Jim was intelligent, but he hated hard work. He said, "You work hard, and make a lot of mo

第1题

The reason some children are backward in speaking today is that （）.

A.they do not listen carefully to their mothers.

B.their brains have to absorb too much language at once.

C.their mother do not respond to their attempt to speak.

D.their mothers are not intelligent enough to help them.

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第2题

Jim: I have a pair of tickets for an opera Saturday night. Would you like to go？ Cindy: I

don't think so. ______.

A．I'm not too wild about opera

B．I'm not too interested about opera

C．I'm not very excited about opera

D．I'm not very anxious about opera

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第3题

From Hellman's remark, we can see that______.A．full use has been made of the wisdom of old

From Hellman's remark, we can see that______.

A．full use has been made of the wisdom of older people.

B．the wisdom of older people is not valued by American society.

C．older people are no less intelligent than young people.

D．the wisdom of older people is of great value to American society.

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第4题

The next big breakthrough in artificial intelligence could come from giving machines not j

ust more logical capacity, but emotional capacity as well.

Feelings aren't usually associated with inanimate machines, but Rosalind Picard, a professor of computer technology at MIT, believes emotion may be just the thing computers need to work effectively. Computers need artificial emotion to understand their human users better and to achieve self-analysis and self-improvement.

The more scientists study the "wetware" model for computing—the human brain and nervous system—the more they conclude that emotions are a part of intelligence, not separate from it. Emotions are among the tools that we use to process the tremendous amount of stimuli in our environment. They also pay a role in human learning and decision making. Feeling bad about a wrong decision, for instance, focuses attention on avoiding future error. A feeling of pleasure, on the other hand, positively reinforces an experience.

"If we want computers to be genuinely intelligent, to adapt to us, and to interact naturally with us, then they will need the ability to recognize and express emotions, to have emotions, and to have what has come to be called 'emotional intelligence,'" Picard says.

One way that emotions can help computers, she suggests, is by helping keep them from crashing. Today's computers produce error messages, but they do not have a "gut feeling" of knowing when something is wrong or doesn't make sense. A healthy fear of death could motivate a computer to stop trouble as soon as it starts. On the other hand, self-preservation would need to be subordinate to service to humans. It was fear of its own death that prompted HAL, the fictional computer in the film 2002: A Space Odyssey, to kill most of its human associates.

Similarly, computers that could "read" their users would accumulate a store of highly personal information about us—not just what we said and did, but what we likely thought and felt.

"Emotions not only contribute to a richer quality of interaction, but they directly impact a person's ability to interact in an intelligent way," Picard says. "Emotional skills, especially the ability to recognize and express emotions, are essential for natural communication with humans."

In the future computers will tend to be made ______.

A．fictional

B．humanized

C．economical

D．operational

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第5题

1 For the Greeks, beauty was a virtue: a kind of excellence. Persons then were assumed to

be what we now have to call—lamely, enviously—whole persons. If it did occur to the Greeks to distinguish between a person's "inside" and "outside," they still expected that inner beauty would be matched by beauty of the other kind. The well-born young Athenians who gathered around Socrates found it quite paradoxical that their hero was so intelligent, so brave, so honorable, so seductive—and so ugly. One of Socrates' main pedagogical acts was to be ugly—and teach those innocent, no doubt splendid-looking disciples of his how full of paradoxes life really was.

2 They may have resisted Socrates' lesson. We do not. Several thousand years later, we are more wary of the enchantments of beauty. We not only split off—with the greatest facility—the "inside"(character, intellect) from the "outside" (looks); but we are actually surprised when someone who is beautiful is also intelligent, talented, good.

3 It was principally the influence of Christianity that deprived beauty of the central place it had in classical ideals of human excellence. By limiting excellence (virtus in Latin) to moral virtue only, Christianity set beauty adrift—as an alienated, arbitrary, superficial enchantment. And beauty has continued to lose prestige. For close to two centuries it has become a convention to attribute beauty to only one of the two sexes, the sex which, however fair, is always Second. Associating beauty with women has put beauty even further on the defensive, morally.

