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Part II Reading Comprehension (35 minutes)
Directions: There are 4 reading passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage.
In the 1920s demand for American farm products fell, as European countries began to recover from World War I and instituted austerity (緊縮) programs to reduce their imports. The result was a sharp drop in farm prices. This period was more disastrous for farmers than earlier times had been, because farmers were no longer self-sufficient. They were paying for machinery, seed, and fertilizer, and they were also buying consumer goods. The prices of the items farmers bought remained constant, while prices they received for their products fell. These developments were made worse by the Great Depression, which began in 1929 and extended throughout the 1939s.
In 1929, under President Herbert Hoover, the Federal Farm Board was organized. It established the principle of direct interference with supply and demand, and it represented the first national commitment to provide greater economic stability for farmers.
President Hoover’s successor attached even more importance to this problem. One of the first measures proposed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he took office in 1933 was the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which was subsequently passed by Congress. This law gave the Secretary of Agriculture the power to reduce production through voluntary agreements with farmers who were paid to take their land out of use. A deliberate scarcity of farm products was planned in an effort to raise prices. This law was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on the grounds that general taxes were being collected to pay one special group of people. However, new laws were passed immediately that achieved the same result of resting soil and providing flood-control measures, but which were based on the principle of soil conservation. The Roosevelt Administration believed that rebuilding the nation’s soil was in the national interest and was not simply a plan to help farmers at the expense of other citizens. Later the government guaranteed loans to farmers so that they could buy farm machinery, hybrid (雜交) grain, and fertilizers.
21. What brought about the decline in the demand for American farm products?
A) The impact of the Great Depression.
B) The shrinking of overseas markets.
C) The destruction caused by the First World War.
D) The increased exports of European countries.
22. The chief concern of the American government in the area of agriculture in the 1920s was ________.
A) to increase farm production
B) to establish agricultural laws
C) to prevent farmers from going bankrupt
D) to promote the mechanization of agriculture
23. The Agricultural Adjustment Act encouraged American farmers to ________.
A) reduce their scale of production
B) make full use of their land
C) adjust the prices of their farm products
D) be self-sufficient in agricultural production
24. The Supreme Court rejected the Agricultural Adjustment Act because it believed that the Act ________.
A) might cause greater scarcity of farm products
B) didn’t give the Secretary of Agriculture enough power
C) would benefit neither the government nor the farmers
D) benefited one group of citizens at the expense of others
25. It was claimed that the new laws passed during the Roosevelt Administration were aimed at ________.
A) reducing the cost of farming
B) conserving soil in the long-term interest of the nation
C) lowering the burden of farmers
D) helping farmers without shifting the burden onto other taxpayers
Passage Two
Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.
In the 1950s, the pioneers of artificial intelligence (AI) predicted that, by the end of this century, computers would be conversing with us at work and robots would be performing our housework. But as useful as computers are, they’re nowhere close to achieving anything remotely resembling these early aspirations for humanlike behavior. Never mind something as complex as conversation: the most powerful computers struggle to reliably recognize the shape of an object, the most elementary of tasks for a ten-month-old kid.
A growing group of AI researchers think they know where the field went wrong. The problem, the scientists say, is that AI has been trying to separate the highest, most abstract levels of thought, like language and mathematics, and to duplicate them with logical, step-by-step programs. A new movement in AI, on the other hand, takes a closer look at the more roundabout way in which nature came up with intelligence. Many of these researchers study evolution and natural adaptation instead of formal logic and conventional computer programs. Rather than digital computers and transistors, some want to work with brain cells and proteins. The results of these early efforts are as promising as they are peculiar, and the new nature-based AI movement is slowly but surely moving to the forefront of the field.
Imitating the brain’s neural (神經(jīng)的) network is a huge step in the right direction, says computer scientist and biophysicist Michael Conrad, but it still misses an important aspect of natural intelligence. “People tend to treat the brain as if it were made up of color-coded transistors”, he explains, “but it’s not simply a clever network of switches. There are lots of important things going on inside the brain cells themselves.” Specifically, Conrad believes that many of the brain’s capabilities stem from the pattern recognition proficiency of the individual molecules that make up each brain cell. The best way to build and artificially intelligent device, he claims, would be to build it around the same sort of molecular skills.
Right now, the option that conventional computers and software are fundamentally incapable of matching the processes that take place in the brain remains controversial. But if it proves true, then the efforts of Conrad and his fellow AI rebels could turn out to be the only game in town.
26. The author says that the powerful computers of today ________.
A) are capable of reliably recognizing the shape of an object
B) are close to exhibiting humanlike behavior
C) are not very different in their performance from those of the 50’s
D) still cannot communicate with people in a human language
27. The new trend in artificial intelligence research stems from ________.
A) the shift of the focus of study on to the recognition of the shapes of objects
B) the belief that human intelligence cannot be duplicated with logical, step-by-step programs
C) the aspirations of scientists to duplicate the intelligence of a ten-month-old child
D) the efforts made by scientists in the study of the similarities between transistors and brain cells
28. Conrad and his group of AI researchers have been making enormous efforts to ________.
A) find a roundabout way to design powerful computers
B) build a computer using a clever network of switches
C) find out how intelligence developed in nature
D) separate the highest and most abstract levels of thought
29. What’s the author’s opinion about the new AI movement?
A) It has created a sensation among artificial intelligence researchers but will soon die out.
B) It’s a breakthrough in duplicating human thought processes.
C) It’s more like a peculiar game rather than a real scientific effort.
D) It may prove to be in the right direction though nobody is sure of its future prospects.
30. Which of the following is closest in meaning to the phrase “the only game in town” (Line 3, Para. 4)?
A) The only approach to building an artificially intelligent computer.
B) The only way for them to win a prize in artificial intelligence research.
C) The only area worth studying in computer science.
D) The only game they would like to play in town.
