新视野大学英语视听说教程第一册 Unit 9 Task 1: The Origin of the Internet

The story of the Internet begins in the late 1950s. The Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957. The

Pentagon set up a research team in 1958 to create a computer network to operate during disasters

like a nuclear war. The resulting network linked U.S. scientific and academic researchers. It grew

into the World Wide Web or the Internet that became the network system of the Information Age. In

1985, the National Science Foundation created a network which provided a free national service to

any U.S. research and education institution. Later, large corporations began to build their own

networks. All those networks finally joined the Pentagon’s network to form the Internet. By the

1990s, anyone with a computer, a modern, and Internet software could link up to the Internet. In the

future, the Internet will probably grow more complex and become part of a larger network called the

information highway. With that people could bank, shop, watch TV, and perform many other

activities online.