4 A beautiful woman, we say in English, but a handsome man. "Handsome" is the masculine equivalent of—and refusal of—a compliment which has accumulated certain demeaning overtones, by being reserved for women only. That one can call a man "beautiful" in French and in Italian suggests that Catholic countries—unlike those countries shaped by the Protestant version of Christianity—still retain some vestiges of the pagan admiration for beauty. But the difference, if one exists, is of degree only. In every modern country that is Christian or post-Christian, women are the beautiful sex—to the detriment of the notion of beauty as well as of women.

The author means ______ by "whole persons" in Para.

A．persons of beauty

B．persons of virtue

C．persons of excellence

D．none of the above

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第6题

Now which are the animals really to be pitied in captivity？ First, those clever beings who

se lively urge for activity can find no outlet behind the bars of the cage. This is most conspicuous, even for the uninitiated, in the case of animals which, when living in a free state, are accustomed to roaming about widely. Owing to this frustrated desire, foxes and wolves housed, in many old fashioned zoos, in cages which are far too small, are among the most pitiable of all caged animals.

Though pinioned swans generally seem happy, under proper care, by hatching and rearing their young without any trouble, at migration time things become different: they repeatedly swim to the lee side of the pond, in order to have the whole extent of its surface at their disposal, trying to take off. Again and again the grand preparations end in a pathetic flutter of their half wings; a truly sorry picture!

This, however, rarely awakens the pity of the zoo visitor, least of all when such an originally highly intelligent and mentally alert animal has deteriorated, in confinement, into a crazy idiot, a very caricature of its former self. Sentimental old ladies, the fanatical sponsors of the societies for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, have no compunction in keeping a grey parrot in a relatively small cage or even chained to a perch. Together with the large corvines, the parrots are probably the only birds which suffer from that state of mind, common to prisoners, namely, boredom.

What is an "outlet" in the context of this passage？

A．An opportunity for expression.

B．A place to let.

C．A chance of escape into a wood.

D．An exit for a marketer.

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第7题

There is a great concern in Europe and North America about declining standards of literacy

in schools. In Britain, the fact that 30 percent of 16 year old have a reading age of 14 or less has helped to prompt massive educational changes. The development of literacy has far-reaching effects on general intellectual development and thus anything which impedes the development of literacy is a serious matter for us all. So the hunt is on for the cause of the decline in literacy. The search so far has forced on socioeconomic factors, or the effectiveness of "traditional" versus "modem" teaching techniques.

The fruitless search for the cause of the increase in illiteracy is a tragic example of the saying "They can't see the wood for the trees". When teachers use picture books, they are simply continuing a long-establisbed tradition that is accepted without question. And for the past two decades, illustrations in reading primers have become increasingly detailed and obtrusive, while language has become impoverished -- sometimes to the point of extinction.

Amazingly, there is virtually no empirical evidence to support the use of illustrations in teaching reading. On the contrary, a great deal of empirical evidence shows that pictures interfere in a damaging way with all aspects of learning to read. Despite this, from North America to the Antipodes, the first books that many school children receive are totally without text.

A teacher's main concern is to help young beginning readers to develop not only the ability to recognize words, but the skills necessary to understand what these words mean. Even if a child is able to read aloud fluently, he or: she may not be able to understand much of it: this is called "barking at text". The teacher's task of improving comprehension is made harder by influences outside the classroom. But the adverse effects of such things as television, video games, or limited language experiences at home, can be offset by experiencing "rich" language at school.

Instead, it is not unusual for a book of 30 or more pages to have only one sentence full of repetitive phrases. The artwork is often marvellous, but the pictures make the language redundant, and the children have no need to imagine anything when they read such books. Looking at a picture actively prevents children younger than nine from creating a mental image, and can make it difficult for older children. In order to learn how to comprehend, they need to practise making their own meaning in response to text. They need to have their innate powers of imagination trained.

As they grow older, many children turn aside from books without pictures, and it is a situation made more serious as our culture becomes more visual. It is hard to wean children off picture books when pictures have played a major part throughout their formative reading experiences, and when there is competition for their attention from so many other sources of entertainment. The least intelligent are most vulnerable, but tests show that even intelligent children are being affected. The response of educators has been to extend use of pictures in books and to simplify the language, even at senior levels. The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge recently held joint conferences to discuss the noticeably rapid decline in literacy among their undergraduates.

