Straifford president George Friedman says he sees the online world as a kind of mutually reinforcing tool for both information collection and distribution, a spymaster's dream. Last week his firm was busy vacuuming up data bits from the far corners of the world and predicting a crisis in Ukraine." As soon as that report runs, we'll suddenly get 500 new internet sign-ups from Ukraine," says Friedman, a former political science professor. "And we'll hear back from some of them." Open-source spying does have its risks, of course, since it can be difficult to tell good information from bad. That’s where Straitford earns its keep.

　　Friedman relies on a lean staff in Austin. Several of his staff members have military-intelligence backgrounds. He sees the firm's outsider status as the key to its success. Straitford's briefs don't sound like the usual Washington back-and forthing, whereby agencies avoid dramatic declarations on the chance they might be wrong. Straitford, says Friedman, takes pride in its independent voice.

　　44. It can be learned from paragraph 4 that

　　[A] Straitford's prediction about Ukraine has proved true.

　　[B] Straitford guarantees the truthfulness of its information.

　　[C] Straitford's business is characterized by unpredictability.

　　[D] Straitford is able to provide fairly reliable information.

　　[答案] D

　　[解题思路]

　　本文的对应信息在文章的第四段。A选项与原文意思相左，因为文章只说公司对乌克兰的一场危机作了预测，并没有说明预测内容是否准确。B选项的表述过于绝对，而且文中也没有说司特雷福公司保证其提供信息的绝对准确性。C选项关于公司的这一特点在文中并没有提到，因而是错误的。D选项的表述是准确地，文中指出该公司是业界较为出色的一个，因而提供的信息比较可靠。

　　[题目译文]

　　可以从第四段中了解到

　　[A] 司特雷福公司关于乌克兰的预言被证明是正确的

　　[B] 司特雷福保证了其信息的真实性

　　[C] 司特雷福德业务具有不可预测的特点

　　[D] 司特雷福能够提供相当可靠的信息