Passage One
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage:
One day in January 1913. G.H. Hardy, a famous Cambridge University mathematician received a letter from an Indian named Srinivasa Ramanujan asking him for his opinion of 120
mathematical theorems(定理) that Ramanujan said he had discovered. To Hardy, many of the
theorems made no sense. Of the others, one or two were already well - known. Ramanjuan must
be some kind of trickplayer, Hardy decided, and put the letter aside. But all that day the letter
kept hanging round Hardy. Might there be something in those wild - looking theorems?
That evening Hardy invited another brilliant Cambridge mathematician, J.E. Littlewood,
and the two men set out to assess the Indian's worth. That incident was a turning point in the
history of mathematics.
At the time, Ramanujan was an obscure Madras Port Trust clerk. A little more than a year
later, he was at Cambridge University, and beginning to be recognized as one of the most amazing mathematicians the world has ever known. Though he died in 1920, much of his work was
so far in advance of his time that only in recent years is it beginning to be properly understood.
Indeed, his results are helping solve today' s problems in computer science and physics, problems
that he could have had no notion of.
For Indians, moreover, Ramanujan has a special significance. Ramanujan, though born in
poor and ill - paid accountant' s family 100 years ago, has inspired many Indians to adopt math-
ematics as career.
Much of Ramanujan' s work is in number theory, a branch of mathematics that deals with
the subtle(难以捉摸的) laws and relationships that govern numbers. Mathematicians describe
his results as elegant and beautiful but they are much too complex to be appreciated by laymen.
His life, though, is full of drama and sorrow. It is one of the great romantic stories of mathemat-
ics, a distressing reminder that genius can surface and rise in the most unpromising circum-
stances.
21. When Hardy received the 120 theorems from Ramanujan, his attitude at first might be best
described as
A) uninterested B) unsympathetic C) suspicious D) curious
22. Ramanujan's position in Cambridge University owed much to
A) the judgement of his work by Hardy and Littlewood
B) his letter of application accepted by Hardy
C) his work as a clerk at Madras Port Trust
D) his being recognized by the world as a famous mathematician
23. It may be inferred from the passage that the author
A) feels sorry for Ramanujan's early death
B) is dissatisfied with the slow development of computer science
C) is puzzled about the complexity of Ramanujan's theorems
D) greatly appreciates Ramanujan's mathematical genius
24. In the last paragraph, the author points out that
A) Ramanujan's mathematical theorems were not appreciated by other mathematicians
B) extremely talented people can prove their worth despite difficult circumstances
C) Ramanujan also wrote a number of stories about mathematics
D) Ramanujan had worked out an elegant but complicated method of solving problems
25. The word "laymen"( Last para, Lind 6) most probably means
A) people who do not specialize in mathematical science
B) people who are careless
C) people who are not interested in mathematics
D) people who don't like to solve complicated problems
Passage Two
Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage:
Even if all the technical and intellectual problems can be solved, there are major social
problems inherent in the computer revolution. The most obvious is unemployment, since the ba-
sic purpose of commercial computerization is to get more work done by fewer people. One
British study predicts that "automation induced unemployment" in Western Europe could reach
16~,6 in the next decade, but most analyses are more optimistic. The general rule seems to be
that new technology eventually creates as many jobs as it destroys, and often more. "People who
put in computers usually increase their staffs as well" says CPT's Scheff. "Of course," he adds,
"one industry may kill another industry. That' s tough on some people."
Theoretically, all unemployed workers can be retrained, but retraining programs are not
high on the nation' s agenda(议事日程). Many new jobs, moreover, will require an ability in using
computers, and t
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