装备指挥技术学院2010年博士研究生招生考博英语真题

　　Passage 2

　　One pertinent question in the wake of the earthquake near Aceh and the tsunami (海啸) it generated is how much notice of an approaching wave can be given to vulnerable people without the risk of crying “wolf” too often. Earthquakes themselves are unpredictable, and likely to remain so. But detecting them when they happen is a routine technology. That was not the problem in this case, which was observed by monitoring stations all over the world. Unfortunately for the forecasters, although any powerful submarine earthquake brings the risk of a dangerous tsunami, not all such earthquakes actually result in a big wave, and false alarms cost money and breed cynicism.

　　On top of that, most “tsunamigenic” earthquakes, which are caused when the processes of plate tectonics force heavy, oceanic crustal rock below lighter, continental rock to create a deep trench at the bottom of the sea, occur in the Pacific, which is almost surrounded by such trenches. In the Indian Ocean, deep trenches are confined to the southern coast of Indonesia, and tsunamis are rare. Since most of the countries affected by this tsunami are poor, or middleincome at best, and monitoring costs money, this might suggest that a fatalistic approach to the question is reasonable. But American and Japanese experience suggests that effective monitoring need not be that expensive.

　　These two countries have networks of seabed pressuredetectors that can monitor tsunamis and indicate whether and where evacuation is necessarydata they share with their Pacific neighbours. A system of seven detectors, run from Hawaii, cost about $18m to develop, and the experience gained doing so means a similar system might now be had for as little as $2m. So, to the sound of stable doors being bolted firmly shut, politicians in SouthEast Asia and Australia are proposing one for the Indian Ocean.

　　Even if you have an effective detection system, though, it is useless if you cannot evacuate a threatened area. Here, speed is of the essence. Computer modelling can help show which areas are likely to be safest, but common sense is often the best guiderun like the wind, away from the sea. Evacuation warnings, too, should be easy to give as long as people are awake. Radios are ubiquitous, even in most poor places. It is just a matter of having systems in place to tell the radio stations to tell people to run. The problem was that no one did.

　　41. An important question raised after the Tsunami is that _____ .

　　A. how to help those helpless people

　　B. how to detect the happening of tsunami

　　C. how to predict tsunamigenic earthquakes

　　D. how people should be cautiously warned

　　42. To the forecasters, the troublesome problem is _____ .

　　A. it’s hard to tell disastrous submarine earthquake

　　B. people don’t take much notice of their warning

　　C. tsunamis are rare

　　D. where to get money for the false alarms

　　43. Which of the following is true according to the passage?

　　A. Big waves depend on the intensity of earthquake.

　　B. Most earthquakes that cause tsunamis happen in the Pacific.

　　C. Tsunamis often occur along the coast of Indonesia.

　　D. Trenches at the bottom of the sea create tsunamis.

　　44. To the countries in South East Asia, building a tsunami monitoring system _____.

　　A. is what they can not afford

　　B. is not a practical solution

　　C. won’t cost a lot of money

　　D. is effective but expensive

　　45. It is implied in the last paragraph that .

　　A. people should be taught how to escape the tsunami

　　B. a sound detection system could have saved the disaster

　　C. radio stations neglected their responsibilities

　　D. the heavy loss in the South East tsunami could have been less

　　Passage 3

　　The Internet, E-commerce and globalization are making a new economic era possible. By the middle of the 21st century, capitalist markets will largely be replaced by a new kind of economic system based on networked relationships, contractual arrangements and access rights.

　　Has the quality of our lives at work, at home and in our communities increased in direct proportion to all the new Internet and business-to-business Internet services being introduced into our lives? I have asked this question of hundreds of CEOS and corporate executives in Europe and the United States. Surprisingly, virtually everyone has said, “ No, quite contrary.”

　　The very people responsible for ushering in what some have called a “technological renaissance” say they are working longer hours, feel more stressed, are more impatient, and are even less civil in their dealings with colleagues and friends---not to mention strangers. And what’s more revealing, they place much of the blame on the very same technologies they are so aggressively championing.

　　The techno gurus promised us that access would make life more convenient and give us more time. Instead, the very technological wonders that were supposed to liberate us have begun to enslave us in a web of connections from which there seems to be no easy escape.

　　If an earlier generation was preoccupied with the quest to enclose a vast geographic frontier, the .com generation, it seems, is more caught up in the colonization of time. Every spare moment of our time is being filled with some form of commercial connection, making time itself the most scarce of all resources. Our e-mail, voice mail and cell phones, our 24-hour Internet news and entertainment all holler for our attention

　　And while we have created every kind of labor-and time-saving device to service our needs, we are beginning to feel like we have less time available to us than any other humans in history. That is because the great proliferation of labor-and-time-saving services only increases the diversity, pace and flow of commodified. activity around us. For example, e-mail is a great convenience. However, we now find ourselves spending much of our day frantically responding to each other’s electronic messages. The cell phone is a great time-saver. Except now we are always potentially in reach of someone else who wants our attention.

　　Social conservatives talk about the decline in civility and blame it on the loss of a moral compass and religious values .Has anyone bothered to ask whether the hyperspeed culture is making all of us less patient and less willing to listen and defer, consider and reflect?

　　Maybe we need to ask what kinds of connections really count and what types of access really matter in the e-economy era. If this new technology revolution is only about hyperefficiency, then we risk losing something even precious than time -----our sense of what it means to be a caring human being.

　　46. The author suggests that the most resource in today’s society is _____ .

　　A. technology B. economic assets C. access to information D. time

　　47.We learn from this passage that many executives feel that _____ .

　　A. technological advances are essential to today’s economic system

　　B. technology has actually led to decline in their quality of life

　　C. longer hours are making their workers more impatient and uncivil

　　D. technology can be blamed for many of today’s social problems

　　48.The phrase “the colonization of time” (line 2,para.4. refers to _____.

　　A. the filling of every moment of time with commercial transactions

　　B. the quest for efficiency in the workplace

　　C. the growing use of electronic mail and other time-saving services

　　D. the impact of technology on our sense of time

　　49. In the fifth paragraph the author suggests that _____ .

　　A. new technologies may make people more impatient

　　B. social conservatives do not understand the importance of technology

　　C. the speed of modern culture may impact our moral and religious values.

　　D people in the technology sector are less civil than those in other fields

　　50. The best title for the passage could be_____.

　　A. The future of the technological Renaissance

　　B. Even Corporate Executives Get the Blues

　　C. The New Internet Economy

　　D. The Disadvantages of Too much Access

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