Passage 2
By the year 2020 AD, a single silicon chip will contain more components than the number of cells in the human brain. And electronic chip makers will have turned away from silicon and other conventional materials and will be designing a generation of biological computers, made partly nor entirely of protein molecules like those in living cells. These are some of the forecasts being made by Mr. Brain Oakley, one of Britain’s top men in the computer world.
Mr. Oakley is director of the Alvey program set up as a collaborative effort by the UK Government, the academic world and private industry to keep Britain among the leaders in the fast developing world of silicon chips and computer technology.
Mr. Oakley predicts that in 10 years, computers will be working 10 times faster than today, and the trend will continue. Every year silicon chips will double in complexity. But fortunately as they get smaller they use less power and are cheaper to produce as well as working faster, so the cost of chips is being reduced by one-tenth every six years. This means that computers are getting smaller and at the same time more powerful and more intelligent, but little or no more expensive.
By 2020, says Mr. Oakley, typist should be getting uneasy about their future, for their job will finally be on the way out because speech recognition will transform even messy dictation straight into the printed word. By 2030 AD computers will be to reason from inadequate data, get the sense of rambling conversations and recognize blurred or faulty pictures of things as human beings can. Such developments will need computers 1,000 times more powerful than those of today.
Mr. Brian Oakley predicts that by the year 2020 ________.
文章首段第一句提到“By the year 2020 AD, a single silicon chip will contain more components than the number of cells in the human brain.”，到2020年，一个硅芯片将包含更多的成分，比人脑中的细胞数量还要 多。由此可知到2020年，硅芯片会包含更多信息。
Alvey program is ________.
文章第二段的意思是为Oakley是Alvey项目的负责人，该项目是由英国政府、学术界和私人行业共 同支持的，目的是让英国在快速发展的硅芯片和计算机技术领域中保持领先地位。因此选项D“促进英国计 算机技术的发展”符合原文意思表达。
If a silicon chip costs 100 dollars to produce today, six years later it will cost ________.
文章第三段第三句中提到“...the cost of chips is being reduced by one-tenth every six years”，芯片的成 本每六年会减少十分之一。由此可知如果芯片现在的价格是100美元，6年后价格将减少十分之一，价格将 会变成90美元。
Which of the following statements is TRUE?
根据原文第一段最后一句话“Mr. Brain Oakley, one of Britain’s top men in the computer world”可知 Brain Oakley是英国计算机界的顶级人物之一，所以选项C正确；根据文章第三段第二句话“Every year silicon chips will double in complexity”可知硅芯片的复杂性每年都会增加一倍，故选项B也正确。因此正确 答案选D。
Which of the following may be considered as the best title for this passage?
文章主要讲的是Brain Oakley，英国计算机界的顶级人物之一，对2020年计算机科技发展的预 测。他预测由于硅芯片的改良和完善，未来的电脑会更智能，功能更强大。故选项C“2020年的电脑”最符 合文章标题要求。