2004年Text 1

　　Hunting for a job late last year, lawyer Gant Redmon stumbled across CareerBuilder, a job database on the Internet. He searched it with no success but was attracted by the site's personal search agent. It's an interactive feature that lets visitors key in job criteria such as location, title, and salary, then E-mails them when a matching position is posted in the database. Redmon chose the keywords legal, intellectual property, and Washington, D.C. Three weeks later, he got his first notification of an opening. "I struck gold," says Redmon, who E-mailed his resume to the employer and won a position as in-house counsel for a company.

　　With thousands of career-related sites on the Internet, finding promising openings can be time-consuming and inefficient. Search agents reduce the need for repeated visits to the databases. But although a search agent worked for Redmon, career experts see drawbacks. Narrowing your criteria, for example, may work against you: "Every time you answer a question you eliminate a possibility." says one expert.

　　For any job search, you should start with a narrow concept--what you think you want to do--then broaden it. "None of these programs do that," says another expert. "There‘s no career counseling implicit in all of this." Instead, the best strategy is to use the agent as a kind of tip service to keep abreast of jobs in a particular database；when you get E-mail，consider it a reminder to check the database again. "I would not rely on agents for finding everything that is added to a database that might interest me," says the author of a job-searching guide.

　　Some sites design their agents to tempt job hunters to return. When CareerSite's agent sends out messages to those who have signed up for its service, for example, it includes only three potential jobs--those it considers the best matches. There may be more matches in the database; job hunters will have to visit the site again to find them--and they do. "On the day after we send our messages, we see a sharp increase in our traffic," says Seth Peets, vice president of marketing for CareerSite.

　　Even those who aren‘t hunting for jobs may find search agents worthwhile. Some use them to keep a close watch on the demand for their line of work or gather information on compensation to arm themselves when negotiating for a raise. Although happily employed, Redmon maintains his agent at CareerBuilder. "You always keep your eyes open," he says. Working with a personal search agent means having another set of eyes looking out for you.

43. The expression "tip service"（Line 4, Paragraph 3） most probably means
[A] advisory　　
[B] compensation　　
[C] interaction　　
[D] reminder

[答案] D

[解题思路]

　　回到原文，"tip service"这个词组所在的句子由分号分为了两个部分，"Instead, the best strategy is to use the agent as a kind of tip service to keep abreast of jobs in a particular database；when you get E-mail，consider it a reminder to check the database again"（最好的办法就是将软件代理当成一种提示服务，通过它来掌握某个数据库中的求职信息；收到电子邮件的时候，就当它是提醒你再去那个数据库里看一看），可以将两个部分视为两个意义相同的并列分句，或者也可把后半部分视为前半部分的补充说明。后半句的reminder显然就是对应于前半句的a kind of tip service，因此D为正确选项。A选项advisory（咨询的）与tip表面意思接近，起到了干扰作用，要注意辨别，根据文章的意思做出正确理解。B和C选项在文中则并没有谈及。

[题目译文]

"tip service"（第三段第四行）这个词组的意思可能是          。
[A] 报告
[B] 补偿
[C] 相互作用
[D] 提示