Robots are increasingly being developed to think and act like humans. But one common human quality that has been difficult for engineers to recreate in machines is humor.
Most robots are powered by artificial intelligence, or AI. Some have performed better than humans in tests designed to measure machine intelligence.
Computer scientists have also hoped to give robots technical skills to help them recognize, process and react to humor. But these attempts have mostly failed.
Kiki Hempelmann is a computational language expert who studies humor at Texas A&M University. “Artificial intelligence will never get jokes like humans do,” he told the Associated Press. The main problem, Hempelmann says, is that robots completely miss the context of humor.
Tristan Miller is a computer scientist and linguist at Darmstadt University of Technology in Germany. In one research project, he studied more than 10,000 puns(双关语).
Puns are a kind of joke that uses a word with two meanings. For example, you could say, “Balloons do not like pop music.” The word “pop” can be a way of saying popular music; or, “pop” can be the sound a balloon makes when it explodes.
But a robot might not get the joke. Tristan Miller says that is because humor is a kind of creative language that is extremely difficult for computer intelligence to understand.
Despite the difficulties, Darmstadt University’s Miller says there are good reasons to keep trying to teach humor to robots. It could make machines more relatable, especially if they can learn to understand sarcasm(讽刺), he noted. Humans use sarcasm to say one thing but mean another.
But Texas A&M’s Kiki Hempelmann is not sure such attempts are a good idea. “Teaching AI systems humor is dangerous because they may find it where it isn’t, and they may use it where it’s inappropriate,” he said. “Maybe bad AI will start killing people because it thinks it is funny,” he added.
1.Which is difficult for robots to gain according to the passage?
A.Thinking. B.Humor.
C.Intelligence. D.Action.
2.What does Kiki mean by saying robots’ missing the context of humor?
a. They lack creativity and skills.
b. They have no sense of humor at all.
c. They don’t understand the situation.
d. They have no related ideas that make a joke funny.
A.ab B.ac
C.bd D.cd
3.What’s the main idea of the last paragraph?
A.The risk of teaching humor to AI.
B.The necessity of making AI smart.
C.The reason to keep robots humorous.
D.The possibility of robot understanding humor.
4.Which is the best title of the passage?
A.To Be Smarter, Be Humorous.
B.AI can Get Jokes Like Humans.
C.How to Help Robots Learn Humor?
D.Why Robot Humor Mostly Falls Flat.
高二英语阅读选择中等难度题
Robots are increasingly being developed to think and act like humans. But one common human quality that has been difficult for engineers to recreate in machines is humor.
Most robots are powered by artificial intelligence, or AI. Some have performed better than humans in tests designed to measure machine intelligence.
Computer scientists have also hoped to give robots technical skills to help them recognize, process and react to humor. But these attempts have mostly failed.
Kiki Hempelmann is a computational language expert who studies humor at Texas A&M University. “Artificial intelligence will never get jokes like humans do,” he told the Associated Press. The main problem, Hempelmann says, is that robots completely miss the context of humor.
Tristan Miller is a computer scientist and linguist at Darmstadt University of Technology in Germany. In one research project, he studied more than 10,000 puns(双关语).
Puns are a kind of joke that uses a word with two meanings. For example, you could say, “Balloons do not like pop music.” The word “pop” can be a way of saying popular music; or, “pop” can be the sound a balloon makes when it explodes.
But a robot might not get the joke. Tristan Miller says that is because humor is a kind of creative language that is extremely difficult for computer intelligence to understand.
Despite the difficulties, Darmstadt University’s Miller says there are good reasons to keep trying to teach humor to robots. It could make machines more relatable, especially if they can learn to understand sarcasm(讽刺), he noted. Humans use sarcasm to say one thing but mean another.
But Texas A&M’s Kiki Hempelmann is not sure such attempts are a good idea. “Teaching AI systems humor is dangerous because they may find it where it isn’t, and they may use it where it’s inappropriate,” he said. “Maybe bad AI will start killing people because it thinks it is funny,” he added.
1.Which is difficult for robots to gain according to the passage?
A.Thinking. B.Humor.
C.Intelligence. D.Action.
2.What does Kiki mean by saying robots’ missing the context of humor?
a. They lack creativity and skills.
b. They have no sense of humor at all.
c. They don’t understand the situation.
d. They have no related ideas that make a joke funny.
A.ab B.ac
C.bd D.cd
3.What’s the main idea of the last paragraph?
A.The risk of teaching humor to AI.
B.The necessity of making AI smart.
C.The reason to keep robots humorous.
D.The possibility of robot understanding humor.
4.Which is the best title of the passage?
A.To Be Smarter, Be Humorous.
B.AI can Get Jokes Like Humans.
C.How to Help Robots Learn Humor?
D.Why Robot Humor Mostly Falls Flat.
