But Sholes had a problem. On his first model, his "ABC" key arrangement caused the keys to jam when the typist worked quickly. Sholes didn' t know how to keep the keys from sticking, so his solution was to keep the typist from typing too fast.Sholes asked his brother-in-law to rearrange the keyboard so that the commonest letters were not so close together and the type bars would come from opposite directions. Thus they would not clash together and jam the machine.The new arrangement was the QWERTY arrangement typists use today. Of course, Sholes claimed that the new arrangement was scientific and would add speed and efficiency. The only efficiency it added was to slow the typist down, since almost any word in the English language required the typist' s fingers to cover more distance on the keyboard.

　　The advantages of the typewriter outweighed the disadvantages of the keyboard. Typists memorized the crazy letter arrangement, and the typewriter became a huge success. By the time typists had memorized the new arrangement of letters and built their speed, typewriter technology had improved, and the keys didn' t stick as badly as they had at first.

　　Questions 1 to 5 are based on the passage above.

　　1.We know from the passage that the inventor of the first practical typewriter is_____.

　　A.Henry Mill

　　B.Christopher Latham Sholes

　　C.Sholes'brother-in-law

　　D.Allbert Einstein

　　2.The author thinks the machine invented by Henry Mill could not be sold because_____.

　　A.it was difficult for people to accept new things

　　B.there were great disadvantages of the keyboard

　　C.the machine could not be distinguished from print

　　D.the name of the machine was too long

　　3.Sholes decided the QWERTY arrangement of the keyboard in order to_____.

　　A.arrange the letters in alphabetical order

　　B.cause the keys to jam when the typist worked quickly

　　C.solve the problem of the keys jamming

　　D.compete with "ABC" key arrangement

　　4.It is inferred that the QWERTY arrangement of the keyboard_____.

　　A.is the most scientific arrangement

　　B.adds speed and efficiency of typists

　　C.keeps the typist from typing too fast

　　D.is easy for typists to memorize

　　5.Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?

　　A.The Arrangement of The Letters on Keyboard

　　B.The Story of Christopher Latham Sholes

　　C.How to Invent The Typewriter

　　D.The First Practical Typewriter

　　參考答案：

　　1.選B.本題為主要細節正誤題。第三段第一句說“The first practical typewriter was patented in the United States in 1868 by Christopher Latham Sholes.”，由此可知，B選項正確。

　　2.選D.本題為觀點態度推斷題。第二段最后一句“That machine probably didn't sell because no one could remember its name!”可推知，坐著認為機器可能賣不出去是因為它的名字太長了，沒有人能記住。

　　3.選C.本題為觀點態度推斷題。從第四段“……his "ABC" key arrangement caused the keys to jam when the typist worked quickly. ”可知，肖爾斯決定“QWERTY”這種排列是為了解決“ABC”鍵這種排列所引起的“鍵堵塞”問題。

　　4.選C.本題為主要細節正誤題。從第四段中的“……his solution was to keep the typist from typing too fast.”和“The only efficiency it added was to slow the typist down……”可知，QWERTY排列只能讓打字員的打字速度慢下來，C選項與其意思一致。

　　5.選A.本題為主旨歸納題。第一段的“Who decided on this arrangement of the letters? And why?”是全文的主旨句，文章后面的內容都是圍繞這兩個問題展開的。

　　大學英語六級閱讀復習題:

　　The British psychoanalyst John Bowlby maintains that separation from the parents during the sensitive “attachment” period from birth to three may scar a child's personality and predispose to emotional problems in later life. Some people have drawn the conclusion from Bowlby's work that children should not be subjected to day care before the age of three because of the parental separation it entails， and many people do believe this. But there are also arguments against such a strong conclusion.

　　Firstly， anthropologists point out that the insulated love affair between children and parents found in modern societies does not usually exist in traditional societies. For example， we saw earlier that among the Ngoni the father and mother of a child did not rear their infant alone——far from it. Secondly， common sense tells us that day care would not so widespread today if parents， caretakers found children had problems with it. Statistical studies of this kind have not yet been carried out， and even if they were， the results would be certain to be complicated and controversial.

　　Thirdly， in the last decade， there have been a number of careful American studies of children in day care， and they have uniformly reported that day care had a neutral or slightly positive effect on children's development. But tests that have had to be used to measure this development are not widely enough accepted to settle the issue.

　　But Bowlby's analysis raises the possibility that early day care has delayed effects. The possibility that such care might lead to， say， more mental illness or crime 15 or 20 years later can only be explored by the use of statistics. Whatever the long-term effects， parents sometimes find the immediate effects difficult to deal with. Children under three are likely to protest at leaving their parents and show unhappiness. At the age of three or three and a half almost all children find the transition to nursery easy， and this is undoubtedly why more and more parents make use of child care at this time. The matter， then， is far from clear-cut， though experience and available evidence indicate that early care is reasonable for infants.

　　1.This passage primarily argues that ___.

　　A.infants under the age of three should not be sent to nursery schools.

　　B.whether children under the age of three should be sent to nursery schools.

　　C.there is not negative long-term effect on infants who are sent to school before they are three.

　　D.there is some negative effect on children when they are sent to school after the age of three.

　　2.The phrase “predispose to” (Para. 1， line 3) most probably means ___.

　　A.lead to

　　B.dispose to

　　C.get into

　　D.tend to suffer

　　3.According to Bowlby's analysis， it is quite possible that ___.

　　A.children's personalities will be changed to some extent through separation from their parents.

　　B.early day care can delay the occurrence of mental illness in children.

　　C.children will be exposed to many negative effects from early day care later on.

　　D.some long-term effects can hardly be reduced from children's development.

　　4.It is implied but not stated in the second paragraph that ___.

　　A.traditional societies separate the child from the parent at an early age.

　　B.Children in modern societies cause more troubles than those in traditional societies.

　　C.A child did not live together with his parents among the Ngoni.

　　D.Children in some societies did not have emotional problems when separated from the parents.

　　5.The writer concludes that ___.

　　A.it is difficult to make clear what is the right age for nursery school.

　　B.It is not settled now whether early care is reasonable for children.

　　C.It is not beneficial for children to be sent to nursery school.

　　D.It is reasonable to subject a child above three to nursery school.

　　參考答案：

　　BCCCD