The opinion seems ridiculous because, for one thing, computers lack the drives and emotions of living creatures. But drives can be programmed into the computer's brain just as nature programmed them into our human brains as a part of the equipment for survival.
Computers match people in some roles, and when fast decisions are needed in a crisis, they often surpass them. Having evolved when the pace of life was slower, the human brain has an inherent defect that prevents it from absorbing several streams of information simultaneously and acting on them quickly. Throw too many things at the brain at one time and it freezes up.
We are still in control, but the capabilities of computers are increasing at a fantastic rate, while raw human intelligence is changing slowly, if as all. Computer power has increased ten times every eight years since 1946. In the 1990s, when the sixth generation appears, the reasoning power of an intelligence built out of silicon will begin to match that of the human brain.
That does not mean the evolution of intelligence has ended on the earth. Judging by the past, we can expect that a new species will arise out of man, surpassing his achievements as he has surpassed those of his predecessor. Only a carbon chemistry enthusiast would assume that the new species must be man's flesh-and-blood descendants. The new kind of intelligent life is more likely to be made of silicon.
31. What do you suppose was the attitude of Dr. Samuel Johnson towards ladies preaching?
A) He believed that ladies were born worse preachers than men.
B) He was pleased that ladies could preach, though not as well as men.
C) He disapproved of ladies preaching.
D) He encouraged ladies to preach.
32. Today, computers are still inferior to man in terms of _______.
A) decision making
B) drives and feelings
C) growth of reasoning power
D) information absorption
33. In terms of making decisions, the human brain cannot be compared with the computer because _____.
A) in the long process of evolution the slow pace of life didn't require such an ability of the human brain.
B) the human brain is influenced by other factors such as motivation and emotion
C) the human brain may sometimes freeze up in a dangerous situation
D) computers imitate life while the human brain does not imitate computers
34. Though he thinks highly of the development of computer science, the author doesn't mean that _______.
A) computers are likely to become a new form of intelligent life.
B) human beings have lost control of computers
C) the intelligence of computers will eventually surpass that of human beings.
D) the evolution of intelligence will probably depend on that of electronic brains.
35. According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?
A) Future man will be made of silicon instead of flesh and blood.
B) Some day it will be difficult to tell a computer from a man.
C) The reasoning power of computers ahs already surpassed that of man.
D) Future intelligent life may not necessarily be made of organic matter.
Passage Four
Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage:
Video recorders and photocopiers, even ticket machines on the railways, often seem unnecessarily difficult to use. Last December I bought myself a video cassette recorder (VCR) described as "simple to use". In the first three weeks I failed repeatedly to program the machine to record from the TV, and after months of practice I still made mistakes. I am not alone. According to a survey last year by Ferguson, the British manufacturer, more than one in four VCR owners never use the timer（定时器）on their machines to record a programme: they don't use it because they've found it far too hard to operate.
So why do manufacturers keep on designing and producing VCRS that are awkward to use if the problems are so obvious? First, the problems we notice are not obvious to technically minded（有技术思想的）designers with years of experience and trained to understand how appliances work. Secondly, designers tend to add one or two features at a time to each model, whereas you or I face all a machine's features at once. Thirdly, although finding problems in a finished product is easy, it is too late by then to do anything about the design. Finally, if manufacturers can get away with selling products that are difficult to use, it is not worth the effort of any one of them to make improvements.
Some manufacturers say they concentrate on
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