SECTION 3
Directions: Each passage in this group is followed by questions based on its content. After reading a passage, choose the best answer to each question. Answer all questions following a passage on the basis of what is stated or implied in the passage.
Electronic computer speeds are restricted not only by the speed of electrons
in matter but also by the escalating density of interconnections necessary to
connect the electronic gates on microchips. Electrical engineers and physicists
Line have been developing and augmenting the technologies of analog and digital
(5) optical computing, in which the information is primarily carried by photons
rather than by electrons. Optical computing could, in principle, generate much
higher computer speeds, but one of the problems it has encountered lies in
accuracy, for these devices have practical limits of 8 to 11 bits of accuracy in
basic operations. Recent research has evinced that digital partitioning
(10) algorithms in tandem with error-correction codes, can substantially enhance the
accuracy of optical computing operations. In the near term optical computers
will most likely be hybrid optical/electronic systems that preprocess input data
for computation and post-process output data via electronic circuits, but
nevertheless, the prospect of all-optical computing remains highly attractive.
According to the passage, which of the following is true concerning optical computers?
A. Researchers have not yet discovered a means of transporting photons more efficiently.
B. Their primary limitation is the density of connections required between electronic microchip gates.
C. Their accuracy level is poor at 8 to 11 bits, but still superior to that of electronic computers.
D. They invariably rely on electronic circuits to preprocess input data for computation.
E. Both analog and digital forms of optic computing are presently being developed by scientists.
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听力原文: The main policy-making bodies of the EU are the Cora- mission, the Council of Ministers, and the European Parliament. The Commission has 17 members appointed by EU countries for four-year terms. It is an executive body with the right of proposing initiatives to the Council of Ministers. This Council is made up of the foreign ministers from the member nations. Although the Commission represents community interests, the Council represents the national interests of the members. Members of the Council rotate the presidency with each homing the office for six-month terms.
The European Parliament had 626 members in 1995. The representatives are elected by citizens of member nations. The number of representatives differs according to the size of each country. Germany, for example, has 99 representatives, while Luxembourg has six. When the Parliament meets, the representatives sit in political groups, not by nation. Some of the political groups are: the Socialism, the European People's Party (or Christian Democrats), the Liberal Democratic and Reform. Group, the European Democrats, and the Greens (an environmental group).
Other EU institutions are the Court of Justice, the Court of Auditors, the Economic and Social Committee, and the European Investment Bank. The Court of Justice, founded in 1958, reviews the legality of acts of the Commission and the Council. The Court of Auditors, founded in 1977, monitors the revenues and expenditures of the EU. Since 1958 the Economic and Social Committee has advised the Commission and the Council on general economic policy. The Committee has 189 members representing employers, labor unions, farmers, professions, consumers, and small businesses. The European Investment Bank, founded in 1958, is an independent public institution that oversees long-term investment.
Whose interests does the Council of Ministers represent?
A. The community interests.
B. The interests of the foreign ministers from the member nations.
C. The interests of the Council members.
D. The national interests of the members.
In the late years of the nineteenth century, "capital" and "labour" were enlarging and perfecting their rival organizations on modern lines. Many old firms were replaced by a limited liability company with a bureaucracy of salaried managers. The change met the technical requirements of the new age by engaging a large professional element and prevented the decline in efficiency that so commonly spoiled the fortunes of family firms in the second and third generation after the energetic founders. It was moreover a step away from individual initiative, towards collectivism and municipal and state-owned business. The railway companies, though still private business managed for the benefit of shareholders, were very unlike old family business. Meanwhile the great municipalities went into business to supply lighting, trams and other services to the taxpayers.
The growth of the limited liability company and municipal business had important consequences. Such large, impersonal manipulation of capital and industry greatly increased the numbers and importance of shareholders as a class, an element in national life representing irresponsible wealth detached from the land and the duties of the landowners; and almost equally detached from the responsible management of business. During the nineteenth century, America, Africa, India, Australia and parts of Europe were being developed by British capital, and British shareholders were thus enriched by the world's movement towards industrialisation. Towns like Bournemouth and Eastbourne sprang up to large house "comfortable" classes who had retired on their incomes, and who had no relation to the rest of the community except that of drawing dividends and occasionally attending a shareholders' meeting to dictate their orders to the management. On the other hand "shareholding" meant leisure and freedom which was used by many of the later Victorians for the highest purpose of a great civilisation.
The "shareholders" as such had no knowledge of the lives, thoughts or needs of employees in the company in which they held shares, and their influence on the relations of capital and labour was not good. The paid manager acting for the company was in more direct relation with the workers and their demands, but even he had seldom familiar personal knowledge of the workmen which the employers had often had under the more patriarchal system of the old family business. Indeed the mere size of operations and the numbers of workmen involved rendered such personal relations impossible. Fortunately, however, the increasing power and organization of the trade unions, at least in all skilled trades, enabled the workmen to meet on equal terms the managers of the companies who employed them. The creel discipline of the strike and lookout taught the two parties to respect each other's strength and understand the value of fair negotiation.
The author says that old family firms ______.
A. were mined by the younger generations
B. failed for lack of individual initiative
C. lacked efficiency compared with modern companies
D. were able to supply adequate services to taxpayers
【27】
A. who
B. in which
C. which
D. by which
Part A
Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D . Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1.
A finding in recent years shows that men cannot manufacture blood as efficiently as women can. This makes surgery riskier for men. Because they do not breathe as often as women, men also need more oxygen. But men breathe more deeply and this exposes them to another risk. They draw more of the air when it is polluted.
Men's bones are larger than women's and they are arranged somewhat differently. The feminine walk that evokes so many whistles is a matter of bone structure. A man has broader shoulders and a narrower pelvis, which makes him to stride out with no waste motion. A Woman's wider pelvis, designed for childbearing, forces her to put more movement into each step she takes with the result that she displays a bit of a jiggle and sway as she walks.
If you think a man is brave because he can climb a ladder to clean out the roof gutters, don't forget it is easier for him than for a woman. The angle at which a woman's thigh is joined to her knees makes climbing difficult for her, no matter whether it is a ladder or stairs or a mountain that she is tackling.
A man's skin is thicker than a woman's and not nearly as soft. This prevents the sun's radiation from getting through, which is why men wrinkle less than women do. Women have a thin layer of fat just under the skin and there is a plus to this greater fat reserve. It acts as an invisible fur coat to keep a woman warmer in the winter. Women also stay cooler in summer. Because the fat layer helps insulate them against heat. Men's fat is distributed differently. And they do not have that layer of it underneath their skin. In fact, they have considerably less fat than women and more lean mass. 41 percent of a man's body is muscle compared to 35 percent for women, which means that men have more muscle power. When we mention strength, almost 90 percent of a man's weight is strength compared to about 50 percent of a woman's weight.
The higher proportion of muscle to fat makes it easier for men to lose weight. Muscle bums up five more calories a pound than fat does just to maintain itself. So when a man wants to loss weight, the pounds roll off much faster. For all men's muscularity they do not have the energy reserves women do. They have more start-up energy, but the fat tucked away in women's nooks and crannies provides a rich energy reserve that men lack.
Cardiologists at the University of Alabama who tested healthy women on treadmills discovered that over the years the female capacity for exercise far exceeds the male capacity. A woman of sixty who is in good health can exercise up to 90 percent of what she could do when she was twenty. A man of sixty has only 60 percent left of his capacity as a twenty-year-old.
That boys suffer more from air pollution can possibly be justified by the fact that ______.
A. the male have larger bones than the female
B. women can manufacture blood more efficiently than men
C. men usually breathe more deeply than women
D. women breathe as often as men