江苏省六合高级中学高三英语时文阅读素材（四）全国通用

江苏省六合高级中学高三时文阅读（四）1 I HAVE been using the Internet since I was five years old, when my dad first sat me down in front of a computer and connected me to the World Wide Web. I've always felt like a master of the Internet world. AOL Instant Messaging, MSN, Gmail, Facebook, Myspace – I've got it all under control. I thought there was nothing more to it besides checking my e-mail and wasting my time, until I was introduced to electronic commerce (e-commerce): business on the Internet. Some online businesses are run from one-room home offices. Others have hundreds of employees spread across five different continents. Have you ever heard of Amazon.com, Yahoo.com? My friends often said they got cheap textbooks off Amazon.com, or had a good deal on Steve Madden boots (长靴) that were on sale at SteveMadden.com. Unfortunately for me, I continued my "e-commerce-less" Web-surfing, unaware of all the deals I was missing out on. That is, of course, until my sister finally sold the idea to me. "Why are all these packages arriving in the mail for you, Katy?" I asked her one day. Strange envelopes (封袋) had been put on our doorstep for weeks now, each one always addressed to my sister; and we all know little sisters should never be getting more mail than their older siblings (兄弟姐妹)! "Oh, it's the stuff I ordered online!" she answered. I watched speechlessly as she opened item after item. There was no way our parents were letting her spend that much money – online or off! "How much did all of this cost?" "Oh, only about $15 in all!" She said excitedly. "Everything on eBay is on sale! It's way better than going to the mall." I felt as if my entire life, there had been...