深圳大学排名-日本留学政策

2020年大学英语六级考试阅读冲刺模拟训练(6)

Look at the keyboard of any standard typewriter or
computer.
letters. Who decided on this arrangement of the letters? And
why?

People tried for centuries to invent the typewriter. In
1714 in England, Henry Mill filed a patent for a machine
called An Artificial Machine or Method for the Impressing or
Transcribing of Letters, Singly or Progressively one after
another, as in Writing, whereby all Writing whatsoever may be
Engrossed in Paper or Parchment so Neat and Exact as not to
be distinguished from Print. That machine probably didn' t
sell because no one could remember its name!

The first practical typewriter was patented in the United
States in 1868 by Christopher Latham Sholes. His machine was
known as the type-writer. It had a movable carriage, a lever
for turning paper from line to line, and a keyboard on which
the letters were arranged in alphabetical order.

But Sholes had a problem. On his first model, his
key arrangement caused the keys to jam when the typist worked
quickly. Sholes didn' t know how to keep the keys from
sticking, so his solution was to keep the typist from typing
too asked his brother-in- law to rearrange the
keyboard so that the commonest letters were not so close
together and the type bars would come from opposite
directions. Thus they would not clash together and jam the
new arrangement was the QWERTY arrangement
typists use today. Of course, Sholes claimed that the new

arrangement was scientific and would add speed and efficiency.
The only efficiency it added was to slow the typist down,
since almost any word in the English language required the
typist' s fingers to cover more distance on the keyboard.

The advantages of the typewriter outweighed the
disadvantages of the keyboard. Typists memorized the crazy
letter arrangement, and the typewriter became a huge success.
By the time typists had memorized the new arrangement of
letters and built their speed, typewriter technology had
improved, and the keys didn' t stick as badly as they had at
first.

Questions 1 to 5 are based on the passage above.

know from the passage that the inventor of the first
practical typewriter is_____.

Mill opher Latham Sholes

'brother-in-law t Einstein

author thinks the machine invented by Henry Mill
could not be sold because_____.

was difficult for people to accept new things

were great disadvantages of the keyboard

machine could not be distinguished from print

name of the machine was too long

decided the QWERTY arrangement of the keyboard
in order to_____.

e the letters in alphabetical order

the keys to jam when the typist worked quickly

the problem of the keys jamming

e with

is inferred that the QWERTY arrangement of the
keyboard_____.

the most scientific arrangement speed and
efficiency of typists

the typist from typing too fast easy for
typists to memorize

of the following can be the best title of the
passage?

Arrangement of The Letters on Keyboard

Story of Christopher Latham Sholes

to Invent The Typewriter

First Practical Typewriter

文章精要

说明文。本文主要介绍了键盘上QWERTY这种字母排列顺序的来由。

斟词酌句

n. 专利，专利权

adj. (相关)专利(权)的，受专利保护的

vt. 得到……的专利权

*The government patented the device to its inventor. 政府
给予发明者专利权。

ribe vt. 转录;抄写;改编，改写

*He transcribed the poem written by Edgar Allan Poe last
night. 他昨晚抄下了埃德加·爱伦·坡的诗。

y adv. 靠那个，借以

*The law whereby all children receive free education has
been passed by the Congress. 国会通过了使用所有儿童享受免费教
育的法律。

ever adv. (用于否定句中以增强语气)任何

*I have no money whatsoever. 我一点儿钱都没有。

n. 杠，杠杆;途径，工具，手段

vt. (用杠杆)撬动，撬起

*The worker is levering at the rock. 工人用杠杆移动岩石。

试题精析

1.选B。本题为主要细节正误题。第三段第一句说“The first
practical typewriter was patented in the United States in
1868 by Christopher Latham Sholes.”，由此可知，B选项准确。

2.选D。本题为观点态度推断题。第二段最后一句“That machine
probably didn't sell because no one could remember its name !”
可推知，坐着认为机器可能卖不出去是因为它的名字太长了，没有人
能记住。

3.选C。本题为观点态度推断题。从第四段“……his
arrangement caused the keys to jam when the typist worked
quickly. ”可知，肖尔斯决定“QWERTY”这种排列是为了解决“ABC”
键这 种排列所引起的“键堵塞”问题。

4.选C。本题为主要细节正误题。从第四段中的“……his
solution was to keep the typist from typing too fast.”和
“The only efficiency it added was to slow the typist down……”可知，QWERTY排列只能让打字员的打字速度慢下来，C选
项与其意思一致。< br>
5.选A。本题为主旨归纳题。第一段的“Who decided on this
arrangement of the letters? And why?”是全文的主旨句，文章后
面的内容都是围绕这两个问题展开的。

全文翻译

看看任何标准的打字机或计算机的键盘。Q、W、E、R、T和Y是最
开始的六个字母。是谁决定的这种字母排列顺序?又是为什么呢?

人们用了几个世纪的时 间发明出打字机。1714年在英国，亨
利·米尔为一台机器申请专利。这种机器叫誊印字母的人造机器 或工
具，用它能够像书写一样，一个字母单独写，或数个字母连续写，所
有书写内容都能够整洁 准确地誊抄在纸张或羊皮纸上，与印刷的不相
上下。那种机器可能无人问津，因为没有人记住它的名字。

1868年克里斯托弗·莱瑟姆·肖尔斯在美国为第一台实用的打字
机申请专利 。他的机器被称为打字机。它有活动的架子，有让打字纸
转行的控制杆，还有按字母表顺序排列的键盘。

但是肖尔斯碰到一个问题。在他最初的模型上，他键盘上ABC字
母的排列，在 打字员快速击键时常常引起键堵塞。肖尔斯想不出如何
使各键互不干扰，他的解决办法就是让打字员别打 太快。肖尔斯请求
他的内兄重排键盘，不要把最常用的字母排得太近，要让打字杆能够
朝正反两 个方向运动，这样它们就不会碰撞在一起，堵塞机器。新的
排列便是打字员今天使用的QWERTY排列 。肖尔斯自然声称，新的排列
是科学的，能够提升速度和效率。其实它所提升的惟一效率就是让打
字速度慢下来，因为不管打英语中哪个词，几乎都需要打字员在键盘
上更长地伸展手指。

打字机的利当然是大于键盘的弊。打字员们记住了奇怪的字母排
列，打字机 一下就获得了巨大的成功。到打字员熟记了字母的新排列，
打字速度持续提升，打字机制作技术也有了改 进，字母键也不再像最
初那样容易撞车了。