Part Ⅲ Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)
Directions: This part is to test your reading ability. There are some tasks for you to fulfill. You should read the reading materials carefully and do the tasks as you are instructed.
Task 1
Directions: After reading the following passage, you will find 5 questions or unfinished statements, numbered 36 through 40. For each question or statement there are 4 choices marked A), B), C) or D). You should make the correct choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre.
When the steam engine was invented in the eighteenth century, it began one of the greatest revolutions that have ever happened in our world. The invention of the petrol engine at the end of the nineteenth century led to another enormous change in our lives. And the computer is almost certainly going to be no less important an invention than these engines were.
Just as there was a Stone Age, an Iron Age and so on, we have been living for centuries in a Paper Age, during which almost all information was kept and sent on paper; and so much of it is wasted after it has been used once that enormous numbers of trees have to be cut down every year to provide us with this paper. But now, with the computer, enormous amounts of information can be stored and sent without any paper at all, using small discs or the Internet.
Computers have made it possible to do very difficult calculations very much faster than any earlier machine could. Computers also allow one to send information to others anywhere in the world, via the telephone line, and to receive information from them. One can send a very long message more quickly from England to Australia, for example, than
from one's house to someone in the garden. Computers are not only used for writing; they can produce diagrams and pictures, and they can be used for playing games. One now sees them at airports and railway stations, in hotels and restaurants; in fact, almost everywhere where people gather.
36. The author seems to say that the invention of the computer is ____________.
A) less important than that of the steam and petrol engines
B) far more important than that of the steam and petrol engines
C) at least as important as that of the steam and petrol engines
D) not so important as that of the steam and petrol engines
37. According to the author the disadvantage of using paper to keep and send information is that ____________.
A) it damages the environment
B) there is too much paper around
C) it wastes our time
D) it is hard to get enough paper
38. We may infer that the fastest way for the computer to send messages is by using ____________.
A) the telephone line
B) air mail
C) discs
D) paper
39. Which of the following functions of the computer is not mentioned in the passage?
A) Offering entertainment.
B) Making phone calls.
C) Doing office and business work.
D) Handling information.
40. The title that best expresses the main idea of the passage is ____________.
A) Computer and Our Daily Life
B) Computer and Our Future
C) Paper Age and Computer Age
D) Computer Age
责任编辑：mman
