每日一练：职称英语考试综合类每日一练(2019/2/18)
【单选题】
Looking to the Future
When a magazine for high-school students askedits readers what life would be like in twenty years, they said: Machines wouldbe run by solar power. Buildings would rotate so they could follow the sun totake maximum advantage of its light and heat Walls would "radiate light"and "change color with the push of a button." Food would be replacedby pills. School would be taught "by electrical impulse while wesleep." Cars would have radar. Does this sound like the year 2000?Actually, the article was written in 1958 and the question was, "what willlife be like in 1978?"
The future is much too important to simplyguess about, the way the high school students did, so experts are regularlyasked to predict accurately. By carefully studying the present, skilledbusinessmen, scientists, and politicians are supposedly able to figure out inadvance what will happen. But can they? One expert on cities wrote: Cities ofthe future would not be crowded, but would have space for farms and fields.People would travel to work in "airbuses", large all-weatherhelicopters carrying up to 200 passengers. When a person left the airbusstation he could drive a coin-operated car equipped with radar. The radarequipment of cars would make traffic accidents "almost unheard of".Does that sound familiar? If the expert had been accurate it would, because hewas writing in 1957. His subject was "The city of 1982".
If the professionals sometimes sound likehigh-school students, it's probably because future study is still a new field.But economic forecasting, or predicting what the economy will do, has beenaround for a long time. It should be accurate, and generally it is. But therehave been some big market in the field, too. In early 1929, most forecasterssaw an excellent future for the stock market. In October of that year, thestock market had its worst losses ever, ruining thousands of investors who hadput their faith in financial foreseers.
One forecaster knew that predictions about thefuture would always be subject to significant error. In 1957, H.J.Rand of theRad corporation was asked about the year 2000, "Only one thing iscertain," he answered. "Children born today will have reached the ageof 43."
1. The high-school students' answers to"What would life be like in 1978?" sound
A) accurate.
B) imaginative.
C) correct.
D) foolish.
2. According to the writer, forecasting isfairly accurate in
A) politics.
B) science.
C) sociology.
D) economy.
3. Which of the following statements is notcompatible with the writer's comment on future study?
A) Predictions should be accurate
B) Professional sometimes sound likehigh-school students
C) There have been some big mistakes in thefield of economic forecasting.
D) Predictions about future would always besubject to significant errors.
4. The passage "Looking to theFuture" was most probably written
A) in 1982
B) in 1958
C) after 1958
D) in 1957
5. H.J.Rand's prediction about the year 2000shows that
A) it is easy to figure out in advance whatwill happen
B) it is difficult to figure out in advancewhat will happen
C) only professionals can figure out in advancewhat will happen
D) very few professionals figure out in advancewhat will happen
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