The "paperless office" has earned a proud place on lists of technological promises that didnot come to pass. Surely, though, the more modest goal of he carbon-paperless office is withinthe reach of mankind? Carbon paper allows two copies of a document to be made at once.Nowadays, a couple of keystrokes can do the same thing with a lot less fuss.

　　Yet carbon paper persists. Forms still need to be filled out in a way that produces copies.This should not come as a surprise. Innovation tends to create new niches( 合適的職業), ratherthan refill those that already exist. So technologies may become marginal, but they rarely goextinct. And today the little niches in which old technologies take refuge are ever more viableand accessible, thanks to the Internet and the fact that production no longer needs to be somass; making small numbers of obscure items is growing easier.

　　On top of that, a widespread Technology of nostalgia(技術懷舊 ) seeks to preserve all theways people have ever done anything, simply because they are kind of neat. As a resulttechnologies from all the way back to the stone age persist and even flourish in the modernworld. According to What Technology Wants, a book by Kevin Kelly, one of the founders ofWired magazine, America's flintknappers (燧石) produce over a million new arrow and spearheads every year. One of the things technology wants, it seems, is to survive.

　　Carbon paper, to the extent that it may have a desire for self-preservation, may also takecomfort in the fact that, for all that this is a digital age, many similar products are hanging on,and even making comebacks. Indeed, digital technologies may prove to be more transient thantheir predecessors. They are based on the idea that the medium on which a file's constituent0s and 1s are stored doesn't matter, and on Alan Turing's insight that any computer canmimic any other, given memory enough and time. This suggests that new digital technologiesshould be able to wipe out their predecessors completely. And early digital technologies doseem to be vanishing. The music cassette is enjoying a little renaissance, its very faithlessnessapparently part of its charm; but digital audio tape seems doomed.

　　So revolutionary digital technologies may yet discard older ones to the dustbin. Perhapsthis will be the case with a remarkable breakthrough in molecular(分子的) technology thatcould, in principle, store all the data ever recorded in a device that could fit in the back of avan. In this instance, it would not be a matter of the new extinguishing the old. Though it maynever have been used for MP3s and PDFs before, DNA has been storing data for over threebillion years. And it shows no sign of going extinct.

　　56. Which of the following is TRUE about the carbon paper?

　　A) It is the key to paperless office.

　　B) It will be replaced by the computer soon.

　　C) It is more troublesome than the computer.

　　D) It can hardly survive in the digital age.

　　57. According to the passage, "viable" ( Line 4, Para. 2) means __

　　A) secure

　　B) dynamic

　　C) feasible

　　D) flexible

　　58. Why does the author mention the example of What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly?

　　A) To point out that old Technology of nostalgia will flourish in the modern world.

　　B) To illustrate the importance of flintknappers.

　　C) To show that flintknapping is one of the stone age technologies.

　　D) To prove that old technologies seemingly never die.

　　59. What can be inferred about digital technologies?

　　A) Digital audio tape will be vanished because of its accuracy.

　　B) Digital technologies have been proved to outlive the old technologies.

　　C) Early digital technologies will never go extinct.

　　D) The future of digital technologies will be used for DNA research.

　　60. The passage mainly concerned with

　　A) the difficulty of the realization of paperless office

　　B) the fact that newest technologies may die out while the oldest survive

　　C) the reason why old technologies will never be on the edge of extinction

　　D) the importance of keeping improving technologies all the time

　　英語六級仔細閱讀練習二

　　Questions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.

　　Recent reports suggest that tea can cause brittle bones-but you'll probably be safe if youdrink less than a gallon a day.

　　Do you fancy a cup of tea? We drink, on average, three mugs a day. But you might want totry another strong alcohol after hearing the case of a 47-year-old woman, published in the NewEngland Journal of Medicine (NEJM), who developed brittle bones and lost all of her teeth afterdrinking too much tea.

　　Tea may not be so great for prostates (前列腺) either. Last year, research from theUniversity of　Glasgow found that men who drank more than seven or more cups of tea a dayhad a 50% higher risk of　prostate cancer. And in 2009 a paper in the British Medical Journalshowed that drinking very hot tea(70oC or more) increased the likelihood of esophageal (食管的) cancer.

　　Still gasping for that cup of tea? There is some evidence that tea can be good for you too,with　antioxidant properties, so maybe you're not actually drinking enough of the stuff.

　　The poor woman in the NEJM study is not alone. There are a few other cases of people whohave　damaged their bones through too much tea. But she (like those in other studies) wasdrinking excessive　amounts: 100 - 150 tea bags a day to make 12 cups of tea. A litre of teacan contain up to 9mg of fluoride(氟化物), which in excess can cause skeletal fluorosis ( 氟中毒), reducing bone quality and causing pain and stiffening of the ligaments (韌帶). Otherstudies show you generally need to drink a gallon a day for three decades to develop thiscondition.

　　You also shouldn't worry about the Glasgow study as it wasn't designed to show thatdrinking tea actually caused prostate cancer. All it proved was an association and people wereonly asked how much tea they drank at the start of the study, which went on for about 28years.

