题目内容
The line was busy; someone ________ the telephone.
- A.may be using
- B.may have used
- C.must have been using
- D.can be using
One evening in February 2007 . a student named Paula Ceely brought her car to a stop on a remote in Wales . She got out to open a metal gate that blocked her path . That's when she heard the whistle sounded by the driver of a train.Her Renault Clio parked across a railway line. Second later,she watched the train drag her car almost a kilometre down the railway tracks.
Ceely's near miss made the news because she blamed it on her GPS device(导航仪).She had never driven the route before .It was dark and raining heavily . Ceely was relying on her GPS. But it made no mention of the crossing ."I put my complete trust in the device and it led me right into the path of a speeding train ,"she told the BBC.
W ho is to blame here ? Rick Stevenson ,who tells Ceely's story in his book When Machines Fail US, finger at the limitations of technology. We put our faith in digital devices, he says,
but our digital helpers are too often not up to the job. They are filled with small problems. And it’s not just GPS devices: Stevenson takes us on a tour of digital disasters involving everything from mobile phones to wireless key boards.
The problem with his argument in the book is that it’s not clear why he only focuses digital technology,while there may be a number of other possible causes. A map-maker might have left the crossing off a paper map. Maybe we should blame Ceely for not paying attention. perhaps the railway authorities are at fault for poor signaling system. Or maybe someone has studied the relative dangers and worked out that there really is something specific wrong with the CPS equipment. But Stevenson doesn’t say.
It’s a problem that runs through the book. In a section on cars, Stevenson gives an accout of the advanced techniques that criminals use to defeat computer-based locking systems for cars. He offers two independent sets of figures on car theft; both show a small rise in some parts of the country. He 
says that once once again not all new locks have proved reliable. Perhaps, but maybe it’s also due to the shortage of policemen on the streets. Or changing social circumstances. Or some combination of these factors .
The game between humans and their smart devices is complex. It is shaped by economics and psychology and the cultures we live in. Somewhere in the mix of those forces there may be way a wiser use of technology.
If there is such a way, it should involve more than just an awareness of the shortcomings of our machines. After all, we have lived with them for thousands of years. They have probably been fooling us for just as long .
【小题1】
What did 
Paula Ceely think was the cause of her accident?
| A．Shewasnotfamiliarwiththeroad. |
| B．Itwasdarkandrainingheavilythen. |
| C．The railway works failed to give the signal. |
| D．Her GPS device didn’t tell her about the crossing |
The phrase”near miss” (paragraph 2 ) can best be replaced by _______.
A．close bit | B．heavyloss | C．narrow escape | D．bigmistake |
Which of the following would Rick Stevenson most probably agree with?
| A．Moderntechnologyiswhatwe can’tlivewithout. |
| B．Digitaltechnologyoftenfalls shortofoutexpectation. |
| C．Digitaldevicesaremore reliablethantheyusedtobe. |
| D．GPSerrorisnottheonly causeforCelery’saccident. |
In the writer’s opinion, Stevenson’s argument is________.
| A．one-sided | B．reasonable | C．puzzling | D．well-based |
What is the real concern of the writer of this article?
| A．The major causes of traffic accidents and car thefts. |
| B．The relationship between humans and technology |
| C．Theshortcomingsofdigital devicesweuse. |
| D．Thehuman unawarenessoftechnicalproblems. |
After more than a year of bitter political debate, President Obama sat down in the White House East Room on March 23 and signed the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law with a pen，and then another pen，and another. Obama used 22 pens to sign the 
$938 billion health care bill.
The practice of using different pens to sign important legislation（法规）dates at least as far back as Franklin Roosevelt. The reason is fairly simple. The pen used to sign historic legislation itself becomes a historical artifact. The more pens a President uses, the more thank-you gifts he can offer to those who helped create that piece of history. The White House often give pens to supporters of the newly signed legislation. When Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, he reportedly used more than 75 pens and gave one of the first ones to Martin Luther King Jr. And in 1996, President Clinton gave the four pens he used to sign the Line-Item Veto bill to those most likely to appreciate the bill's consequence.
Once they're given away, some pens end up in museums; others are displayed proudly in recipients'(接受者) offices or homes. But they sometimes appear again, like in the 2008 presidential campaign（竞选活动）, when John Macain promised to use the same pen given to him by President Reagan to 
cut pork from the federal budget.
Not
every President goes for the multipen signature, however. President George W. Bush preferred signing bills with only one pen and then offering several unuse
d "gift" pens as souvenirs.
【小题1】.We can learn from paragraph 1 that the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act .
| A．has been passed easily |
| B．was put forward one year ago |
| C．becomes law in the USA |
| D．is unimportant |
| A．Supporters of the newly signed legislation are likely to get some of them. |
| B．Obama will keep them. |
| C．They will be just set aside |
| D．They will be sold to the public at a high price. |
A. He was ever President in the USA.
B. He took part in the 2008 presidential campaign.
C. He never used the pen given by Reagan.
D. He was only concerned about his own business.
【小题4】What does this passage mainly tell us ?[来源:学。科。网]
A. Obama signed the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
B. It is a practice to use multiple pens to sign important legislation in the USA.
C. Pens are necessary in the signature.
D. All the presidents like the multipen signature.