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Hardly a week goes by without some advance in technology that would have seemed incredible 50 years ago. And we can expect the rate of change to accelerate rather than slow down within our lifetime. The developments in technology are bound to have a dramatic effect on the future of work. By 2010, new technology will have revolutionized communications. People will be transmitting messages down telephone lines that previously would have been sent by post. Not only postmen but also clerks and secretaries will vanish in a paper-free society. All the routine tasks they perform will be carried on a tiny silicon chip so that they will be as obsolete(已废弃的) as the horse and cart after the invention of the motorcar. One change will make thousands, if not millions, redundant.
Even people in traditional professions, where expert knowledge has been the key, are unlikely to escape the effects of new technology. Instead of going to a solicitor, you might go to a computer that is programmed with all the most up-to-date legal information. Doctors, too, will find that an electronic competitor will be able to carry out a much quicker and more accurate diagnosis and recommend more efficient courses oftreatment. In education, teachers will be largely replaced by teaching machines far more knowledgeable than any human being. Most learning will take place in the home via video conferencing. Children will still go to school though, until another place is created where they can make friends and develop social skills.
练习题：
Choose correct answers to the question:
1.According to the writer, the rate of change in technology______.
A.will remain the same
B.will slow down
C.will speed up
D.can not be predicted
2.The writer expects that by 2020 new technology will have revolutionized communications and ____
A.people needn’t telephone each other
B.the present postal system will have disappeared
C.people will no longer send letters
D. the postmen will have been replaced by silicon chip.
3.The word “they” (Line 6，Para. 1) refers to _____.
A. the tiny silicon chips
B.the letter written on paper
C. the postmen, clerks and secretaries
D.the routine tasks performed by the postmen
4.From the second paragraph, we can infer that _____
A. professionals won’t be affected by new technology
B.doctor won’t be as efficient by the postmen
C. computers cannot replace lawyers
D.experts will lose job in the future
5.In the writer’s view, _______.
A.people should get prepared for the future
B.there exists no real threat of unemployment
C.the advance of technology is not desirable
D.machines will have control over men
