“HowmanycommonEnglishwordswereinventedbyShakespeare?” Howlongdidittakepeopletofindtheanswertothisquestion15yearsago?Andnow!Youcangoogleitandfindtheanswerimmediately! GoogleisthemostpopularInternetsearchengine(搜索引擎)intheworld.Itwasinventedbytwostudents,LarryPageandSergeyBrin.Theymetin1993,whentheywerestudyingcomputerscienceatStanfordUniversity,USA.Theydreamedofproducingsomethingthatcouldalsoansweranyquestioninseconds. Internetsearchenginesatthattimewereslowandgavemanywebsitesthatweren’tuseful.InJanuary1996,PageandBrindecidedtomakeabetterandfastersearchengine.Theythoughttheresultsshouldbebasedonthemostpopularwebsites. Nobodywouldgivethemmoneyfortheirproject,sotheyusedtheirownmoney.Theyalsoborrowedmoneyfromfamilyandfriends.Then,in1998,theyweregivenachequefor$100,000,andtheystartedtheirowncompany(公司).Theirfirstofficewasinafriend’sgarage(车库).ThecompanynameisGoogle,awordwhichcomesfrommathematics.A“google”isaveryhighnumber—1followedbyahundredzeros. TheGooglesearchenginewassoonusedbythousandsofpeopleworldwidebecauseitwasfast,easyandcorrect.By2002itwasthebiggestsearchengineontheInternet.Now,morequestionshavebeenansweredbyGooglethananyotherInternetservice,fromsporttoscience,andfrommusictomedicine.Googlehopesthatinthefuturealltheworld’sinformationwillbeputontheInternet,sothateverybodycanfindeverything. 小题1:Whydidthewriterbeginthispassagebyaskingyouaquestion?
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