单选题 As civilization proceeds in the direction of technology, it passes the point of supplying all the basic necessities of life-food, homes, clothes, and warmth. Then we are faced with a choice between using technology to provide and meet needs which have been regarded as unnecessary or, on the other hand, using technology to reduce the number of hours of work which a man must do in order to earn a given standard of living. In other words, we either raise our standard of living above that necessary for comfort and happiness or we leave it at this level and work shorter hours. I shall take it for granted that mankind has, by that time, chosen the latter alternative. Men will be working shorter and shorter hours in their paid employment. It follows that the housewife will also expect to be able to have more leisure in her life without lowering her standard of living. It also follows that human domestic servants will have completely ceased to exist. Yet the great majority of the housewives will wish to be relieved completely form the routine operations of the home such as cleaning the floors, or washing the clothes, or making beds.
By far the most logical step to relieve the housewife of routine is to provide a robot slave which can be trained to the requirements of a particular home and can be programmed to carry out half a dozen or more standard operations, when so switched by the housewife.

单选题 In the first paragraph, the author states that man prefers ______.
A. working longer hours
B. salary rising
C. working shorter hours
D. salary decreasing
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】在第一段，作者说人类喜爱怎样。从文章第一段中间部分可知，有两种选择：提高生活至必需水平之上；保持现在生活水平，缩短工作时间。人类会选择后者，所以选C。文章未提及工资待遇，所以B、D排除。
单选题 The author seems to think that technology ______.
A. just meets needs
B. provides more than necessary
C. does not meet needs
D. increases working hours
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】作者似乎认为技术怎样。从文章第一句可知，技术超出了提供生活必需品这一范围，所以选B。
单选题 According to this passage, housewives ______.
A. are not satisfied with the present standard of living
B. think that domestic servants are very helpful
C. will prefer to live a life with more free time
D. hope that the husband will be better paid by the employers
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】文章说家庭妇女如何。从文章第一段后部分可知，家庭妇女也希望能更悠闲地生活，同时不降低生活水平。所以选C。
单选题 The words "routine operations"( Para. 1, Line 10)in this passage refer to ______.
A. daily necessities B. domestic servants
C. medical operations D. daily housework
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】第一段中的routine operations指的是什么。从第一段最后一句的例子可知，给打扫地板、洗衣服或整理床铺是日常家务，所以D符合题意，为正确。
单选题 The main purpose of the second paragragh is to ______.
A. describe the steps to train a robot
B. advertise a new type of robot
C. instruct housewives how to operate a robot
D. suggest making use of a robot in the house
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】第二段的主题是什么。第二段说，使家庭妇女从家务中解脱出来的方法是使用机器人奴隶，并可以设定特定程序来操纵它。可见D符合题意，为正确。