Since the dawn of human ingenuity, people have devised ever more cunning tools to cope with work that is dangerous, boring, burdensome, or just plain nasty. That compulsion has resulted in robotics—the science of conferring various human capabilities on machines. And if scientists have yet to create the mechanical version of science fiction, they have begun to come close.
As a result, the modern world is increasingly populated by intelligent gizmos whose presence we barely notice but whose universal existence has removed much human labor. Our factories hum to the rhythm of robot assembly arms. Our banking is done at automated teller terminals that thank us with mechanical politeness for the transaction. Our subway trains are controlled by tireless robo-drivers. And thanks to the continual miniaturization of electronics and micro-mechanics, there are already robot systems that can perform some kinds of brain and bonesurgery with submillimeter accuracy—far greater precision than highly skilled physicians can achieve with their hands alone.
But if robots are to reach the next stage of laborsaving utility, they will have to operate with less human supervision and be able to make at least a few decisions for themselves—goals that pose a real challenge. “While we know how to tell a robot to handle a specific error," says Dave Lavery, manager of a robotics program at NASA, “we can't yet give a robot enough 'common sense' to reliably interact with a dynamic world."
Indeed the quest for true artificial intelligence has produced very mixed results. Despite a spell of initial optimism in the 1960s and 1970s when it appeared that transistor circuits and microprocessors might be able to copy the action of the human brain by the year 2010, researchers lately have begun to extend that forecast by decades if not centuries.
What they found, in attempting to model thought, is that the human brain'sroughly one hundred billion nerve cells are much more talented—and human perception far more complicated—than previously imagined. They have built robots that can recognize the error of a machine panel by a fraction of a millimeter in a controlled factory environment. But the human mind can glimpse a rapidly changing scene and immediately disregard the 98 percent that is irrelevant, instantaneously focusing on the monkey at the side of a winding forest road or the single suspicious face in a big crowd. The most advanced computer systems on Earth can't approach that kind of ability, and neuroscientists still don't know quite how we do it.
1. Human ingenuity was initially demonstrated in( ).
A. the use of machines to produce science fiction.
B. the wide use of machines in manufacturing industry.
C. the invention of tools for difficult and dangerous work.
D. the elite's cunning tackling of dangerous and boring work.
2. The word “gizmos" (line 1, paragraph 2) most probably means( ) .
A. programs
B. experts
C. devices.
D. creatures
3. According to the text, what is beyond man's ability now is to design a robot that can ( ).
A. fulfill delicate tasks like performing brain surgery.
B. interact with human beings verbally.
C. have a little common sense.
D. respond independently to a changing world.
4. Besides reducing human labor, robots can also( ).
A. make a few decisions for themselves.
B. deal with some errors with human intervention.
C. improve factory environments.
D. cultivate human creativity.
5. The author uses the example of a monkey to argue that robots are( ) .
A. expected to copy human brain in internal structure.
B. able to perceive abnormalities immediately.
C. far less able than human brain in focusing on relevant information.
D. best used in a controlled environment.
答案
1. 【答案】C。文章的第一句為本題提供了線索。原文中的devised換成了正確選項中的invention，work that is dangerous， boring， burdensome， or just plain nasty=difficult and dangerous work。D. 項是強幹擾項，elite是"精英"的意思，文章沒有提及精英人士如何使用聰明的手段來做危險無聊的工作。其他二項A. 、B. 都是對文章內容錯誤的表達。
2. 【答案】C。文章第二段指出那種智能型gizmo的出現極大地減少了人類勞動，第二段又給出了具體的事例來說明這種gizmo的作用。可見這種gizmo不是人(專家)，也不是動物(creatures)，也不是程序(programs)，而是機器人，但機器人也屬於"器械工具"的類別，即devices。
3. 【答案】D。首先要讀懂題目。該題問的是：現在超出人類能力範圍之內的工作是要設計一個機器人，它能……"。文章第三段最後一句是本題解題的關鍵。本句指出"我們現在不能讓機器人具有足夠的"常識"，從而使它們與變化的世界發生可靠的互動"。原句中reliably internet with a dynamic world換成了正確選項中的respond independently to a changing world.文章第二段指出有些機器人能夠執行如腦部形科手術這樣的細微任務，所以A. 項錯誤，B. 項"和人類進行語言互動"在文章中沒有提及，C. 項中的a little錯誤。
4. 【答案】B。文章第三段第二句為本題提供了線索。機器人能夠處理某個特定錯誤是我們告訴它們該如何做的，也就是human interventin(人類干預)的結果。A. 項是一個強幹擾項，但第三段第一句的時態是將來時，表示一種沒有實現的活動或設想，此句表明機器人還不能夠自己做出決定，所以該項也是錯誤的。C. 、D. 兩項是對文章內容錯誤的表述。
5. 【答案】C。文章最後一段的倒數第二句用了猴子的例子。使用該例是要說明"the human mind can glimpse a rapidly changing scene and immediately disregard the 98 percent that is irrelevant(人腦能夠掃視一個快速變化的場景，還能迅速忽略那些佔總量98%的不相關的內容)換句話就是說機器人還沒有這樣的能力，因此把上述意思換成否定就是C. 項，就專注於相關信息而言，機器人比人腦差遠了。
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