In a few years, you might be able to speak Chinese, Korean, Japanese, French, and English―and all at the same time. This sounds incredible, but Alex Waibel, a computer science professor at US's Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Germany's University of Karlsruhe, announced last week that it may soon be reality. He and his team have invented software and hardware that could make it far easier for people who speak different languages to understand each other.

One application, called Lecture Translation, can easily translate a speech from one language into another. Current translation technologies typically limit speakers to certain topics or a limited vocabulary. Users also have to be trained how to use the programme.

Another prototype(雏形机) can send translations of a speech to different listeners depending on what language they speak. “It is like having a simultaneous translator right next to you but without disturbing the person next to you,” Waibel said.

Prefer to read? So-called Translation Glasses transcribe(转录) the translations on a tiny liquid-crystal(液晶) display(LCD) screen.

Then there's the Muscle Translator. Electrodes capture the electrical signals from facial muscle movements made naturally when a person is mouthing words. The signals are then translated into speech. The electrodes could be replaced with wireless chips implanted in a person's face, according to researchers.

During a demonstration held last Thursday in CMU's Pittsburgh campus, a Chinese student named Sang Jun had 11 tiny electrodes attached to the muscles of his cheeks, neck and throat. Then he mouthed―without speaking aloud―a few words in Mandarin(普通话) to the audience. A few seconds later, the phrase was displayed on a computer screen and spoken out by the computer in English and Spanish: “Let me introduce our new prototype.”

This particular gadget(器械),when fully developed, might allow anyone to speak in any number of languages or, as Waibel put it, “to switch your mouth to a foreign language”. “The idea behind the university's prototypes is to create ‘good enough’ bridges for cross-cultural exchanges that are becoming more common in the world,” Waibel said.

With spontaneous(自发的,自愿的) translators, foreign drivers in Germany could listen to traffic warnings on the radio, tourists in China could read all the signs and talk with local people, and leaders of different countries could have secret talks without any interpreters there.

68. Which of the following statements is NOT TRUE?

A. A lecture translation can translate what you said into other languages easily.

B. Muscle Translators can translate what you think into speech if you just move your mouth.

C. There is no Muscle Translator in the world now.

D. The spontaneous translators will help us a lot.

69. What's the final destination of inventing the language translators?

A. To make cultural exchanges between different countries easier.

B. To help students learn foreign languages more easily.

C. To make people live in foreign countries more comfortably.

D. To help people learn more foreign languages in the future.

70. What can be inferred from the seventh paragraph?

A. The translator is so good that it can translate any language into the very language you need.

B. The translator is becoming more and more common in the world as a bridge.

C. With the help of the translator, you only need to open your mouth when you want to say something without saying the exact words at all.

D. The translator needs to be improved before being put into market.

In a few years, you might be able to speak Chinese, Korean, Japanese, French, and English—and all at the same time. This sounds incredible, but Alex Waibel, a computer science professor at US's Carnegie Mellon University （CMU） and Germany's University of Karlsruhe, announced last week that it may soon be reality. He and his team have invented software and hardware that could make it far easier for people who speak different languages to understand each other.?

One application, called Lecture Translation, can easily translate a speech from one language into another. Current translation technologies typically limit speakers to certain topics or a limited vocabulary. Users also have to be trained how to use the programme.?

Another prototype（雏形机） can send translations of a speech to different listeners depending on what language they speak. “It is like having a simultaneous translator right next to you but without disturbing the person next to you,” Waibel said.?

Prefer to read? So-called Translation Glasses transcribe（转录） the translations on a tiny liquid-crystal（液晶） display（LCD） screen.?

Then there's the Muscle Translator. Electrodes capture the electrical signals from facial muscle movements made naturally when a person is mouthing words. The signals are then translated into speech. The electrodes could be replaced with wireless chips implanted in a person's face, according to researchers.?

During a demonstration held last Thursday in CMU's Pittsburgh campus, a Chinese student named Sang Jun had 11 tiny electrodes attached to the muscles of his cheeks, neck and throat. Then he mouthed—without speaking aloud—a few words in Mandarin（普通话） to the audience. A few seconds later, the phrase was displayed on a computer screen and spoken out by the computer in English and Spanish: “Let me introduce our new prototype.”?

