全国2007年10月高等教育自学考试

英语阅读（二）试题

课程代码：00596

全部题目用英文作答(翻译题除外)，请将答案填在答题纸相应位置上

I. Reading Comprehension. (50 points, 2 points for each)

Directions: In this part of the test, there are five passages. Following each passage, there are five questions with four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best answer and then write the corresponding, letter on your Answer Sheet.

Passage One

Electronic computers are among the fastest and most useful instruments for sorting and comparing in use today. Computers provide means for greater speed and accuracy in working with ideas than had previously been possible. With the development of these new tools, it is as if man has suddenly become a millionaire of the mind.

Although man has been growing mentally richer ever since he started to think, the electronic computer allows and will continue to allow him to perform tremendous mental tasks in a relatively short time. Great scientists of the past produced ideas which were the basis for great advances, but their ideas sometimes had to wait for years before they were understood sufficiently well to be of practical use. With the computer, the ideas of today’s scientists can be studied, tested, distributed, and used more rapidly than ever before.

Old lines and methods of communication do not work easily or efficiently with as much information as we have now. The repeated actions of preparing, sorting, filling, distributing, and keeping track of records and publications can be as troublesome as calculating. Errors occur because men grow tired and can be distracted.

The basic job of computers is the processing of information. For this reason computers can be defined as devices which accept information, perform mathematical or logical operations with the information, and then supply the results of these operations as new information.

Although a sharp dividing line between types of computers is not always easy to see, computers are usually divided into two broad groups: digital and analog. Digital computers work by using specific information which is usually in the form of numbers. Analog computers, on the other hand, usually process continuous information.