专八阅读训练：Importance of a Computer

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 individual.Several 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 behind.Already 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 potential.With 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.