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its and microprocessors might be able to copy the action of the human brain by the year 2010, researchers lately have begun to extend that forecast by decades if not centuries.

What they found, in attempting to model thought, is that the human brain’s roughly one hundred billion nerve cells are much more talented -- and human perception far more complicated -- than previously imagined. They have built robots that can recognize the error of a machine panel by a fraction of a millimeter in a controlled factory environment. But the human mind can glimpse a rapidly changing scene and immediately disregard the 98 percent that is irrelevant, instantaneously focusing on the monkey at the side of a winding forest road or the single suspicious face in a big crowd. The most advanced computer systems on Earth can’t approach that kind of ability, and neuroscientists still don’t know quite how we do it.

46.   Human ingenuity was initially demonstrated in ________.

[A] the use of machines to produce science fiction

[B] the wide use of machines in manufacturing industry

[C] the invention of tools for difficult and dangerous work

[D] the elite’s cunning tackling of dangerous and boring work

47.   The word “gizmos” (line 1, paragraph 2) most probably means ________.

[A] programs

[B] experts

[C] devices

[D] creatures

48.   According to the text, what is beyond man’s ability now is to design a robot that can ________.

[A] fulfill delicate tasks like performing brain surgery

[B] interact with human beings verbally

[C] have a little common sense

[D] respond independently to a changing world

49.   Besides reducing human labor, robots can also ________.

[A] make a few decisions for themselves

[B] deal with some errors with human intervention

[C] improve factory environments

[D] cultivate human creativity

50.   The author uses the example of a monkey to argue that robots are ________.

[A] expected to copy human brain in internal structure

[B] able to perceive abnormalities immediately

[C] far less able than human brain in focusing on relevant information

[D] best used in a controlled environment

Text 3

Could the bad old days of economic decline be about to return? Since OPEC agreed to supply-cuts in March, the price of crude oil has jumped to almost $26 a barrel, up from less than $10 last December. This near-tripling of oil prices calls up scary memories of the 1973 oil shock, when prices quadrupled, and 1979-80, when they also almost tripled. Both previous shocks resulted in double-digit inflation and global economic decline. So where are the headlines warning of gloom and doom this time?

The oil price was given another push up this week when Iraq suspended oil exports. Strengthening economic growth, at the same time as winter grips the northern hemisphere, could push the price higher still in the short term.

Yet there are good reasons to expect the economic consequences now to be less severe than in the 1970s. In most countries the cost of crude oil now accounts for a smaller share of the price of petrol than it did in the 1970s. In Europe, taxes account for up to four-fifths of the retail price, so even quite big changes in the price of crude have a more muted effect on pump prices than in the past.

Rich economies are also less dependent on oil than they were, and so less sensitive to swings in the oil price. Energy conservation, a shift to other fuels and a decline in the importance of heavy, energy-intensive industries have reduced oil consumption. Software, consultancy and mobile telephones use far less oil than steel or car production. For each dollar of GDP (in constant prices) rich economies now use nearly 50% less oil than in 1973. The OECD estimates in its latest Economic Outlook that, if oil prices averaged $22 a barrel for a full year, compared with $13 in 1998, this would increase the oil import bill in rich economies by only 0.25-0.5% of GDP. That is less than one-quarter of the income loss in 1974 or 1980. On the other hand, oil-importing emerging economies -- to which heavy industry has shifted -- have become more energy-intensive, and so could be more seriously squeezed.

One more reason not to lose sleep over the rise in oil prices is that, unlike the rises in the 1970s, it has not occurred against the background of general commodity-price inflation and global excess demand. A sizable portion of the world is only just emerging from economic decline. The Economist’s commodity price index is broadly unchanging from a year ago. In 1973 commodity prices jumped by 70%, and in 1979 by almost 30%.

51.   The main reason for the latest rise of oil price is ________.

[A] global inflation

[B] reduction in supply

[C] fast growth in economy

[D] Iraq’s suspension of exports

52.   It can be inferred from the text that the retail price of petrol will go up dramatically if ________.

[A] price of crude rises

[B] commodity prices rise

[C] consumption rises

[D] oil taxes rise

53.   The estimates in Economic Outlook show that in rich countries ________.

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