One evening in February 2007,
a student named Paula Ceely brought her car to a stop on a remote
road in Wales.She got out to open a metal gate that blocked her path.That's when she heard the whistle
sounded by the driver of a train.Her Renault Clio was parked across a railway line.Seconds later, she
watched the train drag her car almost a kilometer down the railway tracks.
Ceely's
near_
miss made the news because she blamed it on her GPS device(導航儀). She had never
driven the route before.It was dark and raining heavily.Ceely was relying on her GPS, but it made no
mention of the crossing."I put my complete trust in the device and it led me right into the path of a
speeding train," she told the BBC.
Who is to blame here? Rick Stevenson, who tells Ceely's story in his book
When Machines Fail Us,
points the finger at the limitations of technology.We put our faith in digital devices, he says, but our digital
helpers are too often not up to the job.They are filled with small problems.And it's not just GPS devices:
Stevenson takes us on a tour of digital disasters involving everything from mobile phones to wireless
keyboards.
The problem with his argument in the book is that it's not clear why he only focuses on digital
technology, while there may be a number of other possible causes.A mapmaker might have left the
crossing off a paper map.Maybe we should blame Ceely for not paying attention.Perhaps the railway
authorities are at fault for poor signalling system.Or maybe someone has studied the relative dangers and
worked out that there really is something specific wrong with the GPS equipment.But Stevenson
doesn't say.
It's a problem that runs through the book.In a section on cars, Stevenson gives an account of the
advanced techniques that criminals use to defeat computerbased locking systems for cars.He offers two
independent sets of figures on car theft; both show a small rise in some parts of the country.He says that
once again not all new locks have proved reliable.Perhaps, but maybe it's also due to the shortage of
policemen on the streets.Or changing social circumstances.Or some combination of these factors.
The game between humans and their smart devices is amusing and complex.It is shaped by economics and psychology and the cultures we live in.Somewhere in the mix of those forces there may be a way for
a wiser use of technology.
If there is such a way, it should involve more than just an awareness of the shortcomings of our
machines.After all, we have lived with them for thousands of years.They have probably been fooling us
for just as long.
1. What did Paula Ceely think was the cause of her accident?
A. She was not familiar with the road.
B. It was dark and raining heavily then.
C. The railway workers failed to give the signal.
D. Her GPS device didn't tell her about the crossing.
2. The phrase"near miss" (Paragraph 2 ) can best be replaced by ________.
A. close hit
B. heavy loss
C. narrow escape
D. big mistake
3. Which of the following would Rick Stevenson most probably agree with?
A. Modern technology is what we can't live without.
B. Digital technology often falls short of our expectatio
n.
C. Digital devices are more reliable than they used to be.
D. GPS error is not the only cause for Ceely's accident.
4. In the writer's opinion, Stevenson's argument is ________.
A. onesided
B. reasonable
C. puzzling
D. wellbased
dy, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, compared national
000s.In the first survey, about 15 percent of teenagers 
roups.In babies and young children, hearing problems are known 
