题目内容
The abacus (算盘) is the a__________ of the modern computer.
ancestor
| The computer is a useful machine. It is the most important invention in many years. The oldest kind of computer is the abacus (算盘), invented in China centuries ago, but the first large, modem computer was built in 1946. A computer then could do maths problems very fast. Today computers are used in many ways and can do many kinds of work. In a few years the computer may touch the life of everyone, even people in the faraway villages. In the last few years, there have been great changes in computers. They are getting smaller and smaller, and computing faster and faster. Many scientists agree that computers can now do many things, but they cannot do everything. Who knows what the computers of tomorrow will be like? Will computers bring good things or bad things to people? The scientists of today will have to decide how to use the computers of tomorrow. ( ) 1. The computer is a________ machine. A. helpful B. strange C. large D. dangerous ( ) 2. The first large, modem computer was built about________ years ago. A. a few B. forty C. sixty D. eighty ( ) 3. The computer of today are________ than before. A. bigger B. fewer C. smaller D. taller ( ) 4. Computers can do________ . A. everything B. anything C. nothing D. lots of things |
In England you can visit Stonehenge, where a mysterious collection of large stones has stood since 1,500 BC. Scientists have never discovered the stones’ purpose. However, by observing the way the sun shines between the stones, many people believe Stonehenge was used to predict the seasons and eclipses (蚀) of the sun and the moon. 
Another early method of computing was a brass calculator, which existed in Spain nearly 1,000 years ago. The machine was shaped like a human head, with numbers instead of teeth. The shape became its undoing; some people were afraid the machine was supernatural, and destroyed it. In early recorded history, calculators that used the sun, or objects in the night sky, were developed to be used on ships to explore the world beyond the Tigris-Euphrates Valley of southwestern Asia. One such device, dating from the first century, worked with a system of gears designed to track the orbits of stars and planets. These orbits became the marked routes for ships.