　　The National Cancer Institute in the U.S. concludes that the evidence isn't good enough tosay tea either harms or helps our health. However it does seem sensible in the light of the BMJstudy to wait for your tea to cool down for a few minutes.

　　Black tea, which makes up 75% of the world's consumption, may have healthy propertiesfrom its plant chemicals called poly phenols(多酚), which are antioxidants. Green tea containsmore poly phenols but isn't so nice to dunk digestives into.

　　A review of the evidence in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, sponsored by the TeaCouncil--which, the authors say, had no part in the study--found the research showed morethan three cups of black tea a day reduced heart disease. It found no evidence of harm "inamounts typically consumed". So as long as you drink less than a gallon of tea a day youshould be absolutely fine.

　　61. What can be inferred about tea from Paragraph 3?

　　A) Very hot tea may cause prostate cancer.

　　B) There may be a link between very hot tea and esophageal cancer.

　　C) Over-drinking tea is the cause of prostate cancer.

　　D) Drinking too much tea may worsen esophageal cancer.

　　62. Excessive intake of fluoride may

　　A) increase the likelihood of heart attack

　　B) cause the bone fracture

　　C) cause fluorosis in the blood

　　D) weaken the bone quality and hurt the ligaments

　　63. Which of the following instructions is encouraged to practice?

　　A) Drinking less tea in the future.

　　B) Drinking no tea at all.

　　C) Drinking tea that is not too hot.

　　D) Drinking green tea instead of black tea.

　　64. Black tea is considered as healthy drink because

　　A) it contains antioxidants

　　B) it is made from plant

　　C) poly phenols are added to it

　　D) it helps one digest

　　65. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

　　A) Under no circumstance can you drink more than a gallon of tea a day.

　　B) Black tea can be seen as a cure for heart disease.

　　C) Drinking tea does no harm at all, regardless of how much you consume.

　　D) Tea Council's participation into the research may decrease its credibility.

　　答案解析：

　　56.C)。定位 由題干中的carbon paper 定位到第一段最后兩句：Carbon paper allows two copies of adocument to be made at once. Nowadays, a coupleof keystrokes can do the same thing with a lot lessfuss.

　　詳解 事實細節題。本題考查對復寫紙的理解。由定位句“復寫紙可迅速地把一份文件印出兩份復件。如今，敲幾下鍵盤就可以做到同樣的事情，而且還省去了不少麻煩”可知，復寫紙使用起來要比計算機麻煩，故答案為C)。A)“復寫紙是無紙化辦公的關鍵”和B)“復寫紙很快會被計算機所取代”均未在原文提及，故排除;第二段第一句指出“復寫紙依舊存在著”，而非D)“復寫紙在數字時代很難存活”，故排除。

　　57.C)。詳解 由題干提示定位到第二段末句：And today the little niches in which oldtechnologies take refuge are ever more viable and accessible，thanks to the Internet and thefact that production no longer needs to be so mass：making small numbers of obscure itemsis growing easier.

　　詳解 語義理解題。本題考查“viable”的詞意。定位句提到“現如今，由于互聯網技術以及不再需要大規模生產這一事實，那些古老技術賴以延續的微小職業正變得越來越容易存活并且容易入門”，根據上下文可推斷出，viable應與accessible為同一語義場，即“可行的，易存活的”，故正確答案為C)。A)secure“安全的”、B)dynamic“活力的”和D)flexible“靈活的”均不符合題意.故排除。

　　58.D)。詳解 根據題干What Technology Wants和Kevin Kelly定位到第三段倒數第一、二句：According to What Technology Wants，a book by Kevin Kelly，one of the founders of Wiredmagazine，America's flintknappers produce over a million new arrow and spear heads everyyear.One of the things technology wants，it seems，is to survive.

　　詳解 事實細節題。本題考查作者以凱文·凱利所著《技術想要什么》為例的目的。定位句提到“《連線》雜志創始人之一凱文·凱利在其《技術想要什么》一書中稱，美國的燧石工每年生產超過100萬支新箭頭和矛頭，技術所想露的事情之一似乎就是存活下去。”而作者在定位句前一句指出“所以，從石器時代以來的技術得以存在，甚至在現代世界興盛起來。”故本文作者以凱文·凱利所著《技術想要什么》為例旨在證明舊技術似乎永遠都不會消亡，故D)為答案。A)“旨在指出舊技術在現代社會將興盛起來”為過度推斷，故排除;B)“旨在說明燧石工的重要性”和C)“旨在說明燧石是石器時代以來的一門舊技術”均為對原文的曲解，故排除。

　　59.A)。詳解 由題干中的digital technologies定位到倒數第二段最后兩句：And early digitaltechnologies do seem to be vanishing.The music cassette is enjoying a little renaissance，itsvery faithlessness apparently part of its charm;but digtal audio tape seems doomed.

