研究生英语阅读教程基础级版课文及其翻译.docVIP

Science and Technology (-technique) By Judith Raughman (Editor) [1] (optimistic-)Optimism and empowerment. As the century drew to a close (end), the potential for human invention and understanding appeared (seemed) boundless (limitless). Scientific understanding expanded daily, from the fundamental (basic) building blocks of matter to the source code of all life to the origins, and perhaps the eventual (finally) demise (end), of the universe. The technological advances (progresses) of the 1990s ushered in (led to) what appeared to be a social and economic revolution that would rival (match / compete with) the Industrial Revolution two centuries earlier (information revolution), creating a new society of technologically connected citizens with a world of digitized information, commerce, and communication at its fingertips. The new Digital Age, represented by the Information Superhighway was not all-inclusive, threatened to leave many (people) behind, including older citizens and those (people) who could not afford (pay for) the new technology. Still (Furthermore), by 1999 more than three-quarters of the U. S. population was plugged in to the new digital society (age), and most Americans felt that technological advances were improving their quality of life. Optimism was the reigning tone [key-note speaker/ speech] of the decade. New advances in science and technology seemed to promise eventual (final) solutions to problems ranging from eliminating toxic (poisonous) waste to grocery shopping — genetic engineers developed microbes that would eat industrial sludge and researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technologys (MIT) Media Lab worked to devise (design) a refrigerator that could sense (feel) when it was out of milk and use the Internet to order more. The 1990s allayed (relieved/ reduced) the fear that a technologically advanced society was necessarily heavily centralized, with Big Brother watching every move (=movement). Instead (On the contrary), with the c