题目内容
Can computer reason? Reasoning requires the individual to take a given set of facts and draw correct conclusions. Unfortunately, errors frequently occur. Now, or at least soon, computers will be able to do logical reasoning in a variety of areas without making errors. The key to avoiding errors is to use a computer program that relies on the recent research in this field. AURA(Automated Reasoning Assistant) is the program that is the best example of this use of the computer.
AURA solves a program by drawing conclusions from a given set of facts about the problem. The program reaches logical conclusions perfectly as it uses various types of reasoning and solves almost all problems by using advanced techniques to find a contradiction（矛盾）.
One generally starts with a set of assumptions and adds a statement that the goal is unreachable. For example, if the problem is to test a safety system that automatically（自动地） shuts down a nuclear reactor when instruments indicate a problem, AURA is told that the system will not shut the reactor down under those circumstances. If AURA finds a contradiction between the statement and the system’s design assumptions, then this aspect of the reactor’s design has been proved satisfactory. This strategy lets AURA concentrate on the problem at hand and avoid many fruitless steps.
The chief use for AURA at this time is for electronic circuit（电路）design check, but a number of other uses will arise. For example, there already exist “expert systems” that are special purpose programs designed to automate reasoning in a specific area such as medical diagnosis. These expert systems continue to improve and have an endless life. Moreover, they can be reproduced just for pennies. A human who can expertly predict where to drill for oil is in great demand. A program that can predict equally well would be invaluable and could be reproduced any number of times.
Will the computer replace the human being? It seems likely that computer programs will reproduce more clever programs, such programs will assist, rather than replace, humans. Reasoning assistants will enable human minds to turn to deeper and far more complex ideas, which will be partially prepared and then checked for reasoning flaws by a reasoning program. Many errors will be avoided.
1．The way AURA works is to .
A．explore the faults in designing. B．discover the viruses in a program.
C．find out what is against the set programs D．predict by reasoning.
2．All of the following are mentioned as areas for the use of AURA EXCEPT .
A．electronic engineering. B．search for oil
C．identification of diseases. D．mental logic
3．All of the following are advantages of expert programs EXCEPT .
A．they can be reproduced endlessly B．they are featured by self analysis.
C．they may be enriched in contents. D．they are reproduced almost free.
4．What’s the best title for the passage?
A．Practical Uses of computers. B．Suggested applications for AURA.
C．The technical perfection of AURA. D． Computer aid to human reasoning.
CDBD
Have you ever had the strange feeling that you were being watched? You turned around and, sure enough, someone was looking right at you!
Parapsychologists (灵学家) say that humans have a natural ability to sense when someone is looking at them. To research whether such a “sixth sense” really exists, Robert Baker, a psychologist at the University of Kentucky, performed two experiments.
In the first one, Baker sat behind unknowing people in public places and stared at the backs of their heads for 5 to 15 minutes. The subjects were eating, drinking, reading, studying, watching TV, or working at a computer. Baker made sure that the people could not tell that he was sitting behind them during those periods. Later, when he questioned the subjects, almost all of them said they had no sense that someone was staring at them.
For the second experiment, Baker told the subjects that they would be stared at from time to time from behind a two way mirror in a laboratory setting. The people had to write down when they felt they were being stared at and when they weren’t. Baker found that the subjects were no better at telling when they were stared at and when they weren’t. and they were no better at telling when they were stared at than if they had just guessed.
Baker concludes that people do not have the ability to sense when they’re being stared at. If people doubt the outcome of his two experiments, said baker, “I suggest they repeat the experiments and see for themselves.”
【小题1】The purpose of the two experiments is to .
| A．explain when people can have a sixth sense |
| B．show how people act while being watched in the lab |
| C．study whether humans can sense when they are stared at |
| D．prove why humans have a sixth sense |
| A．were not told that they would be stared at |
| B．lost their sense when they were stared at |
| C．were not sure when the would be stared at |
| D．were uncomfortable when they were stared at |
| A．People are born with a sixth sense. |
| B．The experiments support parapsychologists’ idea. |
| C．The subjects do not have a sixth sense in the experiments. |
| D．People have a sixth sense in public places. |
Some weight-loss camps, which are rare in China just a few years ago, have sprouted in Beijing, Qingdao, Shenzhen, and other cities. Today about 15 percent of adults, or 200 million Chinese, are reportedly overweight. Of these, 90 million—about 7 percent—are obese（极肥胖的）.
