According to the author, the phrase "learning to use a computer" (Line 4, Para. 3) means learning ______.
A. a set of rules
B. the fundamentals of computer science
C. specific programs
D. general principles of programming
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Learning how to use a computer and learning how to program one are two distinct activities. A case might be made that the competent citizens of tomorrow should free themselves from their fear of computers. But this is quite different from saying that all ought to know how to program one. Leave that to people who have chosen programming as a career. While programming can be lots of fun, and while our society needs some people who are experts at it, the same is true of auto repair and violin-making.
Learning how to use a computer is not that difficult, and it gets easier all the time as programs become more "user-friendly". Let us assume that in the future everyone is going to have to know how to use a computer to be a competent citizen. What does the phrase "learning to use a computer" mean? It rounds like "learning to drive a car", that is, it sounds as if there is some set of definite skills that, once acquired, enable one to use a computer.
In fact, "learning to use a computer" is much more like "learning to play a game", but learning the rules of one game may not help you play a second game, whose rules may not be the same. There is no such thing as teaching someone how to use a computer, One can only teach people to use this or that program and generally that is easily accomplished.
To be the competent citizens of tomorrow, people should ______.
A. try to lay a solid foundation in computer science
B. be aware of how the things that they use do what they do
C. learn to use a computer by acquiring a certain set of skills
D. understand that programming a computer is more essential than repairing a car
High-ranking corporate leaders seem to be in favor of promoting diversity so as to ______.
A. lower the rate of unemployment
B. win equal political rights for minorities
C. be competitive in the world market
D. satisfy the demands of a growing population
Which of the following statements is true?
Active smokers in general performed better than deprived smokers.
B. Active smokers responded more quickly than the other subjects.
C. Non-smokers were not better than other subjects in performing simple tasks.
Deprived smokers gage the slowest responses to the various tasks.
In the first test, each subject (试验对象) sat before a computer screen and pressed a key as soon as he or she recognized a target letter among a grouping of 96. In this simple test, smokers, deprived smokers and nonsmokers performed equally well.
The next test was more complex, requiring all to scan sequences of 20 identical letters and respond the instant one of the letters was transformed into a different one. Non-smokers were faster, but under the stimulation of nicotine (尼古丁), active smokers were faster than deprived smokers.
In the third test of short-term memory, non-smokers made the fewest errors, but deprived smokers committed fewer errors than active smokers.
The fourth test required people to read a passage, then answer questions about it. Non-smokers remembered 19 percent more of the most important information than active smokers, and deprived smokers bested those who had smoked a cigarette just before testing. Active smokers tended not only to have poorer memories but also had trouble separating important information from insignificant details.
"As our tests became more complex," sums up Spilich, "non-smokers performed better than smokers by wider and wider margins." He predicts, "smokers might perform. adequately at many jobs until they got complicated. A smoking airline pilot could fly adequately if no problems arose, but if something went wrong, smoking might damage his mental capacity."
The purpose of George Spilich's experiment is ______.
A. to test whether smoking has a positive effect on the mental capacity of smokers
B. to show how smoking damages people's mental capacity
C. to prove that smoking affects people's regular performance
D. to find out whether smoking helps people's short-term memory