hce_tcu
112年
英文
第 45 題
📖 題組：
【C】How can we summarize the Covid year from a broad historical perspective? Many people believe that the terrible toll coronavirus has taken demonstrates humanity’s helplessness in the face of nature’s might. In fact, 2020 has shown that humanity is far from helpless. Epidemics are no longer uncontrollable forces of nature. Science has turned them into a manageable challenge. Why, then, has there been so much death and suffering? Because of bad political decisions. In previous eras, when humans faced a plague such as the Black Death, they had no idea what caused it or how it could be stopped. When the 1918 influenza struck, the best scientists in the world couldn’t identify the deadly virus, many of the countermeasures adopted were useless, and attempts to develop an effective vaccine proved futile. It was very different with Covid-19. The first alarm bells about a potential new epidemic began sounding at the end of December 2019. By January 10, 2020, scientists had not only isolated the responsible virus, but also sequenced its genome and published the information online. Within a few more months it became clear which measures could slow and stop the chains of infection. Within less than a year several effective vaccines were in mass production. In the war between humans and pathogens, never have humans been so powerful. Alongside the unprecedented achievements of biotechnology, the Covid year has also underlined the power of information technology. In previous eras humanity could seldom stop epidemics because humans couldn’t monitor the chains of infection in real time, and because the economic cost of extended lockdowns was prohibitive. In 1918 you could quarantine people who came down with the dreaded flu, but you couldn’t trace the movements of pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic carriers. And if you ordered the entire population of a country to stay at home for several weeks, it would have resulted in economic ruin, social breakdown and mass starvation. In contrast, in 2020 digital surveillance made it far easier to monitor and pinpoint the disease vectors, meaning that quarantine could be both more selective and more effective. Even more importantly, automation and the Internet made extended lockdowns viable, at least in developed countries. While in some parts of the developing world the human experience was still reminiscent of past plagues, in much of the developed world the digital revolution changed everything.
【C】How can we summarize the Covid year from a broad historical perspective? Many people believe that the terrible toll coronavirus has taken demonstrates humanity’s helplessness in the face of nature’s might. In fact, 2020 has shown that humanity is far from helpless. Epidemics are no longer uncontrollable forces of nature. Science has turned them into a manageable challenge. Why, then, has there been so much death and suffering? Because of bad political decisions. In previous eras, when humans faced a plague such as the Black Death, they had no idea what caused it or how it could be stopped. When the 1918 influenza struck, the best scientists in the world couldn’t identify the deadly virus, many of the countermeasures adopted were useless, and attempts to develop an effective vaccine proved futile. It was very different with Covid-19. The first alarm bells about a potential new epidemic began sounding at the end of December 2019. By January 10, 2020, scientists had not only isolated the responsible virus, but also sequenced its genome and published the information online. Within a few more months it became clear which measures could slow and stop the chains of infection. Within less than a year several effective vaccines were in mass production. In the war between humans and pathogens, never have humans been so powerful. Alongside the unprecedented achievements of biotechnology, the Covid year has also underlined the power of information technology. In previous eras humanity could seldom stop epidemics because humans couldn’t monitor the chains of infection in real time, and because the economic cost of extended lockdowns was prohibitive. In 1918 you could quarantine people who came down with the dreaded flu, but you couldn’t trace the movements of pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic carriers. And if you ordered the entire population of a country to stay at home for several weeks, it would have resulted in economic ruin, social breakdown and mass starvation. In contrast, in 2020 digital surveillance made it far easier to monitor and pinpoint the disease vectors, meaning that quarantine could be both more selective and more effective. Even more importantly, automation and the Internet made extended lockdowns viable, at least in developed countries. While in some parts of the developing world the human experience was still reminiscent of past plagues, in much of the developed world the digital revolution changed everything.
What does the underlined word viable mean in the last paragraph of the passage?
- A feasible
- B awkward
- C improbable
- D excruciating
思路引導 VIP
請仔細觀察最後一段中 1918 年與 2020 年的對比：作者提到過去的封城會導致「經濟崩潰、社會瓦解與大規模飢荒」，但在 2020 年，因為有了數位監控、自動化與網際網路的支援，情況發生了轉變。在這種「科技能防止社會崩潰」的前提下，你認為作者會如何形容當時「長期封城」這種措施的「可操作性」呢？它是變得更容易被實現了，還是變得更痛苦、更不可能了？
🤖
AI 詳解
AI 專屬家教
太棒了！你能精準捕捉到單字在特定語境中的含義，代表你具備了優秀的閱讀理解與邏輯推論能力。這題的難度在於它不只是考單字量，更是在考驗你對文章前後脈絡轉折的掌握力。
文章脈絡與對比關係
在最後一段中，作者進行了一個非常強烈的跨時代對比。他提到在 1918 年，若要求全國人口居家隔離數週，將導致「經濟崩潰與社會瓦解」。然而，在 2020 年，由於自動化與網際網路的普及，讓長期的封城措施變得 viable。這裡的邏輯是：科技「解決了原本會導致崩潰的問題」，使得封城變得「可行且可負擔」。因此，選項 (A) feasible（可行的、行得通的）最符合文意。
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