高二英语阅读选择中等难度题查看答案及解析
Japanese scientists and technology companies are coming up with new ways to deal with employee shortages in delivery service. How exactly? By introducing a robot that can deliver food to your home. A Japanese company ZMP has launched robot tests recently.
The ZMP's delivery robot in the process of testing is a red box that measures 109 cm and 133 cm in heights and lengths respectively. It is designed to carry up to 100 kilograms of anything with a approximate speed of 4 miles an hour. It has its own navigating system and a map, sensors(传感器)and cameras that allow it to self-drive. These, for now, are its main technical abilities. The next developments will be control of food temperature, and perhaps，voice control and speaking abilities.
The robot will be tested together with a local sushi(寿司)delivery company Ride on Express Co. Upon making a sushi order, customers will receive codes on their smart phones that will allow them to unlock the robot and get their orders out. Similar testing attempts have been undertaken by Domino's Pizza in Australia, where they tested a delivery robot a year ago.
In any case, before robots are able to deliver food or any other goods to real customers, massive testing on public roads or in the public air space will have to take place. While it is in the government's best interest to make up for the shortage of delivery in the Japanese labor market, it is clear that self-driving machines of any kind will not be permitted on the roads until they are fully tested and proven safe enough for public roads. According to the experts, this could take another 3 to 5 years.
In any case, robot delivery is not such a distant future after all, and recent developments show that there is significant market demand for such type of delivery.
1.How do Japanese handle the employee shortages in delivery service?
A.By raising employment and working hours.
B.By employing science and technology.
C.By increasing the salary.
D.By delivering more at a time.
2.What is the second paragraph mainly about?
A.The introduction of delivery robots.
B.The usage of delivery robots.
C.The basic data of delivery robots.
D.The appearance of delivery robots.
3.What's the reaction of Japanese government to delivery robots?
A.Being critical of the technology.
B.Ignoring the development.
C.Being a little bit hesitated.
D.Becoming great interested.
4.What can be the best title for the text?
A.Robot Delivery：New Tests in Japan B.Robot Delivery Coming to Use in Japan
C.Employee Shortage in Delivery in Japan D.Latest Automatic Service：Robots
高二英语阅读选择中等难度题查看答案及解析
Shopping centers，stadiums and universities may soon have a new tool to help fight crime.
A California company called Knightscope says its robots can predict and prevent crime. Knightscope says the goal is to reduce crime by half in areas the robots guard.
William Santana Li is the chief executive officer of Knightscope. He says，"These robot security guards will change the world. Our planet has more than seven billion people on it. It's going to quickly get to nine billion people. The security equipment that we have globally is just not going to develop that fast. The company's Autonomous Data Machines can become the eyes and ears of law enforcement（执法）."
"You want them to be machines plus humans. Let. the machines do the heavy and sometimes dangerous work and let the humans do the strategic decision-making work，so it's always working all together."
The machines do not carry weapons but they have day and night video cameras which are able to turn 360 degrees and can also sense chemical and biological weapons.
Some people may become concerned about their privacy, especially in connection with the video recordings. Some people may worry that such recordings will appear on the Internet. Eugene Volokh, a law professor at the UCLA School of Law, says the machines have to be used in the right way and it will be interesting to see how state laws deal with this kind of video.
William Santana Li says there is a long waiting list for the robots in the US. Workers in the company are working overtime to meet the demands of the market. At least 25 other countries are also interested in these robot security guards.
1.What can this new tool do for humans?
A.Make strategic decisions.
B.Keep watching day and night.
C.Carry heavy weapons.
D.Stop crime autonomously.
2.Why are some people worried about the new robots?
A.Their privacy may be let out.
B.The robots are very expensive.
C.Robots will replace humans.
D.They will be out of work soon.
3.Which of the following can be the best title of the text?
A.Robots Are Becoming More Popular
B.Robots Contribute a Lot to the World
C.Robots Are in Great Demand Now
D.Security Robots Could Help Cut Crime
高二英语阅读选择中等难度题查看答案及解析
If you want your life to stand for peace and kindness, it’s helpful to do kind, peaceful things. One of my favorite ways to do this is by developing my own helping actions. These little acts of kindness are opportunities to be of service and reminders of how good it feels to be kind and helpful.
We live in a rural area of the San Francisco Bay Area. Most of what we see is beauty of nature. One of the exceptions to the beauty is the litter that some people throw out of their windows as they are driving on the rural roads. One of the few shortcomings to live in the mountainous area is that public services, such as litter collection, are less available than those are closer to the city.
A helping action that I practice regularly with my two children is picking up litter in our surrounding area. We’ve become so used to doing this that my daughters will often say to me in exciting voices, “There’s some litter, Daddy, stop the car!” And if we have time, we will often pull over and pick it up. It may seem strange, but we actually enjoy it. We pick up litter in parks, on sidewalks, practically anywhere. Once I even saw a complete stranger picking up litter close to where we live. He smiled at me and said, “I saw you doing it, and it seemed like a good idea.”
