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．closebit

B．heavyloss

C．narrow escape

D．bigmistake

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 .

1.

What did Paula Ceely think was the cause of her accident?           

 A. She was not familiar with the road.           

 B. It was dark and raining heavily then.   

C. The railway works failed to give the signal.

D. Her GPS device didn’t tell her about the crossing

2.

The phrase”near miss” (paragraph 2 ) can best be replaced by _______.    

A. closebit                    B. heavy loss             C.narrow escape         D. big mistake    

3.

Which of the following would Rick Stevenson most probably agree with?          A. Modern technology is what we can’t live without.

B. Digital technology often falls short of out expectation.    

C. Digital devices are more reliable than they used to be.   

D. GPS error is not the only cause for Celery’s accident. 

4.

In the writer’s opinion, Stevenson’s argument is________.

A. one-sided     B. reasonable      C.puzzling      D.well-based

5.

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. The shortcomings of digital devices we use.           

D. The human unawareness  of technical problems.

（2011·浙江卷）A

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 .

 41 .What did Paula Ceely think was the cause of her accident?           

 A. She was not familiar with the road.           

 B. It was dark and raining heavily then.   

C. The railway works failed to give the signal.

D. Her GPS device didn’t tell her about the crossing

   42.The phrase” near miss” (paragraph 2 ) can best be replaced by _______.             

A. close bit                    B. heavy loss             C.narrow escape         D. big mistake      

  43.Which of the following would Rick Stevenson most probably agree with?             

A. Modern technology is what we can’t live without.            

B. Digital technology often falls short of out expectation.            

C. Digital devices are more reliable than they used to be.             

D. GPS error is not the only cause for Celery’s accident. 

44.In the writer’s opinion, Stevenson’s argument is________.

A. one-sided     B. reasonable      C.puzzling      D.well-based

45.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. The shortcomings of digital devices we use.           

D. The human unawareness  of technical problems.

2010 was the year the Earth struck back.

   Earthquakes, heat waves, floods, volcanoes, super typhoons, blizzards (暴风雪), landslides and droughts killed at least a quarter million people in 2010 – the deadliest year in more than a generation. More people were killed worldwide by natural disasters this year than have been killed in terrorism attacks in the past 40 years combined.

   “It just seemed like it was back-to-back(接二连三) and it came in waves,” said Craig Fugate, who heads the US Federal Emergency Management Agency. It handled a record number of disasters in 2010.

“The term “100-year event’ really lost its meaning this year.”

And we have ourselves to blame most of the time, scientists and disaster experts say.

Even though many disasters have the ring of random chance, the hand of man made this a particularly deadly, costly, extreme and strange year for everything from wild weather to earthquakes.

Poor construction and development practices make earthquakes more deadly than they need be. More people live in poverty in vulnerable buildings（危房） in crowded cities. That means that when the ground shakes, the river floods, or the tropical cyclone hits, more people die.

Disasters from the Earth, such as earthquakes and volcanoes “are pretty much constant,” said Andreas Schraft, vice president of catastrophic perils for the Geneva-based insurance giant Swiss Re. “All the change that’s made is man-made.”

The January earthquake that killed well more than 220,000 people in Haiti is a perfect example. Port-au-Prince has nearly three times as many people – many of them living in poverty- and more poorly built shanties(棚户区) ,than it did 25 years ago. So had the same quake hit in 1985 instead of 2010; total deaths would have probably been in the 80,000 range, said Richard Olson, director of disaster risk reduction at Florida International University.

Climate scientists say Earth’s climate also is changing thanks to man-made global warming, bringing extreme weather, such as heat waves and flooding.

The excessive(过多的) amount of extreme weather that dominated 2010 is a classic sign of man-made global warming that climate scientists have long warned about. They calculate that the killer Russian heat wave – setting a national record of 111 degrees – would happen once every 100,000 years without global warming.

Data show that 18 countries broke their records for the hottest day ever.

“The Earth strikes back in response to bad human decision-making,” said Debarati Guha Sapir.” “It’s almost as if the policies, the government policies and development policies, are helping the Earth strike back instead of protecting from it. We’ve created conditions where the slightest thing the Earth does is really going to have a surprising impact.” White House science adviser John Holdren said we should get used to climate disasters or do something about global warming. “The science is clear that we can expect more and more of these kinds of damaging events unless and until society has sharply reduced the amount of heat-trapping gases and particles(颗粒).”

1.From paragraph 1 to paragraph 3, we learn   ___________________________.

   A. what natural disasters mean to the people all over the world

   B. how terrorism attacks struck in the past four decades

   C. how the Earth struck back in 2010

   D. why the world saw so many disasters in 2010

2.The author gives the example of the big earthquake in Haiti to show that     ___________ .

   A. poor construction largely accounts for more deaths than expected

   B. man’s behaviours are to blame for the constant occurrence of natural disasters

   C. the extreme weather mainly contributes to the disaster of the quake

   D. the country’s poverty and over- crowdedness results in the disaster

3. Which of the following would Debarati Guha Sapir most probably agree with?

   A. Environment protection should be taken into account in policy-making.

   B. Natural disasters are causing increase.

   C. The earth wouldn’t strike back but for the destruction by man.

   D. Conditions should be created to rid the influence of disasters.

4. According to John Holdren, the best way to cut back on the number of natural disasters is    __________________ .

   A. to forecast the happening of natural disasters accurately

   B. to build stronger houses that can stand severe earthquakes and floods

   C. to make better decisions and policies of city development

   D. to send out much fewer greenhouse gases and particles

5.What is the real concern of the writer of this article?

   A. The major causes of natural disasters.

   B. The human unawareness of environment protection.

   C. The harmonious relationship between humans and nature.

   D. The serious results of global warming and earthquakes.