There were two interesting pieces of news items in the paper a few years ago. Both of them are connected with computers — the best invention of the 20th century
One was about a man who received a bill from the telephone company for $ 2,000 a month for doing nothing. The telephone bill came from a computer which made a terrifying mistake; that man’s bill was only $23.26. The other item was not as amusing. A man walked into the unguarded computer room of a large packaged food company and expertly programmed the computer to pay him $2, 000 a month for raw meat which he “supplied” to the company. Of course he never sent the meat, but he certainly received the money. The computer wrote out a bill, and even “signed” it. It was only a random(随便的) check that uncovered the trick. It could be happening in thousands of other companies all over the world.
Computers are not the magical workers that some people say they are. They make mistakes, they’re sometimes slower than human beings and they’re easily fooled.
The US used to conscript(征兵) people with the help of a computer. The army sent out a card, which had to be filled in and sent back. It was easy to avoid being called up simply by spreading candle-wax(蜡) on the card. The computer couldn’t read the card, and did nothing with it. It’s in our everyday life that computers cause many problems. Let’s get back to using people instead of computers, before a mistake that we can’t put right.
1. From the passage we can conclude _______.
A. the paper is telling a lie B. the first sentence is the topic sentence
C. the two news items made people surprised
D. If a man did nothing at all for the telephone company, he would still get $2,000 a month
2. The main idea of the second paragraph is _______.
A. the computers are magical workers B. the computers can do anything as well as man
C. the computers can write out the bill and even sign it D. the computers sometimes also make mistakes
3. Computers _______.
A. were used to conscript people B. are usually faster than human beings
C. are not so magical as people expect D. were not easily controlled and always fooled human beings
4. The writer thinks _______.
A. we’d better use people instead of computers in our everyday life
B. we should use computers although they always make mistakes
C. computers are widely used in our everyday life D. if we want to work well, don’t use the computers
【答案与解析】电脑虽然是20世纪最好的发明，但它并不像人们想像的那样具有魔力，而是经常出错。
1.C。推断题。通读全文，根据文章内容，采用排除法可知答案应选C。
2. D。主旨题。此题也可用排除法确定答案D。
3. C。细节题。根据第3段 Computers are not the magical workers that some people say they are可以知答案为C。
4. A。语义理解题。根据 It’s in our everyday life that computers cause many problems 和 Let’s get back to using people instead of computers, before a mistake that we can’t put right 可推知答案为A。
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