Picking up litter is only one of endless supplies of possible helping actions. You might like holding a door open for people, visiting lonely elderly people in nursing homes, or removing snow off someone else’s driveway. Think of something that seems effortless yet helpful .It’s fun, personally rewarding, and sets a good example. Everyone wins.
1.What does the author think of developing helping actions?
A.It helps us to be winners. B.It is very difficult.
C.It requires lots of effort. D.It makes us feel good about ourselves.
2.What do we know about the area where the author lives?
A.It’s in the center of San Francisco. B.People can see beautiful sceneries here.
C.It’s very easy to find litter collection. D.Few people drive on the rural roads.
3.How does the author support his own opinion?
A.By sharing his own experience. B.By listing reasons for giving help.
C.By explaining different methods to be helpful. D.By making a comparison with others.
4.What does the author mainly want to tell us?
A.Parents are the best teachers to their children. B.Everyone should set good examples to others.
C.Small kind acts make the world a better place. D.Protecting the environment will benefit all of us.
高二英语阅读选择中等难度题查看答案及解析
Health experts are calling for action to increase cancer care and control in the developing world. A medical research paper says cancer was once thought of as a problem mostly in the developed world. But now cancer is a leading cause of death and disability in poor countries as well. Experts from Harvard University and other organizations urge the international community to fight cancer actively, saying it should be fought in the way HIV/AIDS has been fought in Africa.
Cancer kills more than 7.5 million people a year worldwide. Almost two-thirds are in low-income and middle-income countries.
They discover cancer kills more people in developing countries than AIDS, tuberculosis (肺结核) and malaria (疟疾) combined. But the world spends only 5% of its cancer resources in those countries.
Felicia Knaul from Harvard Medical School was one of the writers of the paper. She was in Mexico when she was found to have breast cancer. She received treatment there and her experience showed her the sharp difference between the rich and the poor in treating breast cancer.
Felicia Knaul says, “And we are seeing how this is attacking young women. It’s the number two cause of death in Mexico for women thirty to fifty-four. All over the developing world, it’s the number one cancer-related death among young women. I think we have to again say that there is much more we could do about it than we are doing about it.”
Professor Knalul met community health workers during her work in developing countries. They were an important part of efforts to reduce deaths from the cancer. They were able to persuade people to get tested to prevent the illness. The experts say cancer care does not have to be costly. For example, patients can be treated with lower-cost drugs.
1.What would be the best title for the passage?
A. Cancer – a leading cause of death in poor countries
B. What should we do in preventing and treating cancer?
C. What makes the first killer in developing countries?
D. Experts urge more efforts to fight cancer.
2.Felicia Knaul’s experience in Mexico shows that ________.
A. many Mexican women suffer from breast cancer
B. there is not enough medicine for cancer there
C. many Mexican women can’t afford medical care
D. patients with breast cancer are treated differently
3.From what Felicia Knaul says, we can draw the conclusion that ________.
A. breast cancer is a great threat to young women
B. people don’t pay enough attention to breast cancer
C. breast cancer is the second killer among women in Mexico
D. patients can be treated effectively in developing countries
4.Who plays an important part in preventing the cancer in developing countries?
A. The cancer patients. B. The health experts.
C. Community health workers. D. Young women.
5.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A. The number of cancer cases is decreasing.
B. HIV/AIDS is not being taken seriously in Africa.
C. Over 7.5 million people die of cancer every year.
D. It is very expensive to treat cancer.
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Advice to “sleep on it” could be well founded, scientists say. After a good night’s sleep a problem that couldn’t be solved the night before can often appear more manageable, although the evidence until now has been anecdotal. But researchers at the University of Luebek in Germany have designed an experiment that shows a good night’s sleep can improve insight and problem-solving.
“If you have some newly-got memories in your brain, sleep acts on these memories and restructures them, so that after sleep the insight into problem which you could not solve before increases,” said Dr. Jan Born, a neuroscientist, at the university. To test the theory, they taught volunteers two simple rules to help them turn a string of numbers into a new order. There was also a third, hidden rule, which could help them increase their speed in solving the problem. The researchers divided the volunteers into two groups: half were allowed to sleep after the training while the rest were forced to stay awake.
Dr. Jan Born and his team noticed that the group that had slept after the training were twice as likely to figure out the third rule as the other group. “Sleep helped,” Born said in a telephone interview. “The important thing is that you have to have a memory representation in your brain of the problem you want to solve and then you sleep, so it can act on the problem.
