单选题   Everyone must have had at least one personal experience with a computer error by this time. Bank balances are suddenly reported to have jumped from $379 into the millions, appeals for charitable contributions are mailed over and over to people with crazy sounding names at your address, department stores send the wrong bills, utility companies write that they're turning everything off, that sort of thing. If you manage to get in touch with someone and complain, you then get instantaneously typed, guilty letters from the same computer, saying, 'Our computer was in error, and an adjustment is being made in your account.'
    These are supposed to be the sheerest, blindest accidents. Mistakes are not believed to be the normal behavior of a good machine. If things go wrong, it must be a personal, human error, the result of fingering a button getting stuck, someone hitting the wrong key. The computer, at its normal best, is infallible (没有错误的).
    I wonder whether this can be true. After all, the whole point of computers is that they represent an extension of the human brain, vastly improved upon but nonetheless human, superhuman maybe. A good computer can think clearly and quickly enough to beat you at chess, and some of them have even been programmed to write obscure verse. They can do anything we can do, and more besides.
    It is not yet known whether a computer has its own consciousness, and it would be hard to find out about this. When you walk into one of those great halls now built for the huge machines, and standing listening, it is easy to imagine that the faint, distant noises are the sound of thinking, and the turning of the spools (线轴) gives them the look of wild creatures rolling their eyes in the effort to concentrate, choking with information. But real thinking and dreaming are other matters. On the other hand, the evidences of something like an unconscious, equivalent to ours, are all around, in every mail. As extensions of the human brain, they have been constructed the same property of error, spontaneous, uncontrolled, and rich in possibilities.
单选题     What is implied in the first paragraph?
 
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】根据题干将本题出处定位于第1段第1句。 文章第1段第1句提到，每个人都应该经历过至少一次计算机出错的情况。下文紧接着列举了几个计算机出错给生活带来不便的例子。由此可知，计算机出错造成的麻烦涉及生活的方方面面，人们很难避免。第l段没有提到计算机会不会自己思考，故排除A。第1段计算机出错的例子，但这并不能说明计算机有出错的能力，故排除B。文中的例子都明确表明计算机会出现错误和不准确的报道，并不需要推断，故排除C。
单选题     Who are supposed to be responsible for the mistakes mentioned in the second paragraph?
 
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】根据题干将本题出处定位于第2段第2、3句。 文章第2段第2、3句提到，人们认为出错并不是一台好机器的正常行为。如果出错，一定是人为的，是按键被卡住了，或是有人按错了键。由此可推断出，计算机出错是人为造成的。B与原文相反，故排除。C在文中未提及，故排除。D是针对the sheerest和blindest accidents设的干扰项。
单选题     What does the author mean by 'they represent an extension of the human brain' (Lines 1-2, Para. 3)?
 
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】根据题干将本题出处定位于第3段第1句。 作者在文章第3段第1句提出疑惑：我想知道这(计算机出错必定是其使用者造成的，计算机在最佳状态下是不会出错的)是否是真的。文章最后一段最后一句提到，作为人脑的延伸，它们(即计算机)和人一样也有犯错的特性，犯些自然产生的和无法控制的错误，而且几率很大。由此可知，作者是为了说明人类大脑会犯错，作为人类大脑延伸的计算机同样也会犯错。最后一段最后一句提到the same property of error(同样具有犯错误的特性)，而非同样多的错误，故排除B。“人的错误可避免”与文意相反，故排除C。第4段第1句提到，计算机是否拥有自己的意识尚无定论，且难以考证，由此可知，作者并不认为计算机和人脑一样，故排除D。
单选题     The author compared the noises of the computer to the sound of thinking and regarded it as the product of ______.
 
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】根据题干中的noises和me sound of thinking将本题出处定位于第4段第2句。 文章第4段第2句提到，当你步入一间为巨型机器建造的大型机房时，驻足细听时，不难想象，那微弱而遥远的嗡鸣就是计算机思考的声音。思考是意识的一种形式，故答案为C。
单选题     The passage is mainly about ______.
 
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】本题考查文章主旨，需要结合全文进行综合分析。 本文首先列举若干计算机出错的事例，说明计算机出错无所不在；接下来讨论是否有可能杜绝计算机出错；最后得出结论：计算机出错是不可避免的。由此可知，本文主要讨论了计算机是否会出错。第2段虽然提到人们认为计算机的错误一定是人为造成的，但这并非作者本人的观点，故排除A。第1段虽然列举了计算机出错的种种表现，但全文并未提出解决问题的办法，故排除C。作者在第3段阐述了计算机是人脑的延伸，但并未将人脑和计算机的异同做具体比较，故排除D。