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Importance of a Computer
As citizens of advanced but vulnerable economies, we musteither relentlessly increase the quality of our skills or see ourstandard of living erode. For the future, competition betweennations will be increasingly based on technological skill. Oil andnatural resources will still be important, but they no longer willdetermine a nation’s economic strength. This will now be amatter of the way people organize them selves and the natureand quality of their work. Japan and the “new Japans “of EastAsia are demonstrating this point in ways that are becoming painfully obvious to the older industrialcountries.
There is simply no way to rest on our past achievements. Today’s competition rendersobsolete huge chunks of what we know and what forces us to innovate. For each ral careers will be customary, and continuing education and retraining will be inescapable. Toattain this extraordinary level of education, government, business, schools, and even individuals willturn to technology for the answer.
In industry, processing the information and designing the changes necessary to keep up withthe market has meant the growing use of computers. The schools are now following close ady some colleges in the United States are requiting a computer for each student. It isestimated that 500,000 computers are already in use in American high schools and elementaryschools. Although there is an abysmal lack of educational software, the number of computers inschools expands rapidly.
The computer is the Proteus of machines, as it takes on a thousand forms and serves athousand functions. But its truly revolutionary character can be seen in its interactive p advanced computers, learning can be individualized and self-paced. Teachers can becomemore productive and the entire learning environment enriched.
It is striking how much current teaching is a product of pencil and paper technology. With thecomputer’s capacity for simulation and diverse kinds of feedback, all sorts of new possibilities openup for the redesign of curriculums. Seymour Papert, the inventor of the computer languageLOGO, believes that concepts in physics and advanced mathematics can be taught in the earlygrades with the use of computers. On every-day level, word-processing significantly improves thecapacity for written expression. In terms of drill and practice, self-paced computer-assistedinstruction enables the student to advance rapidly—without being limited by the conflicting needsof the entire class. In short, once we learn to use this new brain outside the brain, education willnever be the same.
Industry, faced with the pressures of a rapidly shifting market, is already designing newmethods to retrain its workers, In the United States, a technological university has been set up toteach engineering courses by satellite. And the advances in telecommunications and computationalpower will dramatically expand the opportunities for national and international efforts in educationand training.
Without romanticizing the machine, it is clear that computers uniquely change the potential forequipping today’s citizens for unprecedented tasks of the future. Particularly in Europe and theUnited States, innovation will be the basis for continued prosperity.
New competitors are emerging to challenge the old economic arrangements. How successfullywe respond will depend on how much we invest in people and how wisely we employ the learningtools of the new technology.
1. What is the decisive factor in future competition between nations?
[A] Oil. [B] Technological skill.
[C] Natural resources [D] Education
2. The main idea of this passage is
[A] Knowledge of a Computer. [B] Importance of a Computer.
[C] Function of Knowledge. [C] Function of Technology.
3. Why does further study become indispensable?
[A] People want to so more jobs.
[B] People want to attain this extraordinary level of education.
[C] People would not rest on the past achievements.
[D] What we know becomes obsolete.
4. The word “Proteus” is closest in meaning to
[A] flexibility. [B] diversity. [C] variety. [D] multiplicity.
答案詳解：1. B. 工藝技術。這在第一段就講到“在未來，國與國之間的競爭越來越以工藝技術爲基礎。儘管石油和其他自然資源仍很重要，但它們不會再對一個國家的經濟實力起決定性的作用。”
A. 石油。 C. 自然資源，這兩項不是決定性因素。 D. 教育。文內教育作爲改革的一個方面，其重點是在學校內應用計算機，來改變教學質量，達到革新人才的'目的。並不是直接參與競爭。可參看第2題的答案及譯註。
2. B. 計算機的重要性。整篇文章都顯示了這一點。第三段“工業上，信息處理和制定必要的改革計劃以適應市場需要意味着越來越多使用計算機。學校緊跟工業之後……”第四段“計算機是一種變化多端，神通廣大的機器，因爲它顯示千種圖象，發揮千種功能。而它的真正的革命性可在其相互作用的潛能中看出。有了先進的計算機，學習可以個別進行，速度自行規定。教師變得更有成效……。”第五段“……由於利用計算機，在學校低年級就能教授物理學和高等數學概念……。”最後一段畫龍點睛地指出：“計算機獨一無二地改變着那種今天公民能擔當未來空前任務的潛能……新的競爭對手正在崛起，自由的經濟佈局提出挑戰。我們如何才能順利的應戰，取決於我們對人的投資的多寡，取決於我們怎麼聰慧地應用新技術的學習工具。”所以
A. 計算機知識。 C. 知識的功能。 D. 技術功能，這三項只是計算機重要性中涉及到的一個方面，不能作爲中心思想。
3. D. 因爲我們知道的一切變得陳舊。第二段頭幾句話“我們決不能吃老本，當今的競爭使我們的大部分知識變得陳舊，非加以革新不可。對每個人來說，他們將慣常從事某幾種職業，並且非繼續學習進修和從新接受訓練不可……。”都說明進修學習的原因。
A. 人們要做更多工作。文內沒有提到。 B. 人們要到達非同一般的教育水平。這是目的，不是原因。 C. 人們不能吃老本。這話並沒有完全講清楚全部原因。
4. A. 靈活多變。 Proteus 一詞，原義是指希臘神話中變幻無常的海神，普羅狄斯，他可以隨心所欲邊成各種形狀。這裏指靈活多變。
