Passage Two

　　The faces of elderly, happily-married people sometimes resemble each other. Dr. Aiken studied a number of couples who had been married for at least twenty-five years. Each couple provided four photographs—one photo of each partner at the time of their marriage and another photo of each partner twenty-five or more years later. All background was cut from the photos to remove any clues. The photos were then displayed in groups: a random grouping of the persons at the time of their marriage and another random grouping of the same persons who took photographs later. Some testees were asked to pick out the partners. They failed totally with the first group. Their judgements were no better than chance. But with the photos taken twenty-five or more years after the marriage, the testees were quite successful with the most happily-married couples.

　　Dr. Aiken believes there are several reasons why couples grow alike. One reason has something to do with imitation. One person tends to copy or do the same as someone else without knowing it. He says human begins to imitate the expressions of the faces of their loved ones. “Another possible reason,” he says, “is the common experience of the couples.” There is a tendency for people who have the same life experience to change their faces in similar ways. For example, if a couple have suffered from a lot of sad experiences, their faces are likely to change in a similar way.

　　21. Dr. Aiken cut the background from the photos for the purpose of __________.

　　A. imitating the couples’ life

　　B. grouping the couples again

　　C. leaving no trace for the testees

　　D. giving the testees more chances

　　22. The underlined sentence “Their judgements were no better than chance” implies that the testees __________.

　　A. did a good job in making their choices.

　　B. had difficulty in picking out the partners

　　C. had no chance to make the right judgements

　　D. did better with the first group than with the second

　　23. The underlined word “imitate” (in Para. 2) has a similar meaning to __________.

　　A. copy B. change C. know D. suffer

　　24. From the passage we can draw the conclusion that ___________.

　　A. couples who look alike can live longer

　　B. most partners have been proved to grow alike

　　C. the influence between partners can be quite strong

　　D. happily-married couples are often richer than others

　　25. The main purpose of the passage is to ___________.

　　A. explain why couples grow alike

　　B. tell how couples like each other

　　C. discuss the function of marriage

　　D. describe the life of happily married couples

　　Passage Three

　　The three biggest lies in America are: (1) “The check is in the mail”, (2) “Of course I’ll respect you in the morning”, and (3) “It was a computer error.”

　　Of these three little white lies, the worst is the third. It’s the only one that can never be true. Today, if a bank statement cheats you out of $ 900 that way, you know what the clerk is sure to say,” It was a computer error.” Nonsense. The computer is reporting nothing more than what the clerk typed into it.

　　The most annoying case of all is when the computerized cashier in the grocery store shows that an item costs more than it actually does. If the innocent buyer points out the mistake, the checker, bagger, and manager all come together and offer the familiar explanation: “It was a compute error.”

　　It wasn’t, of course that computerized cashier is really nothing more than an electric event. The eye reads the Universal Product Code—chat bar of black and white lines in a corner of the package—and then checks the code against a price list stored in memory. If the price list is right, you’ll be charged accurately.

　　Grocery stores update the price list each day—that is, somebody sits at a keyboard and types in the prices. If the price they type in is too high, there are only two explanations: carelessness or dishonesty. But somehow “a computer error” is supposed to excuse everything.

　　One reason we let people hide behind a computer is the common misperception that huge, modern computers are electric brain with “artificial intelligence.” At some point there might be a machine with intelligence but none exists today. The smartest computer on Earth right now is no more intelligent than your average pen. At this point in the development of computers, the only thing any machine can do is what a human has instructed it to do.

　　26. Of the three lies, the one about computer is the worst because the computer itself __________.

　　A. says nonsense B. cheats customers

　　C. cannot make the error D. does not admit its error

　　27. According to the author, a computerized cashier is really just ___________.

　　A. a machine to count money

　　B. a machine to receive money

　　C. an instrument to print codes

　　D. an instrument to read codes

　　28. Grocery store price lists are updated by ____________.

　　A. a computer B. a keyboard C. an employee D. an electric brain

　　29. The last paragraph of the passage implies that computers ____________.

　　A. are very clever B. never make mistakes

　　C. have a good memory D. are controlled by men

　　30. Which of the following describes the main idea of the passage?

　　A. Computers are stupid and inefficient.

　　B. Computer errors are due to its dishonesty.

　　C. Computers help stores update the price list.

　　D. Computer errors are actually human errors.