuable personal
information, such as a bank account or credit card
number. Spam is also a time-waster: 10% of e-mail
users at work report that they spend at least half an
hour a day dealing with unwanted messages.
Spam also has more subtle effects. Surveys
reveal that one-third of e-mail users, for example,
worry that spam may hinder legitimate
communications with co-workers, friends, and
relatives. The ever-increasing amount of spam has
caused 25% of users to reduce their e-mail usage.
Many people say that they are much more willing
to give out their cell phone number to others,
rather than their e-mail address. Spam is thus
undermining people’s confidence in the integrity
of a whole communications system.
What can consumers do to amend the situation?
Installing spam filter software on the computer is
one option, but spammers always seem to stay one
step ahead of most blocking efforts. Declaring war
on spam, some individuals make it a point to
report every unsolicited message they receive to
the Federal Trade Commission. Even these
watchdogs, however, doubt that their time-
1. In the context of the passage, “spam” refers to
(A) unsolicited e-mail messages
(B) a luncheon meat
(C) radio or television static
(D) a strategy used by con artists
(E) an information gap
2. Which of the following is NOT mentioned by
the author as a drawback of spam?
(A) It sometimes carries computer viruses.
(B) It can be deceptive or fraudulent
(C) It undermines users’ confidence in the
integrity of E-mail.
(D) It wastes time.
(E) It often contains insulting or offensive
material.
3. The word amend in paragraph 5 most
nearly means
(A) change for the better
(B) restrict
(C) identify
(D) placate
(E) desensitize
4. The writer’s overall attitude or tone in the
passage may BEST be described as
(A) impassioned
(B) outraged
(C) melancholy
(D) factual
(E) amused
Copyright © by William H. Sadlier, Inc. Permission to duplicate classroom quantities granted to users of VOCABULARY WORKSHOP.