Question

The most frightening words in the English language are, “Our computer is down.” You hear it more and more when you are on business. The other day I was at the airport waiting for a ticket to Washington and the girl in the ticket office said, “I’m sorry, I can’t sell you a ticket. Our computer is down.”

“If your computer is down, just write me out a ticket.”

“I can’t write you out a ticket. The computer is the only one allowed to do so.”

I noticed every passenger was just standing there drinking coffee and staring at the black screen. Then I looked down on the computer and asked her, “What do all you people do?”

“We give the computer the information about your trip, and then it tells us whether you can fly with us or not.”

“So when it goes down, you go down with it.”

“That’s good, sir.”

“How long will the computer be down? I wanted to know.”

“I have no idea. Sometimes it’s down for 10 minutes, sometimes for two hours. There’s no way we can find out without asking the computer, and since it’s down it won’t answer us.”

After the girl told me they had no backup computer, I said. “Let’s forget the computer—What about your planes? They are still flying, aren’t they?”

“I couldn’t tell without asking the computer.”

“Maybe I could, just go to the gate and ask the pilot if he is flying to Washington,” I suggested.

“I wouldn’t know what gate to send you to. Even if the pilot was going to Washington, he couldn’t take you if you didn’t have a ticket.”

“Is there any other airline flying to Washington within the next few hours?”

“I wouldn’t know,” she said, pointing at the dark screen. “Only ‘IT’ knows. It can’t tell me.”

By this time there were quite a few people standing in lines. The words soon spread to other travelers that the computer was down. Some people went white, some people started to cry and still others kicked their luggage.

1.Where do you often hear the frightening words “Our computer is down”?

A．at the airport. B．At the gate.

C．On business D．In the ticket office

2.What could the girl in the ticket office do without asking the computer?

A．She could do nothing.

B．She could write out a ticket.

C．She could still sell a ticket.

D．She could answer passengers’ questions.

3.What does the underlined word “down” in Paragraph 1 mean?

A．White B．Broken C．Black D．Dark

4.We can learn from the last paragraph that .

A．a modern computer won’t be down

B．computers can take the place of human

C．there will be great changes in computers

D．sometimes a computer may bring suffering to people

5.The best title for the article is .

A．Asking the Computer

B．When the Computer Is Down

C．The Computer of the Airport

D．The Most Frightening Words

Answer 1

1.C

2.A

3.B

4.D

5.B

【解析】

试题分析：“电脑崩溃了”已经成为最恐怖的一句话。当电脑崩溃时，人们就购不了票了，人类已经受限于电脑。

1.由“The most frightening words in the English language are, “Our computer is down.” You hear it more and more when you are on business.”可知选C。

2.根据女孩的回答““I can’t write you out a ticket. The computer is the only one allowed to do so.””可知，女孩没了电脑，啥也不能做。故选A。

3.词义猜测题。由 “I’m sorry, I can’t sell you a ticket.”可知，她的电脑坏了。故选B。

4.段落概况题。由最后一段可知，没了电脑，人们购不了票，各种哭喊，各种着急。所以选择D，电脑有时会给人们带来不便。

5.

考点：社科类短文阅读。