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  3. To live in the United States today is to gain an appreciation for Dahrendorf’ s assertion that social change exists everywhere.

To live in the United States today is to gain an appreciation for Dahrendorf’ s assertion that social change exists everywhere.

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问题    To live in the United States today is to gain an appreciation for Dahrendorf’ s assertion that social change exists everywhere. Technology, the application of knowledge for practical ends, is a major source of social change.
   Yet we would do well to remind ourselves that technology is a human creation; it does not exist naturally. A spear or a robot is as much a cultural as a physical object. Until humans use a spear to hunt game or a robot to produce machine parts, neither is much more than a solid mass of matter. For a bird looking for an object on which to rest, a spear or robot serves the purpose equally well. The explosion of the Challenger space shuttle and the Russian nuclear accident at Chernobyl drive home the human quality of technology; they provide cases in which well-planned systems suddenly went haywire and there was no ready hand to set them right. Since technology is a human creation, we are responsible for what is done with it. Pessimists worry that we will use our technology eventually to blow our world and ourselves to pieces. But they have been saying this for decades, and so far we have managed to survive and even flourish. Whether we will continue to do so in the years ahead remains uncertain. Clearly, the impact of technology on our lives deserves a closer examination.
   Few technological developments have had a greater impact on our lives than the computer revolution. Scientists and engineers have designed specialized machines that can do the tasks that once only people could do. There are those who assert that the switch to an information-based economy is in the same camp as other great historical milestones, particularly the Industrial Revolution. Yet when we ask why the Industrial Revolution was a revolution, we find that it was not the machines. The primary reason why it was revolutionary is that it led to great social change. It gave rise to mass production and, through mass production, to a society in which wealth was not confined to the few.
   In somewhat similar fashion, computers promise to revolutionize the structure of American life, particularly as they free the human mind and open new possibilities in knowledge and communication. The Industrial Revolution supplemented and replaced the muscles of humans and animals by mechanical methods. The computer extends this development to supplement and replace some aspects of the mind of human beings by electronic methods. And it’s the capacity of the computer for solving problems and making decisions that represents its greatest potential and that poses the greatest difficulties in predicting the impact on society.
By using the phrase "the human quality of technology", the author refers to the fact that technology______.
选项 A、has a great impact on human life
B、has some characteristics of human nature
C、can replace some aspects of the human mind
D、does not exist in the natural world
答案D
解析 语义题。A项在第三段中提到，是用来讲计算机的。B项“技术有人性的一些特征”，明显错误。C项“技术可以取代人类思维的某些方面”，原文没有提及。D项与第二段的“technology is a human creation；it does not exist naturally．”相对应，即技术不是自然的产物，而是人的创造，它需要不断完善的过程。而美国挑战者号航天飞机的爆炸以及俄罗斯切尔诺贝利核泄漏事件就是提醒我们人类技术的脆弱面：当计划好的系统突然出错时，却没有现成的解决办法。故选D。
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