Electronic computers are among the fastest and most useful instruments for sorting and comparing in use today. Computers provide the means for greater speed and accuracy in working with ideas than had previously been possible. With the development of these new tools, it is as if man has suddenly become a millionaire of the mind.
Although man has been growing mentally richer ever since he started to think, the electronic computer allows and will continue to allow him to perform tremendous mental tasks in a relatively short time. Great scientists of the past produced ideas which were the basis for great advances, but their ideas sometimes had to wait for years before they were understood sufficiently well to be of practical use. With the computer, the ideas of today's scientists can be studied, tested, distributed, and used more rapidly than ever before.
Old lines and methods of communication do not work easily or efficiently with as much information as we have now. The repeated actions of preparing, sorting, filling distributed, and keeping track of records and publications can be as troublesome as calculating. Errors occur because men grow tired and can be [distracted.]
The basic job of computers is the processing of information. For this reason computers can be defined as devices which accept information, perform mathematical or 1ogical operations with the information, and then supply the results of these operations as new information.
Although a sharp dividing line between types of computers is not always easy to see, computers are usually divided into two broad groups: digital and analog. Digital computers work by using specific information which is usually in the form of numbers. Analog computers, on the other hand, usually process continuous information.
To explain this difference, let us consider two devices which handle information in a manner similar to the two types of computers. A turnstile, which has a counter attached to it, can help to explain the way a digital computer works. Each time a person passes through the turnstile, the indicator quickly jumps from one number to another. Each number registered is separate and specific.
The continuous change in the level of sand in an hourglass as time passes makes it an analog device. Perhaps the first analog computation was the use of graphs for the solution of surveying problems.
问题:Which of the following statements best summarizes the first paragraph?
