2013年MBA英语精选模拟练习题（5）

2013-06-15

　　Passage 3

　　Computers manipulate information, but information is invisible. There's nothing to see or touch. The programmer decides what you see on the screen. Computers don't have knobs like old radios. They don't have buttons, not real buttons. Instead, more and more programs display pictures of buttons, moving even further into abstraction and arbitrariness (抽象和任意). I like computers, but I hope they will disappear, that they will seem as strange to our descendants as the technologies of our grandparents appear to us. Today's computers are indeed getting easier to use, but look where they started: so difficult that almost any improvement was welcome.

　　Computers have the power to allow people within a company, across a nation or even around the world to work together. But this power will be wasted if tomorrow's computers aren't designed around the needs and capabilities of the human beings who must use them -- a people-centered philosophy, in other words. That means retooling computers to mesh with human strengths -- observing, communicating and innovating -- instead of asking people to conform to the unnatural behavior computers demand. That just leads to error.

　　Many of today's machines try to do too much. When a complicated word processor attempts to double as a desktop publishing program or a kitchen appliance comes with half a dozen attachments, the product is bound to be burdensome. My favorite example of a technological product on just the right scale is an electronic dictionary. It can be made smaller, lighter and far easier to use than a print version, not only giving meanings but even pronouncing the words. Today's electronic dictionaries, with their tiny keys and barely legible displays, are primitive but they're on the right track.

　　Now imagine a host of specialized devices replacing a single powerful computer that tries to do a little of everything. Imagine a pocket checkbook, a drawing pod, a file-folder-size spreadsheet (报表). Each would be self-contained but would communicate with the others through infra-red light beams or radio links. The word I just looked up in the dictionary would be inserted into the letter I am writing; the right picture or spreadsheet calculation would become part of a report I'm doing for work.

　　We would no longer have to learn the arbitrary ways of the computer. We could simply learn the tools of our trade -- sketch pads, spreadsheets, schedules. How wonderful it would be to ignore the capricious(反复无常的) nature of technology -- and get on with our work. ( 420 words )

　　46. The passage talks about ______.

　　A. changes computers should be made to conform to people

　　B. shortcomings of computers

　　C. demonstration of future computers

　　D. development of computers

　　47. The sentence "I hope they will disappear, that they will seem as strange to our descendants as the technologies of our grandparents appear to us." in Paragraph 1 means ______.

　　A. our descendants may not use computers any more

　　B. the use of computers should be simplified and our descendants will not use the present computers any more

　　C. some technologies our grandparents used will not exist in the future

　　D. computers appear out of date to our generation

　　48. The word "machines" in Paragraph 3 means ______.

　　A. word processors B. electronic dictionaries

　　C. computers D. kitchen appliances

　　49. From the passage, those about computers are true EXCEPT ______.

　　A. people have to do what computers requested to get information

　　B. pictures of buttons in computer programs are not easy to use as knobs on radios

　　C. today's computers try to do a little of everything, which makes them not easy to use

　　D. programmers manipulate and show you information in computers