Enter the information age. Information is the raw material for many of the business activities【B1】this new era, just as iron and steel were the basic commodities in the【B2】of the industrial age.
The world's knowledge is said to be doubling every eight years. This knowledge【B3】is stimulating economic progress. The need to collect, analyze, and communicate great【B4】of information is producing new products and services, creating jobs, and【B5】career opportunities.
The information age【B6】considered to be a phenomenon of the service sector of the economy,【B7】than a product of heavy industry. Certainly, rocketing information technologies are creating new capabilities【B8】knowledge-based service spheres.【B9】changes just as dramatic are【B10】industry, giving people the【B11】to do challenging work in exciting new ways.
Manufacturing is full【B12】in the information age. From design to production, the manufacturing【B13】has long been information-intensive. It always has required exacting communication to describe what goes into products and how to make them. Now, computer technology is giving factory managers new【B14】to gather all of this information and use it to control production.
Telecommunications are producing error-free communication between the design office and the factory, computer-aided design is enabling engineers to【B15】product performance and manufacturing process on video displays, before re- sources are committed to build and test proto types. Techniques like these are bringing【B16】new advances in manufacturing productivity. Just as coal fueled the【B17】to an industrial society, so microelectronics is powering the【B18】of the information age. Microelectronic information management tools are【B19】U.S. industrial capability, which remains【B20】to America's economic well-being and national security.
【B1】
A. seeking
B. stimulating
C. shaping
D. securing
第三节 短文理解2
阅读下列短文,从[A]、[B]、[C]三个选项中选择一个正确答案。
Food in Britain has had a bad name abroad for a very long time. Visitors from foreign countries complain(抱怨) about the meals that they order in restaurants. The British themselves do not like to complain so the meals in restaurants are not always good.
But in a city like London there are many different kinds of food. There are so many restaurants serving foreign dishes that it can be difficult to find one serving only British food. The people who came from other countries have brought their own cooking to Britain so there are restaurants serving different kinds of foreign food.
Foreigners also complain about uninteresting meals served at home for the family. Though there are so many complaints about uninteresting food, there seems to be a great interest in cooking among people in Britain. Cooking books sell very well. Newspapers and magazines often offer(提供) unusual recipes from foreign countries as well as old recipes from the past and from many different places of Britain. These places of Britain offer some very good dishes. So there must be a lot of British people who live to eat, not eat to live.
If the British like to complain, the meals in restaurants may ______.
A. cost less
B. become better
C. be served a longer time