50．
Which of the following can
best sum up the passage?
A．It is necessary to learn the
language before you go to the country.
B．Americans are used to the
culture of other countries.
C．One needs many characteristics
to live in another country.
D．To live in a foreign land
one should get fully prepared.
C
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 translate d
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)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.