Text 3 The concept of man versus machine

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问题 Text 3 The concept of man versus machine is at least as old as the industrial revolution,but this phenomenon tends to be most acutely felt during economic downturns and fragile recoveries.And yet,it would be a mistake to think we are right now simply experiencing the painful side of a boom and bust cycle.Certain jobs have gone away for good,outmoded by machines.Since technology has such an insatiable appetite for eating up human jobs,this phenomenon will continue to restructure our economy in ways we can't immediately foresee.When there is rapid improvement in the price and performance of technology,jobs that were once thought to be immune from automation suddenly become threatened.This argument has attracted a lot of attention,via the success of the book Race Against the Machine,by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee,who both hail from MIT's Center for Digital Business.This is a powerful argument,and a scary one.And yet,John Hagel,author of The Power of Pull and other books,says Brynjolfsson and McAfee miss the reason why these jobs are so vulnerable to technology in the first place.Hagel says we have designed jobs in the U.S.that tend to be“tightly scripted”and“highly standardized”ones that leave no room for“individual initiative or creativity.”In short,these are the types of jobs that machines can perform much better at than human beings.That is how we have put a giant target sign on the backs of American workers,Hagel says.It's time to reinvent the formula for how work is conducted,since we are still relying ona very 20th century notion of work,Hagel says.In our rapidly changing economy,we more than ever need people in the workplace who can take initiative and exercise their imagination“to respond to unexpected events.”That's not something machines are good at.They are designed to perform very predictable activities.As Hagel notes,Brynjolfsson and McAfee indeed touched on this point in their book.We need to reframe race against the machine as race with the machine.In other words,we need to look at the ways in which machines can augment human labor rather than replace it.So then the problem is not really about technology,but rather,“how do we innovate our institutions and our work practices?According to the first paragraph,economic downturns would____A.ease the competition of man vs.MachineB.highlight machines'threat to human jobsC.provoke a painful technological revolutionD.outmode our current economic structure

选项 A.ease the competition of man vs.Machine
B.highlight machines'threat to human jobs
C.provoke a painful technological revolution
D.outmode our current economic structure

答案 B

解析细节题【命题思路】这是一道细节题，重点考查对原文信息的理解以及因果关系的转换。【直击答案】根据题干中的关键词“first paragraph”和“economic downturn”可以回文定位到第一段第一句话。该句中的but属于句内转折，后半句是作者要强调的内容。该句指出“人们对这一现象感受最为深切的却是在经济滑坡和经济复苏敏感的时期”。选项B的表达与该句意思相符。其中“this phenomenon”指代前半句中的“man versus machine”，即选项B中的“machines’threat to human jobs”；而“highlight”是原文中“most acutely felt”的同义替换。【干扰排除】选项A中的“ease”与原文中的“most acutely felt”表述相反，故排除。选项C中的“painful”在原文中修饰的是“经济繁荣与萧条循环中的痛苦阶段”；且原文提及的是“industrial revolution”而非“technological revolution”，两者属于不同的概念。第一段第三句指出，机器淘汰了一些工作职位，而非选项D中的淘汰我们当前的经济结构，这属于张冠李戴。

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Text 3 The concept of man versus machine

英语二研究生

研究生入学