　　詳解 推理判斷題。本題考查對數字技術的理解。由定位句可知“音樂磁帶正悄然成為復興的潮流，失真特質似乎正是其魅力的一部分;但數字錄音帶似乎難逃消亡厄運”，由此可推出，數字錄音帶似乎難逃消亡厄運是由于其保真，可被復制，故答案為A)。該段第二句指出“事實上，數字技術的存在時間可能比之前的技術更加短暫”，而非存活得更久，故排除B)“數字技術要比老的技術存活得更久”;C)“早期的數字技術永遠都不會滅絕”與該段倒數第二句“早期的數字技術似乎的確正在消失”不符，故排除;D)“數字技術在未來會被應用于DNA研究”原文并未提及，故排除。

　　60.B)。詳解 本題考查全文主旨，應對全文進行整體把握。詳解 主旨大意題。文章以復寫紙為例說明舊技術不會消亡，接下來論證其原因，最后表明最新的技術看起來最有可能消失;而最古老的技術有可能一直與我們相伴，故答案為B)。A)“無紙辦公室實現的困難性”僅在文中第一段提及，故排除;C)“為什么舊技術永遠不會消亡”僅在文中第二、三段涉及，故排除;D)“不斷更新技術的重要性”是對原文的曲解，故排除。

　　61.B)。定位 由題干提示定位到第三段：Tea may not be so great for prostates either.Lastyear，research from the University of Glasgow found that men who drank more than seven ormore cups of tea a day had a 50% higher risk of prostate cancer.And in 2009 a paper in theBritish Medical Journal showed that drinking very hot tea(70。C or more)increased thelikelihood of esophageal cancer.

　　定位 推理判斷題。本題考查讀者對該段意思的準確理解。定位段指出“飲茶似乎對前列腺也沒有益處。去年，格拉斯哥大學研究發現每天飲用超過七杯茶的男性患前列腺癌的風險會高出50%。2009年，《英國醫學期刊》的一篇論文指出飲用過熱的茶(70攝氏度或以上)會增加患食道癌的可能性”，故答案為B)。A)“過熱的茶可能會引起前列腺癌”文中未提及，故排除;C)“飲茶過量是前列腺癌的原因”屬于過度推斷，故排除;D)“飲茶過量可能會使食道癌惡化”文中并未提及，故排除。

　　62.D)定位 南題干中的fluoride定位到第五段第四句：A litre of tea can contain up to 9mg offluoride，which in excess can cause skeletal fluorosis，reducing bone quality and causing painand stiffening of the ligaments.

　　詳解 事實細節題。本題考查過量攝入氟化物的危害。定位句提到“一升茶水含有9毫克的氟化物，如果氟化物攝入過量，那么會造成人體骨骼氟中毒，骨質下降.韌帶疼痛僵硬”，故D)為答案。A)“增加患心臟病的風險”與文意不符，故排除;B)“造成骨折”是對原文“骨質下降”的曲解，故排除;C)“造成血內氟中毒”與文意不符，故排除。

　　63.C)。定位 由題干中的instructions is encouraged to practice以及各選項定位到第七段第二句：However it does seem sensible in the light of the BMJ study to wait for your tea to cooldown for a few minutes.

　　詳解 事實細節題。本題考查作者認為讀者應采納的建議。定位句指出“但是，鑒于《英國醫學期刊》的研究，等幾分鐘讓茶水放涼一些還是有意義的”，故C)為答案。A)“以后少喝茶”、B)“一點茶也不要喝”和D)“喝綠茶，不要喝紅茶”都是對文意的曲解，故均排除。

　　64.A)。定位 由題干中的black tea定位到倒數第二段第一句：Black tea，which makes up 75% ofthe world’s consumption.may have healthy properties from its plant chemicals called polyphenols，which are antioxidants.

　　詳解 事實細節題。本題考查紅茶保健的原因。由定位句可知“紅茶，占世界茶類飲用量的75%，可能因其含有植物化合物(即抗氧化的多酚)從而具有保健作用。”故答案為A)。B)“紅茶由植物制成”、C)“紅茶添加了多酚”和D)“紅茶助消化”均與文意不符，故排除。

　　65.D)。定位 由題干中的last paragraph定位到原文最后一段：A review of the evidence in theEuropean Journal of Clinical Nutrition, sponsored by the Tea Council-which, the authors say, hadno part in the study--found the research showed more than three cups of black tea a dayreduced heart disease. It found no evidence of harm "in amounts typically consumed". So aslong as you drink less than a gallon of tea a

　　day you should be absolutely fine.

　　詳解 推理判斷題。本題考查堵著對該段意思的準確理解。由定位段可知“對由茶葉理事會贊助的《歐洲臨床營養學雜志》的一項證據研究(作者表示茶葉理事會并未參與到研究中)發現，每日飲用三倍以上紅茶可以減少患心臟病的概率，且沒有標明飲用特訂立的茶水會對人體有害。只要你每天音超不超過一加侖，那么絕對沒有問題”。原味特別指處茶葉理事會未參與到研究中，可以推知或許會因為茶葉理事會的立場，會導致研究結果可信度下降，故答案為D)。A)“無論何時每日飲茶量絕對不超過一加侖”屬于過度推斷，故排除;B)“紅茶可以治療心臟病”屬于過于推斷，故排除;C)“無論飲用量為多少，茶完全無害”與原文邏輯不符，故排除。