This particular gadget（器械）,when fully developed, might allow anyone to speak in any number of languages or, as Waibel put it, “to switch your mouth to a foreign language”. “The idea behind the university's prototypes is to create ‘good enough’ bridges for cross-cultural exchanges that are becoming more common in the world,” Waibel said.?

With spontaneous（自发的,自愿的） translators, foreign drivers in Germany could listen to traffic warnings on the radio, tourists in China could read all the signs and talk with local people, and leaders of different countries could have secret talks without any interpreters there.?

1．Which of the following statements is NOT TRUE?

A．A lecture translation can translate what you said into other languages easily.?

B．Muscle Translators can translate what you think into speech if you just move your mouth.?

C．There is no Muscle Translator in the world now.

D．The spontaneous translators will help us a lot.

2．What's the final destination of inventing the language translators??

A．To make cultural exchanges between different countries easier.?

B．To help students learn foreign languages more easily.?

C．To make people live in foreign countries more comfortably.?

D．To help people learn more foreign languages in the future.

3．What can be inferred from the seventh paragraph?

A．The translator is so good that it can translate any language into the very language you need.?

B．The translator is becoming more and more common in the world as a bridge.?

C．With the help of the translator, you only need to open your mouth when you want to say something without saying the exact words at all.?

D．The translator needs to be improved before being put into market.

       What you are saying now is not _________ what you said last week.

A. agreement with  B. fit in with      C. consistent with  D. similar with

I was arranging to meet someone for dinner last week, and I said “I’ll pencil it in my diary”, and my friend said “You can ink it in”, meaning that it was a firm arrangement not a tentative one!
Many of these new verbs are linked to new technology. An obvious example is the word fax, which is a shortening of facsimile originally, an exact copy of a book or document. We all got used to sending and receiving faxes, and then soon started talking about faxing something and promising we'd fax it immediately. So, nouns turn into verbs in two easy stages. Then along came email, and we were soon all emailing each other madly. How did we do without it? I can hardly imagine life without my daily emails.
Email reminds me, of course， of my computer and its software, which has produced another couple of new verbs. On my computer I can bookmark those pages from the World Wide Web that I think I'll want to look at again, thus saving all the effort of remembering their addresses and calling them up from scratch. I can do the same thing on my PC, but there I don't bookmark; I favorite—coming from “favorite pages”, so the verb is derived from an adjective not a noun. I wasn’t really sure whether people said this，but someone told me recently that they had favorited a site I was looking for and so they could easily give me its address.
In the late 1980s I noticed that lots of my friends had acquired pagers, and kept saying things like “I’ll page you as soon as I know what time we’re meeting”. They couldn't say it to me, though; 1 refused to have one. So my children bought me a mobile phone, now known simply as a mobile and I had to learn yet more new verbs. I can message someone, that is, I can leave a message （either spoken or written）for them on their phone.Or I can text them, write a few words suggesting when and where to meet, for example. How long will it be before I can mobile them, that is, phone them using my mobile? I haven’t heard that verb yet, but I’m sure I will soon. Perhaps I’ll start using it myself!

1. 1.

   “I’ll pencil it in my diary” in the second paragraph probably means          .

   1. A.
      it was a firm arrangement
   2. B.
      it was an uncertain arrangement
   3. C.
      the arrangement should be written as a diary
   4. D.
      he prefers a pencil to a pen
2. 2.

   A website address can be easily found if it has been＿____.

   1. A.
      emailed
   2. B.
      messaged
   3. C.
      favorited
   4. D.
      texted
3. 3.

   Which of the following has not been used as a verb, yet?

   1. A.
      message
   2. B.
      page
   3. C.
      email
   4. D.
      mobile
4. 4.

   The best title for this passage is____.

   1. A.
      New Verbs from Old Nouns
   2. B.
      The Development of the English language
   3. C.
      New Technology and New words
   4. D.
      Technology and Language.