First, of course, it is plain that in a few years everyone will have at his elbow several times more mechanical energy than he has today.
Second, there will be advances in biological knowledge as far-reaching as those that have been made in physics. We are only beginning to learn that we can control our biological environment as well as our physical one. Starvation has been prophesied twice to a growing world population: by Malthus about 1.8 billion and by Crookes about 1.9 billion. It was headed off the first time by taking agriculture to America and the second time by using the new fertilizers. Soon starvation will be headed off by the control of the diseases and the heredity of plants and animals — by shaping our own biological environment.
And third, I come back to the haunting theme of automation. The most common species in the factory today is the man who works or minds a simple machine — the operator. Before long he will be as extinct as the hand-loom weaver and the dodo (老古董). The repetitive tasks of industry will be taken over by the machines, as the heavy tasks were taken over long ago; and the mental tedium will go the way of physical exhaustion. Today we still distinguish, even among repetitive jobs, between the skilled and the unskilled, but in a few years to come all repetition will be unskilled. We simply waste our time if we oppose this change.
71. This article was written to ________.
A. warn us of impending starvation
B. present facts about life in the near future
C. oppose biological advances
D. warn of the danger of automation
72. In the coming years, people will ________.
A. have more machines at their disposal
B. experience starvation
C. never work
D. have fewer machines at their disposal
73. Advances in biological knowledge have ________.
A. kept pace with those in physics
B. been responsible for the invention of new machines
C. surpassed those in physics
D. lagged behind those in physics
74. We are beginning to learn that we ________.
A. can control our physical environment
B. can never control our biological environment
C. have no control over our physical environment
D. can control both our biological and physical environments
75. In the near future, starvation will be prevented by ________.
A. Chinese agriculture
B. use of new fertilizers
C. control of the diseases and the heredity of plants and animals
D. vitamin pills
76. Which of the following is NOT true?
A. The mental tedium will not exist in the end.
B. Hand-loom weaver is the thing of the past.
C. Automation is an out-of-date topic today.
D. Physical burden in the factory has already been replaced.
77. The author believes before long, machines will ________.
A. actually replace unskilled workers
B. have learned to think for us
C. be shaped like robots
D. no longer be needed
78. The repetitive tasks of industry lead to ________.
A. physical exhaustion
B. mental stimulation
C. mental exhaustion
D. physical extinction
79. If the author’s predictions are realized, the demand for unskilled workers will be ________.
A. very high
B. very low
C. the same as today
D. constantly rising
80. From the passage, increased automation ________.
A. can be successfully opposed
B. cannot be avoided
C. has not yet begun
D. will put everyone out of work
参考答案：
71. B 72.A 73. D 74. D 75. C
76. C 77.A 78. C 79. B 80. B
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