What might driving on an automated highway be like The answer depends on what kind of system is ultimately adopted. Two distinct types are on the drawing board. The first is a special-purpose lane system, in which certain lanes are reserved for automated vehicles. The second is a mixed traffic system: fully automated vehicles would share the road with partially automated or manually driven cars. A special-purpose lane system would require more extensive physical modifications to existing highways, but it promises the greatest gains in freeway (高速公路) capacity. Under either scheme, the driver would specify the desired destination, furnishing this information to a computer in the car at the beginning of the trip or perhaps just before reaching the automated highway. If a mixed traffic system was in place, automated driving could begin whenever the driver was on suitably equipped roads. If special-purpose lanes were available, the car could enter them and join existing traffic in two different ways. One method would use is a special onramp (人口引道). As the driver approached the point of entry for the highway, devices installed on the roadside would electronically check the vehicle to determine its destination and to ascertain that it had the proper automation equipment in good working order. Assuming it passed such tests, the driver would then be guided through a gate and toward an automated lane. In this case, the transition from manual to automated control would take place on the entrance ramp. An alternative technique could employ conventional lanes, which would be shared by automated and regular vehicles. The driver would steer onto the highway and move in normal fashion to a "transition" lane. The vehicle would then shift under computer control onto a lane reserved for automated traffic. (The limitation of these lanes to automated traffic would, presumably, be well respected, because all trespassers (非法进入者) could be swiftly identified by authorities. ) Either approach to joining, a lane of automated traffic would harmonize the movement of newly entering vehicles with those already traveling. Automatic control here should allow for smooth merging, without the usual uncertainties and potential for accidents. And once a vehicle had settled into automated travel, the drive would be free to release the wheel, open the morning paper or just relax. (392 words) A special-purpose lane system is probably advantageous in that______.
A. it would require only minor changes to existing highways
B. it would achieve the greatest highway traffic efficiency
C. it has a lane for both automated and partially automated vehicles
D. it offers more lanes for automated vehicles
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In the world of entertainment, TV talk shows have undoubtedly flooded every inch of space on daytime television. And anyone who watches them regularly knows that each one varies in style and format. But no two shows are more profoundly opposite in content, while at the same time standing out above the rest, than the Jerry Springer and the Oprah Winfrey shows. Jerry Springer could easily be considered the king of "trash talk (废话)". The topics on his show are as shocking as shocking can be. For example, the show takes the ever-common talk show themes of love, sex, cheating, guilt, hate, conflict and morality to a different level. Clearly, the Jerry Springer show is a display and exploitation of society"s moral catastrophes (灾难), yet people are willing to eat up the intriguing predicaments (困境) of other people"s lives. Like Jerry Springer, Oprah Winfrey takes TV talk show to its extreme, but Oprah goes in the opposite direction. The show focuses on the improvement of society and an individual"s quality of life. Topics range from teaching your children responsibility, managing your work week, to getting to know your neighbors. Compared to Oprah, the Jerry Springer show looks like poisonous waste being dumped on society. Jerry ends every show with a "final word". He makes a small speech that sums up the entire moral of the show. Hopefully, this is the part where most people will learn something very valuable. Clean as it is, the Oprah show is not for everyone. The show"s main target audience are middle-class Americans. Most of these people have the time, money, and stability to deal with life"s tougher problems. Jerry Springer, on the other hand, has more of an association with the young adults of society. These are 18 to 21-year-olds whose main troubles in life involve love, relationship, sex, money and peers. They are the ones who see some value and lessons to be learned underneath the show"s exploitation. While the two shows are as different as night and day, both have ruled the talk show circuit for many years now. Each one caters to a different audience while both have a strong following from large groups of fans. Ironically, both could also be considered pioneers in the talk show world. (388 words) Compared with other TV talk shows, both the Jerry Springer and the Oprah Winfrey are______.