Pictures are also used to help motivate children to read because they are beautiful and eye-catching. But motivation to read should be provided by listening to stories well read, where children imagine in response to the story. Then, as they start to read, they have this experience to help them understand the language. If we present pictures to save children the trouble of developing these creative skills, then I think we are making a great mistake.

Academic journals ranging from educational research, psychology, language learning, psycholinguistics, and so on cite experime

A．they read too loudly

B．there are too many repetitive words

C．they are discouraged from using their imagination

D．they have difficulty assessing its meaning

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第8题

Astronaut Jim Voss has enjoyed many memorable moments in his career, including three space

flights and one space walk. But he recalls with special fondness a decidedly earthbound experience in the summer of 1980, when he participated in the NASA-AS-EE Summer Faculty Fellowship Program. Voss, then a science teacher at West Point, was assigned to the Marshall Space Flight Center's propulsion lab in Alabama to analyze why a hydraulic fuel pump seal on the space shuttle was working so well when previous seals had failed. It was a seemingly tiny problem among the vast complexities of running the space program. Yet it was important to NASA because any crack in the seals could have led to destructive results for the astronauts who relied on them.

"I worked a bit with NASA engineers," says Voss, "but I did it mostly by analysis. I used a handheld calculator, not a computer, to do a thermodynamic analysis. "At the end of the summer, he, like the other NASA-ASEE fellows working at Marshall, summarized his findings in a formal presentation and detailed paper. It was a valuable moment for Voss because the ASEE program gave him added understanding of NASA, deepened his desire to fly in space, and intensified his application for astronaut status.

It was not an easy process. Voss was actually passed over when he first applied for the astronaut program in 1978. Over the next nine years he reapplied repeatedly, and was finally accepted in 1987. Since then he has participated in three space missions. The 50-year-old Army officer, who lives in Houston, is now in training for a four-month mission as a crew member on the International Space Station starting in July 2000.

Voss says the ASEE program is wonderful for all involved. "It brings in people from the academic world and gives NASA a special property for a particular period of time. It brings some fresh eyes and fresh ideas to NASA, and establishes link with our colleges and universities," Voss explains. "There's an exchange of information and an exchange of perspectives that is very important."

For the academic side, Voss says, the ASEE program also "brings institutions of higher learning more insight into new technology. We give them an opportunity to work on real-world problems and take it back to the classroom. "

Why was the hydraulic fuel pump seal important for the space shuttle？

A．Because previous seals all failed.

B．Because it was very complex in running the space program.

C．Because great care has to be taken of the hydraulic fuel pump sealing.

D．Because any crack in the seals would cause disastrous results for the astronauts.

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第9题

People in the US can now carry an artificial intelligence （AI) around in their pocket, whe

People in the US can now carry an artificial intelligence (AI) around in their pocket, where it waits patiently to be told what to do.

Siri, an iPhone application that understands spoken commands and uses the web to carry them out,is a byproduct from a US military project to develop an artificially intelligent assistant.

Many people's experience of a "virtual assistant" may be limited to Microsoft's annoying classic Mr. Clippy. But in the week we spent together, my AI assistant has performed admirably in finding me restaurants, or the location of the nearest coffee shop. It wasn't even stumped when I asked "do I need my umbrella today？" coming straight back with the local weather forecast.

A typical command might be: "Reserve a table for two at a good French restaurant in San Francisco." Siri responds by presenting a list of top-rated restaurants that can be booked on OpenTable.com. If you say which time you want, it can book you a table without your lifting a finger.

In some ways Siri is just a fancy front-end to the 35 sites it can connect to, from taxi booking sites to movie review databases. But what's new is the way it can interpret the intentions of its master or mistress and use those sites to put them into action.

Doing that requires the ability to actually understand the meaning of words you use, not just passing on keywords blindly, says Siri co-founder Adam Cheyer.

"Book a four-star restaurant in Boston seems pretty straightforward," says Cheyer, "until you realise that Book is a city in the US, and Star is also a city in the US, and there are 13 Bostons, and Star is also the name of a restaurant."

To cut through what Cheyer calls the "combined explosion of interpretations", Siri uses your location, and the history of the commands you've given. It knows that "book" is most likely a command verb, unless you happen to be near the city of Book.

