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2014考研英语二 · 阅读理解 Text 3
本页为 2014考研英语二 阅读理解 Text 3的完整原文、正确答案与逐题解析（原文约 391 词，共 5 题）。建议先自己作答，再逐题核对解析里的原文定位与干扰项说明。
2014考研英语二阅读理解 Text 3 原文
The concept of man versus machine is at least as old as the industrial revolution, but this phenomenon tends to be most acutely felt during economic downturns and fragile recoveries. And yet, it would be a mistake to think we are right now simply experiencing the painful side of a boom and bust cycle. Certain jobs have gone away for good, outmoded by machines. Since technology has such an insatiable appetite for eating up human jobs, this phenomenon will continue to restructure our economy in ways we cannot immediately foresee.
When there is rapid improvement in the price and performance of technology, jobs that were once thought to be immune from automation suddenly become threatened. This argument has attracted a lot of attention, via the success of the book Race Against the Machine, by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, who both hail from MIT’s Center for Digital Business.
This is a powerful argument, and a scary one. And yet, John Hagel, author of The Power of Pull and other books, says Brynjolfsson and McAfee miss the reason why these jobs are so vulnerable to technology in the first place.
Hagel says we have designed jobs in the U.S. that tend to be “tightly scripted” and “highly standardized” ones that leave no room for “individual initiative or creativity”. In short, these are the types of jobs that machines can perform much better at than human beings. That is how we have put a giant target sign on the backs of American workers, Hagel says.
It’s time to reinvent the formula for how work is conducted, since we are still relying on a very 20th century notion of work, Hagel says. In our rapidly changing economy, we more than ever need people in the workplace who can take initiative and exercise their imagination “to respond to unexpected events”. That is not something machines are good at. They are designed to perform very predictable activities.
As Hagel notes, Brynjolfsson and McAfee indeed touched on this point in their book. We need to reframe race against the machine as race with the machine. In other words, we need to look at the ways in which machines can augment human labor rather than replace it. So then the problem is not really about technology, but rather, “how do we innovate our institutions and our work practices?”
答案与逐题解析
答案速查
31B
32A
33D
34D
35C
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31According to the first paragraph, economic downturns would ______.
答案B
解析首段指出人机对立由来已久，但“this phenomenon tends to be most acutely felt during economic downturns”，即经济低迷时机器对就业的冲击更尖锐；后文又说部分岗位已被机器永久取代。B项准确概括“凸显机器对人类岗位的威胁”。A与“acutely felt”相反；C把downturn说成引发技术革命，原文未提；D把“jobs have gone away”夸大为淘汰整个经济结构。
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32The authors of Race Against the Machine argue that ______.
答案A
解析第二段写技术进步使“jobs that were once thought to be immune from automation suddenly become threatened”，并引出《与机器赛跑》一书的观点：技术不断吞噬人类工作。A项“技术正在减少人的就业机会”与此一致。B把自动化与技术加速发展因果颠倒；C与“immune…become threatened”相反；D称人类最终会赢，原文并无此结论。
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33Hagel argues that jobs in the U.S. are often ______.
答案D
解析Hagel指出美国岗位常被设计成“tightly scripted”“highly standardized”，且“leave no room for individual initiative or creativity”，等于把工人置于机器更擅长的标准化流程中。D项“designed against human creativity”正对应“no room for…creativity”。A与缺乏主动性相反；B的“individual style”与scripted/standardized矛盾；C的“without a clear target”原文未说，倒是给工人“put a giant target sign”。
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34According to the last paragraph, Brynjolfsson and McAfee discussed ______.
答案D
解析末段写Brynjolfsson与McAfee“indeed touched on this point”：应把“race against the machine”改为“race with the machine”，让机器增强而非取代人力，问题在于如何创新制度与工作方式。这强调职场仍需人的主动性与参与，故D正确。A的可预测性是前文对机器的评价；B的工作公式是Hagel的主张；C强调“replace”恰与二人“augment rather than replace”相反。
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35Which of the following could be the most appropriate title for the text?
答案C
解析全文由人机对立、岗位被自动化威胁切入，再转向Hagel的批评与“race with the machine”的重构，核心仍是人能否以及如何应对与机器的竞赛。C项涵盖这一主线。A只落在末段制度创新；B断言机器将取代人力，与“augment”相悖；D把经济低迷当作创新主因，偏离人机关系这一主题。
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