单选题 .  Enter the information age. Information is the raw material for many of the business activities shaping this new era.     1    iron and steel were the basic commodities in the dawning of the industrial age. The world's knowledge is said to be doubling every eight years. This knowledge     2    is stimulating economic progress. The need to collect, analyze, and communicate large quantities of information is spawning new products and services, creating jobs, and     3    career opportunities. The information age is generally considered to be a phenomenon of the service     4    of the economy,     5    a product of heavy industry. Certainly,     6    information technologies are creating new capabilities in knowledge-based service spheres. But changes just as dramatic are     7    industry, giving people the opportunity to do challenging work in exciting new ways. Manufacturing is a full     8    in the information age. From     9    to production, the manufacturing process has long been information intensive. It always has required exacting communication to describe what goes into products and     10    to make them. Now, computer technology is giving factory managers new capability to gather all of this information and use it to control production. Telecommunication is producing error-free communication between the design office and the factory, computer-aided design is enabling engineers to evaluate product     11    and manufacturing processes     12    video displays, before     13    are committed to build and test     14    . Techniques like these are bringing about new advances in manufacturing productivity. Just as coal fueled the transformation to an industrial society,     15    microelectronics powering the rise of the information age. Microelectronic information management tools are strengthening U.S. industrial     16    ,     17    remains vital to America's economic well-being and national security. More and more manufacturing companies are     18    that the wise of information can give them a competitive     19    . As companies emphasize powerful information management, talented people will continue to find ways to make factories and mills with increased     20    .1.