Question

Barcodes (条形码) aren’t given much thought by the majority of consumers, but these codes were fairly recently applied in a working fashion in 1970.
A small food store owner decided one day that keeping records of the inventory (存货) of his stock and the associated prices were an extremely laborious process, and so, in 1948, he contacted the The Drexel Institute of Technology in a bid to work towards a solution. Bernard Sliver rose to the challenge and set out to study the problem, and began working on a solution involving an automatic way of keeping track of items that had been sold. Silver and a group of students from the institute realized their answer in the form of ultraviolet light (紫外线), ink and a scanner.

The system worked initially, but possessed some negatives. It was incredibly costly to carry out on a large scale and the system was also unstable. If the invention was to become commonplace (寻常的事) in grocery stores, these two problems had to be solved.
The patent (专利)for the bar code system was filed by Sliver and one of his students, Woodland. The patent was not granted immediately; in fact it took three years for the patent agency to grand their invention patent for the barcode, occurring on 7^th October, 1952.
Despite the patent being issued, the system was still not welcomed by the majority of store owners. It was not until 1966 that the system began moving its way into more and more grocery stores. This system was soon criticised, as there was no central mechanism for controlling uniformly coded items. In 1970, Logicorn developed the Universal Grocery Products Identification code (UGOIC), soon shortened to Universal Identification Number (UPC). It was Marsh’s superstore, in Troy, which was the very first store to install this complex barcode reading system, and its popularity has soared (升温) ever since, and is obviously now commonplace in all types of stores worldwide

1. 1.
   What is stressed in the second paragraph?
   1. A.
      The heavy work of store owners
   2. B.
      The function of ultraviolet light, ink and a scanner
   3. C.
      The origination of barcodes
   4. D.
      Bernard Silver’s education background
2. 2.
   Which of the following was NOT a drawback of Silver’s system?
   1. A.
      It was expensive to be applied on a large scale
   2. B.
      It was a laborious process
   3. C.
      The system was not stable
   4. D.
      It lacked a central mechanism
3. 3.
   What is the purpose of the text?
   1. A.
      To tell people that failure is the mother of success
   2. B.
      To praise scientists’ efforts in making people’s lives easier
   3. C.
      To describe shop owners’ opinions of barcodes
   4. D.
      To provide information about the development of barcodes

Answer 1

CBD
试题分析：文章主要讲述了条形码的起源，刚开始的系统缺陷及其后期不断的改进，最终能够被广大的商店主们运用的发展经历。
1.细节题。从第二自然段可知，一个店主觉得自己的商品的存货和价钱的标签匹配是非常费时的工作，所以决定发明一种解决方法，故只要是讲条码的起源，故选C
2.细节题。从It was incredibly costly to carry out on a large scale and the system was also unstable.和This system was soon criticised, as there was no central mechanism for controlling uniformly coded items. 可知他的系统有这三方面的缺陷，而只有能够解决繁琐的工作不是他的缺点，故选B
3.主旨题。文章主要讲述了条形码的起源，刚开始的系统缺陷及其后期不断的改进，最终能够被我们大家接受的这样的一个发展历程，故选D
考点：社会历史类说明文
点评：本文不难，结构清晰，题目设置合理。属于说明文中较容易的文体。说明文是历年高考很常见的文体，对于科技类的说明文比较难，而对于介绍事物的文体较容易。本文中，把握好是对条形码的历史发展的描述。同时，此类文章对于细节题，在对文章看懂了的基础再仔细对比选项和文章，即可得出答案。