Siri attaches probabilities to the interpretation of each word and cross-reference(参照) with your location and other data, some of which you must provide yourself.

According to the passage, Siri is most probably ______.

A．still at its experimental stage

B．very popular with iPhone users

C．a US military assistant software

D．an artificial intelligence software

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第10题

Most human beings actually decide before they think. When any human being—executive, speci

alized expert, or person in the street—encounters a complex issue and forms an opinion, often within a matter of seconds, how thoroughly has he or she explored the implications of the various courses of action？ Answer: not very thoroughly. Very few people, no matter how intelligent or experienced, can take inventory of the many branching possibilities, possible outcomes, side effects, and undesired consequences of a policy or a course of action in a matter of seconds. Yet, those who pride themselves on being decisive often try to do just that. And once their brains lock onto an opinion, most of their thinking thereafter consists of finding support for it.

A very serious side effect of argumentative decision making can be a lack of support for the chosen course of action on the part of the "losing" faction. When one faction wins the meeting and the others see themselves as losing, the battle often doesn't end when the meeting ends. Anger, resentment, and jealousy may lead them to sabotage the decision later, or to reopen the debate at later meetings.

There is a better way. As philosopher Aldous Huxley said, "It isn't who is right, but what is right, that counts."

The structured-inquiry method offers a better alternative to argumentative decision making by debate. With the help of the Internet and wireless computer technology, the gap between experts and executives is now being dramatically closed. By actually putting the brakes on the thinking process, slowing it down, and organizing the flow of logic, it's possible to create a level of clarity that sheer argumentation can never march.

The structured-inquiry process introduces a level of conceptual clarity by organizing the contributions of the experts, then brings the experts and the decision makers closer together. Although it isn't possible or necessary for a president or prime minister to listen in on every intelligence analysis meeting, it's possible to organize the experts' information to give the decision maker much greater insight as to its meaning. This process may somewhat resemble a marketing focus group; it's a simple, remarkably clever way to bring decision makers closer to the source of the expert information and opinions on which they must base their decisions.

From the first paragraph we can learn that______.

A．executive, specialized expert, are no more clever than person in the street

B．very few people decide before they think

C．those who pride themselves on being decisive often fail to do so

D．people tend to consider carefully before making decisions

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第11题

In the 1950s, the pioneers of artificial intelligence （AI) predicted that, by the end of t

In the 1950s, the pioneers of artificial intelligence (AI) predicted that, by the end of this century, computers would be conversing with us at work and robots would be performing our housework. But as useful as computers are, they're nowhere close to achieving anything remotely resembling these early aspirations for humanlike behavior. Never mind something as complex as conversation: the most powerful computers struggle to reliably recognize the shape of an object, the most elementary of tasks for a ten-month-old kid.

A growing group of AI researchers think they know where the field went wrong. The problem, the scientists say, is that AI has been trying to separate the highest, most abstract levels of thought, like language and mathematics, and to duplicate them with logical, step-by-step programs. A new movement in AI, on the other hand, takes a closer look at the more roundabout way in which nature came up with intelligence. Many of these researchers study evolution and natural adaptation instead of formal logic and conventional computer programs. Rather than digital computers and transistors, some want to work with brain cells and proteins. The results of these early efforts are as promising as they are peculiar, and the new nature-based AI movement is slowly but surely moving to the forefront of the field.

Imitating the brain's neural network is a huge step in the right direction, says computer scientist and biophysicist Michael Conrad, but it still misses an important aspect of natural intelligence. "People tend to treat the brain as if it were made up of color-coded transistors", he explains, "but it's not simply a clever network of switches. There are lots of important things going on inside the brain cells themselves. " Specifically, Conrad believes that many of the brain's capabilities stem from the pattern recognition proficiency of the individual molecules that make up each brain cell. The best way to build an artificially intelligent device, he claims, would be to build it around the same sort of molecular skills.

Right now, the option that conventional computers and software are fundamentally incapable of matching the processes that take place in the brain remains controversial. But if it proves true, then the efforts of Conrad and his fellow AI rebels could turn out to be the only game in town.

The author says that the powerful computers of today ______.

A．are capable of reliably recognizing the shape of an object

B．are close to exhibiting humanlike behavior

C．are not very different in their performance from those of the 50's

D．still cannot communicate with people in a human language

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