2019年12月英语四级阅读理解强化练习（11）

Could you reproduce Silicon Valley elsewhere, or is there something unique about it?

It wouldn’t be surprising if it were hard to reproduce in other countries, because you couldn’t reproduce it in most of the US either. What does it take to make a Silicon Valley?

It’s the right people. If you could get the right ten thousand people to move from Silicon Valley to Buffalo, Buffalo would become Silicon Valley.

You only need two kinds of people to create a technology hub (中心):rich people and nerds (痴迷科研的人).

Observation bears this out. Within the US, towns have become start up hubs if and only if they have both rich people and nerds. Few start ups happen in Miami, for example, because although it’s full of rich people, it has few nerds. It’s not the kind of place nerds like.

Whereas Pitts burg has the opposite problem: plenty of nerds, but no rich people. The top US Computer Science departments are said to be MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, and Carnegie-Mellon. MIT yielded Route 128. Stanford and Berkeley yielded Silicon Valley. But what did Carnegie-Mellon yield in Pittsburgh? And what happened in Ithaca, home of Cornell University, which is also high on the list.

I grew up in Pittsburgh and went to college at Cornell, so I can answer for both. The weather is terrible, particularly in winter, and there’s no interesting old city to make up for it, as there is in Boston. Rich people don’t want to live in Pittsburgh or Ithaca. So while there are plenty of hackers (电脑迷)who could start start ups, there’s no one to invest in them.

Do you really need the rich people? Wouldn’t it work to have the government invest the nerds?No, it would not. Start up investors are a distinct type of rich people. They tend to have a lot of experience themselves in the technology business. This helps them pick the right start ups, and means they can supply advice and connections as well as money. And the fact that they have a personal stake in the outcome makes them really pay attention.

56. What do we learn about Silicon Valley from the passage?

A) Its success is hard to copy any where else.

B) It is the biggest technology hub in the US.

C) Its fame in high technology is incomparable.

D) It leads the world in information technology.

57. What makes Miami unfit to produce a Silicon Valley?

A) Lack of incentive for investments.

B) Lack of the right kind of talents.

C) Lack of government support.

D) Lack of famous universities.

58. In that way is Carnegie-Mellon different from Stanford, Berkeley and MIT?

A) Its location is not as attractive to rich people

B) Its science department are not nearly as good

C) It does not produce computer hackers and nerds

D) It does not pay much attention to business start ups

59. What does the author imply about Boston?

A) It has pleasant weather all year round.

B) It produces wealth as well as high-tech

C) It is not likely to attract lots of investor and nerds.

D) It is an old city with many sites of historical interest.

60. What does the author say about start up investors?

A) They are especially wise in making investments.

B) They have good connections in the government.

C) They can do more than providing money.

D) They are enough to invest in nerds.

【答案】57-61ABADC