Reading, Listening, Speaking, and Writing. Take the quizzes and check your answers. Although you need to know more English than it is possible to include in one chapter, this review will help you apply the English you know to the test situation. You will improve your English proficiency as measured by the TOEFL | MODEL TEST 4 READING SECTION 331 PART III Reading 4 The Digital Divide The Challenge of Technology and Equity Information technology is influencing the way many of us live and work today. We use the Internet to look and apply for jobs shop conduct research make airline reservations and explore areas of interest. We use e-mail and the Internet to communicate instantaneously with friends and business associates around the world. Computers are commonplace in homes and the workplace. - Although the number of Internet users is growing exponentially each year most of the world s population does not have access to computers or the Internet. Only 6 percent of the population in developing countries are connected to telephones. Although more than 94 percent of . households have a telephone only 42 percent have personal computers at home and 26 percent have Internet access. The lack of what most of us would consider a basic communications necessity the telephone does not occur just in developing nations. On some Native American reservations only 60 percent of the residents have a telephone. The move to wireless connections may eliminate the need for telephone lines but it does not remove the barrier to equipment costs - Who has Internet access Fifty percent of the children in urban households with an income over 75 000 have Internet access compared with 2 percent of the children in low-income rural households. Nearly half of college-educated people have Internet access compared to 6 percent of those with only some high school education. Forty percent of households with two parents have access 15 percent of female single-parent households do. Thirty percent of white households 11 percent of black households and 13 percent of Hispanic households have access. Teens and children are the two fastest-growing segments of Internet users. The digital divide between the populations who have access to the Internet and information technology tools is based on income race education .
