A Wonderful Chip It is tiny, only about a quarter of an inch square, and quite flat. Under

A Wonderful Chip

It is tiny, only about a quarter of an inch square, and quite flat. Under a microscope, it resembles a stylized Navaho rug or the aerial view of a railroad (51) yard. Like the (52) of sand on a beach, it is made mostly of silicon, (53) oxygen, the most abundant element on the surface of the earth.

Yet this inert fleck (小片), still unfamiliar to the (54) majority of Americans, has astonishing power. It is cheap to (55) produce, fast, infinitely versatile and convenient.

The miracle chip represents a quantum(重大的) (56) in the technology of mankind, a development that (57) the past few years has acquired the force and significance associated with the development of hand tools or the discovery of the steam engine. Just as the Industrial Revolution (58) an immense (59) of tasks from men’s (60) and enormously expanded productivity, (61) the microcomputer is rapidly assuming huge burdens of drudgery from the human brain and (62) expanding the mind’s capacities (63) that man has only begun to grasp. (64) the chip amazing feats of (65) become possible in everything from automobile engines to university laboratories and hospitals, from farms to banks and corporate offices, from outerspace to a baby’s nursery.

(51)

A．freight

B．passenger

C．relaying

D．switching