Experts say the obesity epidemic is spreading to children, though more slowly than in adults. The trend, they say, will have a huge impact on the health of China’s citizens and economy. “We’re seeing a very large proportion of children and adolescents who are quite heavy and aren’t moving much,” said Barry Popkin, a nutrition professor. Popkin carries out an ongoing health-and-nutrition survey of 16,000 households in China. He says more kids today are overeating and putting on weight “quite quickly”. In just ten years China’s childhood obesity rate has doubled, with the greatest gains coming in urban areas. “In big cities it’s a big problem.”
Some experts blame the extra fat on a range of factors, many of them tied to China’s rapidly changing economy and culture. The diets of Chinese adults and children are far higher in calorie-laden meats, fish, eggs, dairy products, fats, and sugars than ever before. In addition, kids—especially city dwellers—are more sedentary today and spend more time indoors in front of homework, television, computer games, and the Internet.
Shuwen Ng, a health economist, says that kids in China now have pocket money, and they spend a portion of it on junk food. Ng adds that advertising and peer groups influence kids’ food choices. Certain foods, such as new candies or fast food, have attractive features.
China’s childhood obesity rate still lags that of the United States, where some 15 percent of kids are said to be obese. But the long-term effects are equally serious.
【小题1】According to the passage we know ________.
| A．weight-loss camps was very popular in China six years ago |
| B．about 290 million Chinese are overweight in China in all |
| C．in China childhood obesity rate in rural areas is lower than that in major cities |
| D．America’s childhood obesity rate is lower than China’s |
| A．Advertising on some new candies | B．High quality diets |
| C．Playing computer games for long time | D．Having pocket money |
| A．attentive | B．earnest | C．absent | D．inactive |
| A．obesity explosion in China will affect the United States |
| B．there are great difference in kids’ food choices now |
| C．junk food contributes to childhood obesity |
| D．city children eat more than rural children |
| A．Chinese Childhood Obesity Explosion |
| B．Weight-loss Camps in China |
| C．Obesity Explosion’s Impacts On Chinese Economy |
| D．Obesity Explosion In China And America |
IMAGINE if there was a device that could do everything for you – wake you up every morning, chat with you and type your e-mails.
The piece of technology in question would be smart, able to tell you about the weather and where the nearest restaurants are.
The good thing is you no longer need to wonder, because something like this already exists. And its name is Siri.
Siri is a voice recognition application designed for Apple products and the concept has been around for almost a year.
When Siri first came out it could only speak English, but now it has “learned” lots of new languages, including Chinese, Cantonese and Taiwanese, reported The Wall Street Journal. So, you can give it orders in your mother tongue.
But how could a cell phone or a computer “hear” what you are saying and understand it? This is all because of voice recognition technology.
When you speak, your voice creates vibrations (振动) in the air – a bit like waves in the water when you throw a rock into the lake. The microphone receives the vibrations and the computer changes them into digital data that is then divided into many parts. They are analyzed one by one to see what pronunciations each part stands for. The computer then puts these pronunciations together into possible words according to its built-in dictionary.
But figuring out the words is far from enough; building words into meaningful sentences is the most difficult part. The computer has to compare what it hears to a large library of known phrases and sentences to determine what the user is saying.
However, people don’t always talk in the most standard way and sometimes make grammatical mistakes. This is why traditional voice recognition software always requires you to remember keywords and to speak in a certain way.
Fortunately, Siri isn’t like that. It’s not just “voice recognition”; it’s “natural language understanding (NLU)”. You can ask it things like “Do I need an umbrella today?” and it will know that you are asking about the weather, according to ABC News.
“The key thing is NLU – understanding what you mean and what you want,” Neil Grant from Nuance, a software company in the US, told The Guardian. “Historically, you had to learn a huge long list of commands . As NLU progresses, you can say what you want in a way that’s natural to you.”
【小题1】What is the function of the first two paragraphs?
| A．To show that invention usually results from need. |
| B．To clear doubts about voice recognition technology. |
| C．To introduce something that offers these helpful services. |
| D．To show how the voice recognition works. |
| A．Changing the received vibrations into digital data. |
| B．Analyzing the digital data to see what pronunciations it represents. |
| C．Putting the pronunciations together into possible words. |
| D．Figuring out meaningful sentences based on the words. |
| A．You can speak in a natural way as you would to a person. |
| B．You can only speak English and Chinese. |
| C．You have to say things in a certain way. |
| D．You have to remember keywords and speak specific commands. |
| A．Siri can record and save what you say frequently into a computer dictionary. |
| B．Siri will fail to understand what you say if you make grammatical mistakes. |
| C．The biggest advantage of Siri is that it’s NLU is rather than just voice recognition. |
| D．Since first applied to Apple products a year ago, Siri has made great improvements. |
| A．the convenience of future life. |
| B．an introduction to the Apple products. |
| C．the working system of voice recognition |
| D．the introduction to Siri |