Section A Directions: In this section, there is a short
passage with 5 questions or incomplete statements. Read the passage carefully.
Then answer the questions or complete the statements in the fewest possible
words. Please write your answers on Answer Sheet 2.
More than two million people in Europe now have fibre
broadband direct to their home, suggests a survey. The latest
figures on superfast broadband delivered by fibre to the home (FTTH) shows 18%
growth over the last survey compiled in late 2008. The continued
growth suggests that the global economic downturn has not hit plans to build a
fibre infrastructure (基础设). Sweden tops the list of nations
rolling out the technology, with 10.9% of its broadband customers using
fibre. Karel Helsen, president of Europe’s Fibre-To-The-Home
Council, said the growth matched predictions that were revised when the credit
crunch (信用紧缩) started to make itself felt. "The numbers in 2009
are in line with the latest forecasts," said Mr. Helsen. By
2012, the FTTH Council expects that 13 million people across 35 European nations
will have their broadband delivered by fibre. Such services would start at
speeds of 100 megabits per second (mbps), said Mr. Helsen.
Around Europe more than 233 projects were underway to lay the fibres that
would connect homes or buildings to the net, said Mr. Helsen. Many of those, he
said, were being operated by local governments or smaller net firms.
Local governments were interested in FTTH because of the economic and
social benefits it brought in its wake, said Mr. Helsen. The low
latency or delay inherent in high-speed fibre networks made possible novel uses
of broadband, he said. "No delay is very important," he said, "specifically if
you talk about applications that are time-dependent such as personal
communications, conference calls or video calls where delays cause a lot of
interference." While early FTTH services were concentrated in
cities, said Mr. Helsen, many more were reaching out to rural areas for e-health
and e-learning projects. Separate studies show that an FTTH
infrastructure can have a direct impact on local economic output, said Mr.
Helsen. The UK, France and Germany have yet to break into the
list of top ten FTTH nations. * TOP FIBRE
NATIONS: 1) Sweden - 10.9% 2) Norway - 10.2% 3)
Slovenia- 8.9% 4) Andorra - 6.6% 5) Denmark-5.7% 6) Iceland - 5.6%
7) Lithuania - 3.3% 8) Netherlands - 2.5% 9) Slovakia - 2.5%
10) Finland - 2.4% When the credit crunch emerged, people’s forecasts about the growth of FTTH were
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