黑龙江省双鸭山一中2013-2014学年高二英语下学期期末考试.docVIP

双鸭山市第一中学2013—2014学年度高二下学期期末考试 第I卷 第一部分 阅读理解（共两节，满分40分） 第一节（共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分） 阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项中（A、B、C和D），选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。 A ?Global Positioning Systems（GPS） are now a part of everyday driving in many countries. These satellite-based systems provide turn-by-turn directions to help people get to where they want to go. But, they can also cause a lot of problems, send you to the wrong place or leave you completely lost. Many times, the driver is to blame. Sometimes a GPS error is responsible. Most often, says Barry Brown, it is a combination of the two. We spoke to Mr. Brown by Skype （网络电话软件）. He told us about an incident involving a friend who had flown to an airport in the eastern United States. There he borrowed a GPS-equipped car to use during his stay. BARRY BROWN: “And they just?plugged?in an address and then set off to their destination. And, then it wasn’t until they were driving for thirty minutes that they realized they actually put in a destination back on the West Coast where they lived. They actually put their home address in. So again, the GPS is kind of garbage in garbage out.” Mr Brown says this is a common human error. But, he says, what makes the problem worse has to do with some of the shortcomings, or failures, of GPS equipment. BARRY BROWN: “One problem with a lot of the GPS units is that they have a very small screen and they just tell you the next turn. Because they just give you the next turn, sometimes that means that it is not really giving you the?overview?that you would need to know that it’s going to the wrong place.” Barry Brown formerly served as a professor with the University of California, San Diego. While there, he worked on a project with Eric Laurier from the University of Edinburgh. The two men studied the effects of GPS devices on driving by placing cameras in people’s cars. They wrote a paper based on their research. It is called “The Normal, Natural Troubles of Driving with GPS.” It lists several areas where GPS systems can c