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 looked down on the computer and every passenger was just standing there drinking coffee and staring at the black screen. Then I asked her, “What do all your 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(備用) computer, I said. “Let’s forget the computer. What about your planes? They’re 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’s 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’t take you if you didn’t’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 word 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.The best title for the article is _______.

A. When the Computer Is Down

B. The Most Frightening Words

C. The Computer of the Airport

D. A different travel

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

A. She could sell a ticket.

B. She could write out a ticket.

C. She could answer the passengers’ questions.

D. She could do nothing.

3.Why do you think they had not a backup computer?

A. Because it was easy down

B. Because it was not relied on .

C. Because it was not useful.

D. Because it was very expensive.

4.The last paragraph suggests that _______.

A. a modern computer won’t be down.

B. computers can take the place of humans

C. sometimes a computer may bring suffering to people

D. there will be great changes in computers

5.What kind of feeling did passengers have when the computer was down?

A. upset B. determined

C. encouraged D. happy

練習(xí)冊(cè)系列答案
相關(guān)習(xí)題

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2014-2015學(xué)年北京市高三上學(xué)期第一次質(zhì)量檢測(cè)英語(yǔ)試卷（解析版） 題型：單項(xiàng)填空

______ we have planned ahead might change when we put it into practice．

A． Whatever B． Whenever

C． Whoever D． However

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2014-2015學(xué)年陜西西安曲江第一中學(xué)高三上學(xué)期期中考試英語(yǔ)試卷（解析版） 題型：閱讀理解

Ask someone what they have done to help the environment recently and they will almost certainly mention recycling. Recycling in the home is very important of course. However, being forced to recycle often means we already have more material than we need. We are dealing with the results of that over-consumption in the greenest way possible, but it would be far better if we did not need to bring so much material home in the first place.

The total amount of packaging increased by 12% between 1999 and 2005. It now makes up a third of a typical household’s waste in the UK. In many supermarkets nowadays food items are packaged twice with plastic and cardboard.

Too much packaging is doing serious damage to the environment. The UK, for example, is running out of it for carrying this unnecessary waste. If such packaging is burnt, it gives off greenhouse gases which go on to cause the greenhouse effect. Recycling helps, but the process itself uses energy. The solution is not to produce such items in the first place. Food waste is a serious problem, too. Too many supermarkets encourage customers to buy more than they need. However, a few of them are coming round to the idea that this cannot continue, encouraging customers to reuse their plastic bags, for example.

But this is not just about supermarkets. It is about all of us. We have learned to associate packaging with quality. We have learned to think that something unpackaged is of poor quality. This is especially true of food. But it also applies to a wide range of consumer products, which often have far more packaging than necessary.

There are signs of hope. As more of us recycle, we are beginning to realise just how much unnecessary material is collecting. We need to face the wastefulness of our consumer culture, but we have a mountain to climb.

1.What does the underlined phrase “over-consumption” refer to?

A. Using too much packaging.

B. Recycling too many wastes.

C. Making more products than necessary.

D. Having more material than is needed.

2. The author uses figures in Paragraph 2 to show _______.

A. the tendency of cutting household waste

B. the increase of packaging recycling

C. the rapid growth of super markets

D. the fact of packaging overuse

3.What can be inferred from Paragraph 4?

A. Unpackaged products are of bad quality.

B. Supermarkets care more about packaging.

C. It is improper to judge quality by packaging.

D. Other products are better packaged than food.

4.What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A. Fighting wastefulness is difficult.

B. Needless material is mostly recycled.

C. People like collecting recyclable waste.

D. The author is proud of their consumer culture.

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2015-2016學(xué)年浙江瑞安龍翔高級(jí)中學(xué)高二上學(xué)期月考3英語(yǔ)試卷（解析版） 題型：閱讀理解

The weather is getting hotter. You are thirsty playing basketball or riding home from school. A cold drink may be just the thing. But be careful what you are drinking. Something that looks cool may not be good for your health.

There are plenty of "energy drinks" on the market. Most of them have beautiful colors and cool names. The lists on them tell you they are helpful to your health. Sounds great!

But after a careful check you may find that most energy drinks have lots of caffeine (咖啡因) in them. These drinks are especially aimed at young people, students, busy people and sports players. Makers sometimes say their drinks make you better at sports and can keep you awake. But be careful not to drink too much.

Caffeine makes your heart beat fast. Because of this, the International Olympic Committee has limited( 限制) its use. Caffeine in most energy drinks is at least as strong as that in a cup of coffee or tea. Possible health dangers have something to do with energy drinks. Just one box of energy drink can make you nervous, have difficulty sleeping and can even cause heart problems. Scientists say that teenagers should be discouraged from taking drinks with a lot of caffeine in them.

1.Many people like drinking energy drinks because of the following EXCEPT that ________.

A. they have beautiful colors and cool names

B. they have lots of caffeine

C. they can keep them awake and better at sports

D. they are said to be helpful to health

2.The main reason for people not to drink too much energy drinks is that they may cause _____.

A. heart problems B. nervousness

C. sleeping difficulty D. possible health dangers

3. The underlined word "discouraged" can be replaced(替換) with "________".

A. encouraged B. stopped C. helped D. disliked

4.From the passage we can know that _________.

