阅读理解 The industrial revolution of the late 18th century made possible the mass production of goods, thereby creating economies of scale which changed the economy—and society—in ways that nobody could have imagined at the time. Now a new manufacturing technology has emerged which does the opposite. Three-dimensional printing makes it as cheap to create single items as it is to produce thousands and thus undermines economies of scale. It may have as profound an impact on the world as the coming of the factory did.
It works like this. First you call up a blueprint on your computer screen and tinker with its shape and colour where necessary. Then you press print. A machine nearby whirrs into life and builds up the object gradually, either by depositing material from a nozzle, or by selectively solidifying a thin layer of plastic or metal dust using tiny drops of glue or a tightly focused beam. Products are thus built up by progressively adding material, one layer at a time: hence the technology's other name, additive manufacturing. Eventually the object in question—a spare part for your car, a lampshade, a violin— pops out.
Like computing before it, 3D printing is spreading fast as the technology improves and costs fall. A basic 3D printer, also known as a fabricator or "fabber", now costs less than a laser printer did in 1985.
The additive approach to manufacturing has several big advantages over the conventional one. It cuts costs by getting rid of production lines. It reduces waste enormously, requiring as little as one-tenth of the amount of material. It allows the creation of parts in shapes that conventional techniques cannot achieve, resulting in new, much more efficient designs in aircraft wings or heat exchangers, for example. It enables the production of a single item quickly and cheaply—and then another one after the design has been refined.
By reducing the barriers to entry for manufacturing, 3D printing should also promote innovation. If you can design a shape on a computer, you can turn it into an object. You can print a dozen, see if there is a market for them, and print 50 more if there is, modifying the design using feedback from early users. This will be a boon to inventors and start-ups, because trying out new products will become less risky and expensive. And just as open-source programmers collaborate by sharing software code, engineers are already starting to collaborate on open-source designs for objects and hardware.
A technological change so profound will reset the economics of manufacturing. Some believe it will decentralise the business completely, reversing the urbanisation that accompanies industrialisation. There will be no need for factories, goes the logic, when every village has a fabricator that can produce items when needed. Up to a point, perhaps. But the economic and social benefits of cities go far beyond their ability to attract workers to man assembly lines. Although 3D printing will create winners and losers in the short term, in the long run it will expand the realm of industry—and imagination.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】属推断题。选项B犯了过于夸张的错误，原文只是说3D印刷有可能让城市不再需要工厂，但没有绝对化到会根除工厂，故选项B错误。选项C捕风捉影，利用文中细节设置干扰，其本身表述错误，故选项C错误。选项D无中生有，通过原文信息无法推测出3D技术会放任知识产权的侵犯，故选项D错误。原文第一段最后一句话谈到了3D技术可能对世界产生与工厂的出现同样深远的影响，而前文提到工厂的出现正是工业革命的重大标志，所以3D印刷取得当年工业革命的成就的可能性还是有的，故选项A符合题意。