A. more family-oriented
B. unusually popular
C. more profound
D. relatively formal
In the world of entertainment, TV talk shows have undoubtedly flooded every inch of space on daytime television. And anyone who watches them regularly knows that each one varies in style and format. But no two shows are more profoundly opposite in content, while at the same time standing out above the rest, than the Jerry Springer and the Oprah Winfrey shows. Jerry Springer could easily be considered the king of "trash talk (废话)". The topics on his show are as shocking as shocking can be. For example, the show takes the ever-common talk show themes of love, sex, cheating, guilt, hate, conflict and morality to a different level. Clearly, the Jerry Springer show is a display and exploitation of society"s moral catastrophes (灾难), yet people are willing to eat up the intriguing predicaments (困境) of other people"s lives. Like Jerry Springer, Oprah Winfrey takes TV talk show to its extreme, but Oprah goes in the opposite direction. The show focuses on the improvement of society and an individual"s quality of life. Topics range from teaching your children responsibility, managing your work week, to getting to know your neighbors. Compared to Oprah, the Jerry Springer show looks like poisonous waste being dumped on society. Jerry ends every show with a "final word". He makes a small speech that sums up the entire moral of the show. Hopefully, this is the part where most people will learn something very valuable. Clean as it is, the Oprah show is not for everyone. The show"s main target audience are middle-class Americans. Most of these people have the time, money, and stability to deal with life"s tougher problems. Jerry Springer, on the other hand, has more of an association with the young adults of society. These are 18 to 21-year-olds whose main troubles in life involve love, relationship, sex, money and peers. They are the ones who see some value and lessons to be learned underneath the show"s exploitation. While the two shows are as different as night and day, both have ruled the talk show circuit for many years now. Each one caters to a different audience while both have a strong following from large groups of fans. Ironically, both could also be considered pioneers in the talk show world. (388 words) Though the social problems Jerry Springer talks about appear distasteful, the audience ______.
A. remain fascinated by them
B. are ready to face up to them
C. remain indifferent to them
D. are willing to get involved in them
Bill Gates, the billionaire Microsoft chairman without a single earned university degree, is by his success raising new doubts about the worth of the business world"s favorite academic title: the MBA (Master of Business Administration). The MBA, a 20th-century product, always has borne the mark of lowly commerce and greed (贪婪) on the tree-lined campuses ruled by purer disciplines such as philosophy and literature. But even with the recession apparently cutting into the hiring of business school graduates, about 79, 000 people are expected to receive MBAs in 1993. This is nearly 16 times the number of business graduates in 1960, a testimony to the widespread assumption that the MBA is vital for young men and women who want to run companies some day. "If you are going into the corporate world it is still a disadvantage not to have one,"said Donald Morrison, professor of marketing and management science. "But in the last five years or so, when someone says, "Should I attempt to get an MBA", the answer a lot more is: It depends. " The success of Bill Gates and other non-MBAs, such as the late Sam Walton of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., has helped inspire self-conscious debates on business school campuses over the worth of a business degree and whether management skills can be taught. The Harvard Business Review printed a lively, fictional exchange of letters to dramatize complaints about business degree holders. The article called MBA hires "extremely disappointing" and said "MBAs want to move up too fast, they don"t understand politics and people, and they aren"t able to function as part of a team until their third year. But by then, they"re out looking for other jobs. " The problem, most participants in the debate acknowledge, is that the MBA has acquired an aura (光环) of future riches and power far beyond its actual importance and usefulness. Enrollment in business schools exploded in the 1970s and 1980s and created the assumption that no one who pursued a business career could do without one. The growth was fueled by a backlash (反冲) against the anti-business values of the 1960s and by the women"s movement. Business people who have hired or worked with MBAs say those with the degrees often know how to analyze systems but are not so skillful at motivating people. "They don"t get a lot of grounding in the people side of the business," said James Shaffer, vice-president and principal of the Towers Perrin management consulting firm. (419 words) From the passage we know that most MBAs______.
A. can climb the corporate ladder fairly quickly
B. quit their jobs once they are familiar with their workmates
C. receive salaries that do not match their professional training
D. cherish unrealistic expectations about their future
Tina, a 10-lb 2-oz baby, was born into the Rodriguez home. The parents were delighted to have her, and she was given much love and attention. She seemed to grow up very normally, but did learn to talk a bit later than her two older siblings did. One day when she was about 3 years old, she fell off a swing and hurt her head, and had to have a few stitches to close a small wound. Several times after this the parents noticed that she would forget little things. It did not bother them until she enrolled in school, when she was 5 years and 10 months of age. At first she was anxious to go to school, but soon things began to change. She complained of being sick, and very often at school she had to use the restroom. The teacher complained that the child spent much of her time just gazing. She liked to talk to her friends, and often got into trouble with the teacher because she would not get her work done. Most times she completed no more than half an assignment. Her parents noted that she seemed to have lost her cheerfulness at home, and she often came home grumpy and complained that no one wanted to play with her. The longer she stayed in school, the worse her behavior became, and to top it all, in early spring the teacher concluded that Tina was not learning anything and was going to have to repeat the first grade. Tina"s parents didn"t become worried about her behavior until______.
A. she fell off a swing and hurt herself
B. she was nearly six years old
C. she complained of being sick
D. she got into trouble with her teacher