2 . Automation is a widespread term. Nearly everyone agrees that people will be working less once automatic machinery came in. For optimists, this is a promise of liberation: At last humanity would be freed from constant toil, and we could all devote our days to more refined pursuits. But others see a threat: Millions of people would be thrown out of work, and desperate masses would roam the streets. Looking back from 50 years hence, the controversy over automation seemed a quaint and curious episode. The dispute is never resolved.
A. J. Hayes, a leader (and no relation to me), wrote in 1964: Automation is not just a new kind of mechanization but a revolutionary force capable of overturning our social order. Whereas mechanization made workers more efficient—and thus more valuable—automation threatens to make them superfluous (过剩的)—and thus without value. The opinions I have cited here represent extreme positions, and there are also many milder views. But I think it’s fair to say that most early students of automation, including both critics and enthusiasts, believe the new technology would lead us into a world where people worked much less.
As for economic consequences, worries about unemployment have certainly not gone away—not with job losses in the current recession approaching 2 million workers in our country alone. But recent job losses are commonly attributed to causes other than automation, such as competition from overseas or a roller-coaster financial system. In any case, the vision of a world where machines do all the work and people stand idly by has simply not come to pass.
The spread of automation outside of the factory has altered its social and economic impact in some curious ways. In many cases, the net effect of automation is not that machines are doing work that people used to do. Instead we’ve dispensed with the people who used to be paid to run the machines, and we’ve learned to run them ourselves. These trends contradict almost all the expectations of early writers on automation, both optimists and pessimists. So far, automation has neither liberated us from the need to work nor deprived us of the opportunity to work. Instead, we’re working more than ever.
What about trades closer to my own vital interests? Will science be automated? Technology already has a central role in many areas of research; for example, genome sequences could not be read by traditional lab-bench methods. Replacing the scientist will presumably be a little harder than replacing the lab technician, but when a machine exhibits enough curiosity and tenacity, I think we’ll just have to welcome it as a companion in zealous research. And if the scientist is elbowed aside by an automaton, then surely the science writer can’t hold out either. I’m ready for my 15-hour workweek.
1. What does the writer mainly want to convey in paragraph 1?
| A．automation results in unemployment on |
| B．the issue of automation is still in discussion |
| C．automation does more harm than good |
| D．automation brings in much convenience in life |
2. According to A.J. Hayes, we can infer
.
| A．automation is more valuable than what we imagine |
| B．the disadvantages of automation far outweigh the advantages |
| C．automation is a revolutionary force may causing people worthless. |
| D．the new technology would lead people into working much less |
3. What does the underlined word possibly mean?
| A．put…down for. | B．set…free from. |
| C．bring…into. | D．take…away from. |
4. What can we conclude from this passage?
| A．People needn’t work so hard due to automation. |
| B．Automation should be accepted reasonably in development. |
| C．Traditional labor force will be replaced in the near future. |
| D．Automation results in more job losses in the writer’s country. |
