How did the early people do their counting At first, they did all their counting with small stones. Later, they learned to use their fingers in counting. Since man has ten fingers, the number ten became the
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of all counting in many parts of the world.
In 1946 the first electronic computers went into
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. Since its invention the computer has changed greatly, and it has more and more uses. It can
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people from difficult measurement and computation.
There are
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computations in science and engineering. Scientists are unable to make them, but the computer can do them quickly and
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. For instance, a spaceship cannot leave the earth and go to the moon without computers. What must the spaceship be like When can it leave Will it be on the right
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The computer must answer all these questions.
In recent years more and more people have used computers not only in production and technology, but also in everyday life, for the simple reason that they are far more
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than man. They have much better memories and can
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large amounts of information. No man
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can do 500,000 sums in one second, but a computer can. In fact, computers can do many of the things we do, but faster and better. They can
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machines in factories, work out tomorrow"s weather, and even do translation work.
In the future we are going to use computers for almost everything almost every day.
A. control B. alive C. operation D. reproduce
E. correctly F. efficient G. free H. omit
I. complex J. foundation K. discipline L. store
M. living N. naturally O. course