A. advertisements are important in getting people to buy energy drinks

B. energy drinks are helpful to teenagers' study

C. sports players need to drink a lot of energy drinks

D. energy drinks are especially aimed at teenagers

5.Which of the following can be the best title(標(biāo)題) of the passage?

A. What's the Use of Energy Drinks?

B. Who Can Drink Energy Drinks

C. What's That in Energy Drinks?

D. Why Can't We Buy Energy Drinks?

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2015-2016學(xué)年浙江瑞安龍翔高級(jí)中學(xué)高二上學(xué)期月考3英語(yǔ)試卷（解析版） 題型：單項(xiàng)填空

No matter where he is, he makes _________ a rule to go for a walk before breakfast.

A. him B. this C. that D. it

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2015-2016學(xué)年浙江杭州七校高一上學(xué)期期中英語(yǔ)試卷（解析版） 題型：單項(xiàng)填空

Was it on the train “ Harmony” ______ John met with his girl friend?

A. that B. when C. which D. where

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2015-2016學(xué)年河北秦皇島盧龍縣高二上學(xué)期期末英語(yǔ)試卷（解析版） 題型：短文改錯(cuò)

假定英語(yǔ)課上老師要求同桌之間交換修改作文，請(qǐng)你修改你同桌寫(xiě)的以下作文。文中共有10處錯(cuò)誤，每句中最多有兩處，錯(cuò)誤僅涉及一個(gè)單詞的增加，刪除或修改。

增加： 在缺詞處加一個(gè)漏詞符號(hào)（∧）,并在其下面寫(xiě)出該加的詞。

刪除：把多余的詞用斜線(xiàn)（\）劃掉。

修改： 在錯(cuò)的詞下劃一橫線(xiàn)，并在該詞下面寫(xiě)出修改后的詞。

Dear Jeremy and Alice,

Although we’ve been delighted to have you as neighbors, we’re hoping to settle something that bothers to us. In a word, your dog—Cleo.

We’ve called several time about Cleo’s early morning barking. It is difficult to understanding why she barks every minute she’s outside. The early morning barking have been disturbing us as we are often up all night with the baby. Beside, Cleo tends to bark a average of six hours a day. This morning she starts barking even before 5 o’clock. That is too much for us. considering how closely the houses are.

We appreciate our apologies and goodwill, but we hope which you can figure out a good way of settling the matter.

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2015-2016學(xué)年浙江溫州十校聯(lián)合體高二上學(xué)期期末英語(yǔ)試卷（解析版） 題型：閱讀理解

I’m a TV show host.One Sunday, I took my7-year-old daughter by the sea for lunch. On arriving at the beach, I saw JoJo, a wealthy man in the hotel business.We sat down to chat in an open air cafe while I watched my daughter enjoy herself on the swings in front of us.Our conversation varied from business to entertainment to the economy.

Suddenly our conversation was interrupted by a stranger, who politely asked permission to speak to me.Often people want to tell me something about my controversial TV show,whenI’m out on the streets.

He asked to speak to me privately, so we stood a bit away from my table.He said, “I’m James, 35 years old, father of a 7-year-old girl, who’s very sick. She needs treatment abroad.The doctors said that if she was treated in the UK, she would probably survive.But I’m poor, so can you please help me?”

Speechless, I stared in the man’s eyes full of tears and asked how I could help.After we talked for a while, I went to sit back at the table. JoJo asked me, “What’s wrong with you?Your

face changed.”I told him and he was very sorry for this family and said I had the means through the media to help him. Later we headed off to our destinations(目的地).

All weekend I thought about James, his daughter and his family.I even considered doing a special TV show to raise money for this sick child.

On Monday morning I was at the office after I finished presenting my show,when my secretary said a man needed to speak to me. It was JoJo. He walked into my office.Actually JoJo is so busy with his hotel business that I never imagined he had time to come and see me at the studios.

“Please, call the man with the sick child and tell him that I’ll pay all expenses for his sick daughter’s treatment.”JoJo said, with a check in his hand.“I’ve been married for 35 years. I wasn’t lucky enough to have a child. I want to help this child now.”I picked up the phone to call James.

Now James’ daughter is well and living a normal life, so James and his wife are the happiest couple on earth. JoJo often visits her. I’m so happy that there are so many good people on this earth.

1.The writer went to the beach to ______________.

A. meet JoJo on purpose

B. make a TV show.

C. have lunch with his daughter

D. help James.

2.James asked to speak privately to the writer rather than JoJo probably because __________.

A. He didn’t know that JoJo was wealthy.

B. He thought a TV show host could help him through the media.

C. He believed that rich people were seldom willing to help others.

D. He knew that the writer was a warm-hearted TV show host.

3.The writer was ________ when he heard that JoJo came to his office to see him.

A. excited B. disappointed

C. surprised D. annoyed

4.Which is True according to the story?

A. The writer was cold-hearted and refused to give help.

B. It was very impolite of James to ask the writer for help.

C. Both James and the writer were bad-tempered..

D. JoJo was full of love and was willing to help the James.

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2016屆黑龍江哈爾濱第六中學(xué)高三上期末英語(yǔ)試卷（解析版） 題型：單項(xiàng)填空

Most students like pop music while it has little ________ for me.

A. interest B. appeal C. fun D. affect

查看答案和解析>>

同步練習(xí)冊(cè)答案