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 probings 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 beha
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