The most frightening
words in the English language are, “Our computer is down.” You hear it more and
more when you are on business. The other day I was at the airport waiting for a
ticket to Washington and the girl in the ticket office said, “I’m sorry, I
can’t sell you a ticket. Our computer is down.”
“If your
computer is down, just write me out a ticket.”
“I can’t
write you out a ticket. The computer is the only one allowed to do so.”
I looked
down on the computer and every passenger was just standing there drinking
coffee and staring at the black screen. Then I asked her, “What do all you
people do?”
“We give
the computer the information about your trip, and then it tells us whether you
can fly with us or not.”
“So when
it goes down, you go down with it.”
“That’s
good, sir.”
“How long
will the computer be down?” I wanted to know.
“I have no
idea. Sometimes it’s down for 10 minutes, sometimes for two hours. There’s no
way we can find out without asking the computer, and since it’s down it won’t
answer us.”
After the
girl told me they had no backup(备用)
computer, I said. “Let’s forget the computer. What about your planes? They’re
still flying, aren’t they?”
“I
couldn’t tell without asking the computer.”
“Maybe I
could just go to the gate and ask the pilot if he’s flying to Washington, ” I
suggested.
“I
wouldn’t know what gate to send you to. Even if the pilot was going to
Washington, he couldn’t take you if you didn’t have a ticket.”
“Is there
any other airline flying to Washington within the next few hours?”
“I
wouldn’t know, ” she said, pointing at the dark screen. “Only ‘IT’ knows. ‘It’
can’t tell me.”
By this
time there were quite a few people standing in lines. The word soon spread to
other travelers that the computer was down. Some people went white, some people
started to cry and still others kicked their luggage.
1.The best title for
the article is _______.
A. When
the Computer Is Down B. The Most
Frightening Words
C. The
Computer of the Airport D.
Asking the Computer
2.What could the girl
in the ticket office do for the passengers without asking the computer?
A. She
could sell a
ticket.
B. She could write out a ticket.
C. She
could answer the passengers’ questions. D. She could do nothing.
3.Why do you think
they had not a backup computer?
A. Because
it was easy
down
B. Because it was very expensive.
C. Because
it was not advanced enough. D. Because it was not as
big as the main computer.
4.The last paragraph
suggests that _______.
A. a
modern computer won’t be down.
B.
computers can take the place of humans
C.
sometimes a computer may bring suffering to people
D. there
will be great changes in computers
