As civilization proceeds in the direction of technology求全文翻译

     As civilization proceeds in the direction of technology, it passes the point of supplying all the basic essentials of life-food, shelter, clothes and warmth。 Then we are faced with a choice between using  technology to provide and fulfill needs which have now been regarded as unnecessary or, on the other hand, using technology to reduce the number of hours of work which a man must do in order to earn a given standard of living。 In other words, we either raise our standard of living above that necessary forcomfort and happiness or we leave it at this level and work shorter hours。

     I shall take it for granted that mankind has, by that time, chosen the latter alternative。 Men will be working shorter and shorter hours in their paid employment。 It follows that the housewife will also expect to be able to have more leisure in her life without lowering her standard of living。 It also follows that human domestic servants will have completely ceased to exist。 Yet the great majority of the housewives will wish to be relieved completely from the routine operations of the home such as scrubbing the floors or the bath of the cooker, or washing the clothes or washing up, or dusting or sweeping, or making beds。

     By far the most logical step to relieve the housewife of routine is to provide a robot which can be trained to the requirements of a particular home and can be programmed to carry out half a dozen or

more standard operations, when switched by the housewife。

     译文：随着文明朝着技术的方向发展，它通过了提供生活的所有基本要素——食物、住所、衣服和温暖的点。然后，我们面临着一种选择，即使用技术来提供和满足那些现在被认为是不必要的需求，或者另一方面，使用技术来减少一个人为了获得一个给定的生活水平而必须做的工作时间。换言之，我们要么把生活水平提高到舒适和幸福所必需的水平以上，要么把生活水平保持在这个水平，工作时间缩短。

     我认为，到那时，人类已经选择了后者，这是理所当然的。男性的带薪工作时间将越来越短。由此可见，家庭主妇也希望在不降低生活水平的情况下，能有更多的闲暇时间。它还表明，家庭佣人将完全不复存在。然而，绝大多数家庭主妇都希望完全摆脱家庭的日常工作，如擦洗地板或炊具的浴缸，洗衣服或洗漱，或除尘或清扫，或铺床。

     到目前为止，让家庭主妇摆脱日常生活的最合乎逻辑的步骤是提供一个机器人，它可以根据特定家庭的要求进行训练，并且可以被编程为执行半打或更标准的操作，当家庭主妇转换。

     阅读理解答案：CDACC