题目内容
B. approximately
C. relatively
D. reliably
名校课堂系列答案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. |
My husband and son took a New York-to-Milwaukee flight that was supposed to leave Friday at 11:29 am. The flight boarded after 4 pm and didn’t leave the gate until 4:40, and half an hour later the pilot announced it would be another hour until takeoff. At that point a Jewish family, worried about violating the Sabbath （安息日）, asked to get off. Going back to the gate cost the plane its place in line for takeoff, and the flight was eventually cancelled. Was the airline right to grant that request?
M. W, Norwalk, CONN.
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Situations like that can bring out the worst in people. But despite the increasing resentment（怨恨） of a plane full of people, the pilot tried to do the right thing. He went out of his way to satisfy one family’s urgent need. He should not have done so.
Passengers bought tickets in the belief that the airline’s primary goal was to get them to their destination as close to the schedule as possible. Once they got on the plane and the doors are locked, it’s not correct to announce that the rules have changed and that a personal (as opposed to medical) emergency —no matter how urgent — might take precedence（优先）.
That would be just as true if turning back to the gate had merely cost a few minutes rather than doomed the flight entirely, since on a plane, even a slight delay can spread outward, from the people in the cabin to those meeting them to the passengers waiting to board the plane for the next leg of its journey and so on. It would also be true if the personal emergency were not religious — if someone suddenly realized she’d made a professional mistake that might cost her millions, and she had to race back to the office to fix it.
If a religious practice does nothing to harm others, then airlines should make a reasonable effort to accommodate it. Though that family has every right to observe the Sabbath, it has no right to enlist an airplane full of captive bystanders to help them do so. By boarding a flight on a Friday afternoon, the family knowingly risked running into trouble. The risk was theirs alone to bear.
【小题1】M. W. wrote the letter to ask whether ______.
| A．Any religious passenger has the right to ask the pilot to take off |
| B．The airline has the right to cancel the flight without any reason |
| C．A flight should meet any passenger’s need despite others’ benefit |
| D．A plane which has left the gate should give up taking off |
| A．The pilot did the right thing in spite of the fierce resentment. |
| B．The plane should turn back if anyone aboard is seriously ill. |
| C．Anybody who has boarded has no chance to get off the plane. |
| D．Any flight shouldn’t change its schedule no matter what has happened. |
| A．Turning back to the gate usually takes a plane quite a long time. |
| B．Nobody should take precedence to require the plane to turn back to the gate. |
| C．Even if it had taken a few minutes it was not right to turn back to the gate. |
| D．It was OK if turning back to the gate hadn’t caused the flight to be cancelled. |
| A．It’s right for the plane to turn back to the gate to save a passenger’s treasure |
| B．The Jewish family should give up observing the Sabbath after boarding |
| C．The biggest problem of turning back is to bring trouble to the pilot |
| D．The Jewish family had better avoid boarding on Friday afternoon |