2014届河南省新郑市高考英语专项训练：阅读理解、完形填空11（含答案）.docVIP

2014届河南省新郑市高考英语专项训练：阅读理解、完形填空 （11）及答案 阅读理解 Technology has been an encouragement of historical change. It acted as such a force in England heginning in the eighteenth century, and across the entire Western World in the nineteenth. Rapid advances were made in the use of scientific findings in the manufacture (制造)of goods, which hanged ide as about work. Onc of the first changes was that other forms of energy have taken the place of human power. Along with this came the increased use of machines to manufacture products in less time. People also developed machines that could produce the same parts for a product: each nail was exactly like every other nail. meaning that each nail could be changed for every other nail. This means that goods could be mass production, ahhough mass production required breaking production down into smaller and smaller tasks. Oncc this was done, workers no longer started on the product and lahored to complete it. Instead, they might work only one thousandth of it, other workers completing their own parls in certain order. There is nothing strange about this manufacturing work by todays standards. Highly skilled workers were unable to com pare with the new produciion techniques, as mass production allowed goods of high standard to be produced in greater num- ber than could ever be done by hand. But the skilled workers wasnt the only loser, thc common workers lost too. Similar changes forced fanners a way. The increased mechanization (械化) of agriculture freed masses of workers from ploughing the land and harvesting its crops. They had little choice but to stream toward the rapidly developing industrial centers. Increasingly, standards were set by machines. Workers no longer owned their own tools, their skill was no longer valued, and pride in their work was no longer possible. Workers fed, looked after and repaired the machines that could work faster than humans at greatly reduced cost. 1. In this passage, which of the fol