Enter the information age. Information is the raw material for many of the business activities shaping this new era, (1) iron and steel were the basic commodities in the dawning of the industrial age.
The world’ s knowledge is said to be doubling (2) eight years. This knowledge explosion is (3) economic progress. The need to collect, analyze, and communicate (4) quantities of information is Spawning new products and services, creating jobs, and widening career opportunities.
The information age is (5) considered to be a phenomenon of the service sector of the economy, (6) a product of heavy industry. Certainly, burgeoning information technologies are creating new capabilities (7) knowledge-based service spheres. But changes just as dramatic are (8) industry, giving people the opportunity to do challenging work in exciting new ways.
Manufacturing is a full participant in the information age. From design (9) production, the manufacturing process has long been in formation-intensive. It always has required exacting communication to describe (10) goes into products and how to make them, Now, computer technology is giving factory managers new capability to gather all of this information and (11) it to control production.
Telecommunications are producing error-free communication between the design office (12) the factory, computer-aided design is enabling engineers to evaluate product performance and manufacturing process (13) video displays, before resources are committed to build and test prototypes. Techniques like these are bringing (14) new advances in manufacturing productivity.
Just as coal fueled the transformation to an industrial society, (15) microelectronics is powering the rise of the information age. Microelectronic information-management tools are strengthening U. S. industrial capability, (16) remains vital to America’ s economic well being and national security.
More and more manufacturing companies are (17) that the wise of information can give them a competitive edge. As companies emphasize (18) information management, talented people will continue to find (19) to make factories and milks sing with increased productivity.
In manufacturing as well as in services, information technology is a tool to (20) human creativity into productivity.
Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)6（）
A．in
B．by
C．over
D．on