题目内容
If U.S. software companies don't pay more attention to quality, they could kiss their business good-bye. Both India and Brazil are developing a world-class software industry. Their weapon is quality and one of their jobs is to attract the top U.S. quality specialists whose voices are not listened to in their country.
Already, of the world's 12 software houses that have earned the highest rating in the world, seven are in India. That's largely because they have used new methods rejected by American software specialists. For example, for decades, quality specialists, W. Edwards Deming and J. M. Juran had urged U.S. software companies to change their attitudes to quality. But their quality call mainly fell on deaf ears in the U.S -- but not in Japan. By the 1970s and 1980s, Japan was grabbing market share with better, cheaper products. They used Deming's and Juran's ideas to bring down the cost of good quality to as little as 5% of total production costs. In U.S. factories, the cost of quality then was 10 times as high: 50%. In software, it still is.
Watts S. Humphrey spent 27 years at IBM heading up software production and then quality assurance. But his advice was seldom paid attention to. He retired from IBM in 1986. In 1987, he worked out a system for assessing(evaluating) and improving software quality. It has proved its value time and again. For example, in 1990 the cost of quality at Raytheon Electronics Systems was almost 60% of total software production costs. It fell to 15% in 1996 and has since further dropped to below 10%.
Like Deming and Juran, Humphrey seems to be winning more praises overseas than at home. The Indian government and several companies have just founded the Watts Humphrey Software Quality Institute at the Software Technology Park in Chennai, India. Let's hope that U.S. lead in software will not be eaten up by its quality problems.
48. What country has more highest-rating companies in the world than any other country has?
A. India. B. The US. C. Brazil. D. Germany.
49. Which of the following statements about Humphrey is true?
A. He is now still an IBM employer.
B. He has worked for IBM for 37 years.
C. India honors him highly.
D. The US pays much attention to his quality advice.
50. By what means did Japan grab its large market share by the 1970s and the 1980s?
A. Its advertising was most successful.
B. Its products were cheaper in price and better in quality.
C.The US hardware industry was lagging behind.
D. Japan hired a lot of Indian software specialists.
48---50 ACB
The gray-haired lady can’t wait to leave the building to search for her dad .Unless watched ,she will walk in the streets in an effort to find her father ,who died 30 years ago.
Not all cases of Alzheimer’s disease look like this ,but Alzheimer’s is a serious disease that is said to be the fourth or fifth leading cause of death for people over age 75.
It is said that about three percent of the U.S. population over age 65 have Alzheimer’s .In the early stages ,people may exhibit short term memory loss. Some may experience changes in personality , easy to be angry .As the disease progresses ,patients might lose the ability to move and may be unable to speak or move at all. This progressive disease generally lasts 8 to 10 years before death occurs.
While no one is certain what causes these changes in the brain’s nerve fibers （神经纤维）,their effect is certain .Alzheimer’s destroys not only the patients ,but also spouses（配偶）,friends and families.
What should you do if you notice progressive memory loss in yourself or a loved one? Have the person examined by a doctor who is a specialist in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
Though many reasons other than Alzheimer’s disease may cause memory loss ,its
early diagnosis（诊断）and treatment may delay some of the most serious effects.
What feeling will you likely experience should a loved one suffer from Alzheimer’ s disease? A person will often go through the various stages of sadness, shock ,anger ,and so on. If the spouse develops the disease ,you may experience hurt and disappointment when he or she doesn’t remember you are married.
Life for the Alzheimer’s patients and their loved ones will never be the same as the disease progresses ,bringing a deep sorrow ,loss and even anger towards God .No matter what feelings are present ,facing them honestly will serve one better than burying them.
【小题1】
What can be inferred from the passage about the gray-haired day?
| A．She has been living with her father. |
| B．She was sad about the death of her father. |
| C．She can’t search for her father without being watched. |
| D．She suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. |
．When people suffer from Alzheimer’s disease , ________.
| A．their families and friends will suffer from the same disease |
| B．their families and friends will experience mental sufferings |
| C．they will certainly die in 8 to 10 years |
| D．they will forget everybody but their spouses |
．Memory loss occurs ________.
| A．from Alzheimer’s disease and nothing else |
| B．from sadness ,shock ,anger ,and so on |
| C．for a number of reasons |
| D．with changes in personality |
Recently a group of children in America poured some gasoline on a sleeping man and set him on fire. When caught, the children said they had done what they’d seen on TV.
The incidents make people angry who believe that American children are harmed by watching too much TV. They claim children can’t tell between the fiction of TV and reality, and TV distracts them from learning and makes them violent.
To estimate the impact of TV on young people, “Life” magazine hires a company to interview hundreds of school children in Nora Springs, Iowa and in Dallas, Texas. Although the two cities are very different, the company finds children in each city watch the same TV shows.
Many Iowa children, who watch an average of three hours of TV a day, recognizing that life on TV is rosier than what they experience. Their favourite shows are situation comedies about American families in trouble. Many boys like violent shows about police detectives or heroes, girls particularly soap operas-stories about families and friends.
On the whole, children find real violence on news programs hard to take. “If you see a bus crash on the news, it’s frightening,” one fifth grader says. By and large, the Iowa children agree that the best thing about TV is it makes you laugh.
Children in Dallas are savvier about programs of drug use on TV. “They don’t really show them doing it right. On TV they are not real.” A fifth grader says.
“Life” agrees with a 1988 study by the U. S Department of education that finds children are none the worse for watching TV. The study finds TV doesn’t have lasting effect on children. On the contrary, kids show good judgment about what they watch. “There are very few good shows on TV anymore,” a 10-year-old boy says.
While the debate about TV is so heated, the “Life” survey gives hope that American kids aren’t wasting three or four hours a day (what is worse, by the time young people enter college today, they will have devoted more time to watching television than they will spend in college). However, a child watching TV isn’t reading a good book or joining in healthful sports.
1.The main idea of the passage is .
|
A．children who watch more TV are smarter than those who watch only one hour a day |
|
B．children learn about drugs from watching TV |
|
C．watching too much TV can cause children to go out and kill people |
|
D．children learn from TV and can tell reality from what they see on it |
2.Children who see real violence on TV news programs .
|
A．change the channel to watch other programs |
B．live in Iowa or Texas |
|
C．are sometimes upset and scared |
D．think TV gives a very positive image of friendship |
3.Children who enter college today .
|
A．usually cause the satisfaction of the society |
|
B．think life on TV is happier than their life at home |
|
C．have spent more time watching TV than they will spend in college |
|
D．watch most the same TV shows as children in Dallas |
4.The “Life” survey of children’s TV habits .
|
A．concludes that watching up to seven hours a day of TV is good for children |
|
B．agrees with the U.S. Department of Education study that finds few negative effects from watching TV |
|
C．concludes that there aren’t any good shows on TV any more |
|
D．concludes that children shouldn’t pour gasoline on sleeping man |