评论
打印
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.
To live in the United States today is to gain an appreciation for Dahrendorf’s assertion that social change exists everywhere. Technology, the application of knowledge for practical ends, is a major source of social change.
Yet we would do well to remind ourselves that technology is a human creation; it docs not exist naturally. A spear or a robot is as much a cultural as a physical object. Until humans use a spear to hunt game or a robot to produce machine parts, neither is much more than a solid mass of matter. For a bird looking for an object on which to rest, a spear or robot serves the purpose equally well. The explosion of the Challenger space shuttle and the Russian nuclear accident at Chernobyl drive home the human quality of technology; they provide cases in which well-planned systems suddenly went haywire and there was no ready hand to set them right. Since technology is a human creation, we are responsible for what is done with it. Pessimists worry that we will use out technology eventually to blow our world and ourselves to pieces. But they have been saying this for decades, and so far we have managed to survive and even flourish. Whether we will continue to do so in the years ahead remains uncertain. Clearly, the impact of technology on our lives deserves a closer examination.
Few technological developments have had a greater impact on our lives than the computer revolution. Scientists and engineers have designed specialized machines that can do the tasks that once only people could do. There are those who assert that the switch to an information-based economy is in the same camp as other great historical milestones, particularly the industrial Revolution. Yet when we ask why the industrial Revolution was a revolution, we find that it was not the machines. The primary reason why it was revolutionary is that it led to great social change. It gave rise to mass production and, through mass production, to a society in which wealth was not confined to the few.
In somewhat similar fashion, computers promise to revolutionize the structure of American life, particularly as they free the human mind and open new possibilities in knowledge and communication. The industrial Revolution supplemented and replaced the muscles of humans and animals by mechanical methods. The computer extends this development to supplement and replace some aspects of the mind of human beings by electronic methods. It is the capacity of the computer for solving problems and making decisions that represents its greatest potential and that pees the greatest difficulties in predicting the impact on society.
31. A spear or a robot has the quality of technology only when it ________.
A) is used both as a cultural and a physical object
B) serves different purposes equally well
C) is utilized by man
D) can be of use to both man and animal
32. The examples of the Challenger and Chernobyl cited by the author serve to show that ________.
A) if not given close examination, technology could be used to destroy our world
B) technology is a human creation, so we are responsible for it
C) technology usually goes wrong, if not controlled by man
D) being a human creation, technology is liable to error
33. According to the author, the introduction of the computer is a revolution mainly because ________.
A) the computer has revolutionized the workings of the human mind
B) the computer can do the tasks that could only be done by people before
C) it has helped to switch to an information technology
D) it has a great potential impact on society
34. By using the phrase “the human quality of technology”, the author refers to, the fact that technology ________.
A) has a great impact on human life
B) has some characteristics of human nature
C) can replace some aspects of the human mind
D) does not exist in the natural world
35. The passage is based on the author’s ________.
A) keen insight into the nature of technology
B) prejudiced criticism of the role of the industrial Revolution
C) cautious analysis of the replacement of the human mind by computers
D) exaggerated description of the negative consequences of technology
Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage.
Now custom has not been commonly regarded as a subject of any great importance. The inner workings of our own brains we feel to be uniquely worthy of investigation, but custom, we have a way of thinking, is behavior at its most commonplace. As a matter of fact, it is the other way around. Traditional custom, taken the world over, is a mass of detailed behavior more astonishing than what any one person can ever evolve in individual actions. Yet that is a rather trivial aspect of the matter. The fact of first-rate importance is the predominant role that custom plays in experience and in belief and the very great varieties it may manifest.
No man ever looks at the world with pristine eyes. He sees it edited by a definite set of customs and institutions and ways of thinking. Even in his philosophical probing he cannot go behind these stereotypes; his very concepts of the true and the false will still have reference to his particular traditional customs. John Dewey has said in all seriousness that the part played by custom in shaping the behavior of the individual as over against any way in which he can affect traditional custom, is as the proportion of the total vocabulary of his mother tongue over against those words of his own baby talk that are taken up into the language of his family. When one seriously studies axial orders that have had the opportunity to develop independently, the becomes no more than an exact and matter-of-fact observation. The life history of the individual is first and foremost an adjustment to the patterns and standards traditionally handed down in his community. From the moment of his birth the customs into which he is born shape his experience and behavior. By the time he can talk, he is the little creature of his culture, and by the time he is grown and able to take part in its activities, its habits are his habits, its beliefs his beliefs, its impossibilities his impossibilities.
36. The author thinks the reason why custom has been ignored in the academic world is that ________.
A) custom reveals only the superficial nature of human behavior
B) the study of social orders can replace the study of custom
C) people are still not aware of the important role that custom plays in forming our world outlook
D) custom has little to do with our ways of thinking
37. Which of the following is true according to John Dewey?
A) An individual can exercise very little influence on the cultural tradition into which he is born.
B) Custom is the direct result of the philosophical probing of a group of people.
C) An individual is strongly influenced by the cultural tradition even before he is born.
D) Custom represents the collective wisdom which benefits the individual.
38. The world “custom” in this passage most probably means ________.
A) the concept of the true and the false of a society
B) the independently developed social orders
C) the adjustment of the individual to the new social environment
D) the patterns and standards of behavior of a community
39. According to the passage a person’s life, from his birth to his death, ________.
A) is constantly shaping the cultural traditions of his people
B) is predominated by traditional custom
C) is continually influenced by the habits of other communities
D) is chiefly influenced by the people around him
40. The author’s pump in writing this passage is ________.
A) to urge individuals to follow traditional customs
B) to stress the strong influence of customs on an individual
C) to examine the interaction of man and axial customs
D) to show man’s adjustment to traditional customs