“But Born admitted that he and his team don’t know how restructuring of memories occurs or what governs it. Pierre Maquet and Perrine Ruby of the University of Liege in Belgium said the experimental evidence supports the anecdotal suggestions that sleep can help develop creative thinking. Although the role of sleep in human creativity will still be a mystery, the research gives people good reason to fully respect their periods of sleep, they added.
1.The underlined phrase “sleep on it” in Paragraph 1 probably means _____.
A.to get as much sleep as possible
B.to go on sleeping without being disturbed
C.to delay deciding something until the next day
D.to sleep till after the time you usually get up in the morning
2.What is the purpose of the experiment?
A.To test problem-solving ability in sleep. B.To discover people’s insight during sleep.
C.To prove a good sleep helps solve problems. D.To discuss how to improve sleeping quality.
3.How did Jan Born and his team carry out the experiment?
A.Through comparison. B.Through interviews.
C.Through talks. D.Through imagination.
4.What can we learn about the experimental evidence?
A.It helps scientists control memories. B.It explains the role of sleep in human.
C.It tells us the role of sleep is a mystery. D.It shows sleep does good to creative thinking.
高二英语阅读选择中等难度题查看答案及解析
Researchers at the University of Scotland have discovered a protein that can influence viruses developing and even can control cancer. Now the fight is on to fully understand how it works in the hope of turning the laboratory research into a treatment.
The protein is called Hira. Technically it is a histone（组蛋白）complex, but it is easier to understand in terms of what it can do. Three years ago Dr Taranjit Singh Rai and colleagues at the Beatson Cancer Institute and Glasgow University reported that Hira could possibly suppress the division of cells that causes cancer. In the course of that research, Dr Rai found out something unusual. In the lab they have established that the Hira protein has a role to play in the anti-viral fight, thus, making it have a fundamental role to play in fighting against cancer.
The trick in using it to fight diseases may lie in increasing Hira levels in our cells. “I think what researchers might be interested in is how we can increase levels of this protein to deal with the viruses better, Dr Rai said.
Dr Rai has led an international study and support has come from Cancer Research UK and the results are published in the journal Nucleic Acids Research. But there is a major concern that the research is still limited to the laboratory.
It is going to take some time, probably years, before this work can move out of the lab and into clinics and hospitals. But the researchers are excited Hira will one day be the basis of a new approach in medicine.
1.What does the underlined word “suppress" in Paragraph 2 probably mean?
A.Motivate. B.Monitor. C.Control. D.Improve.
2.What can be known from the text?
A.Hira has been used in the medical treatment.
B.More studies should be done on Hira.
C.The levels of Hira in cells are unchangeable.
D.Hira can bring about side effects.
3.What is the researchers' attitude to the future of Hira?
A.Cautious. B.Optimistic.
C.Disapproving. D.Doubtful.
4.What's the text mainly about?
A.A new way to use the protein.
B.A new approach to improving the division of cells.
C.A new medicine that can fight diseases.
D.A protein that can stop viruses developing.
高二英语阅读选择中等难度题查看答案及解析
Robots are now being employed not just for dangerous tasks, such as discovering mines or rescuing people in disasters. They are also finding application as household helps and as nursing assistants. As increasing numbers of machines, equipped with the latest artificial intelligence, take on a growing variety of specialized and everyday tasks, the question of how people see them and behave towards them becomes ever more urgent.
A team led by Sari Nijssen of Radboud University and Markus Paulus, Professor of Developmental Psychology at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU),have carried out a study to determine the degree to which people show concern for robots and behave towards them based on moral principles.
According to Sari Nijssen, the study set out to answer the following question:” Under what circumstances would adults be willing to sacrifice robots to save human lives?” The participants were faced with a hypothetical (假设的) moral dilemma: Would they be prepared to put a single person at risk in order to save a group of injured persons? In the situations presented the intended victim was either a human, a humanoid robot that had been humanized (人性化的) to various degrees or a robot that was clearly recognizable as a machine.
The study suggested that the more the robot was humanized, the less likely participants were to sacrifice it. Situations that included vivid stories in which the robot was described as a merciful being or as a creature with its own understandings, experiences and thoughts, were more likely to stop the study participants from sacrificing it in the interests of anonymous (无名的) humans.
“This result indicates that our study group attached a certain moral status to the robot,” says Paulus. “One possible suggestion of this finding is that attempts to humanize robots should not go too far. Such efforts could come into conflict with their intended function—to be of help to us.”
1.What has become a concern about robots?
A.How to humanize them. B.How to treat them in life.
C.How to use them effectively. D.How to find more applications.
2.In the study the participants probably have to decide ________.
A.when to sacrifice a robot B.where to experience risks
C.which robot to work with D.what robots should be like
3.What can be inferred from Paulus’ words?
A.Humanized robots offer less help to people.
B.Humanizing robots too much may be improper.
C.Certain moral status should be attached to robots.
D.Conflicts often happen between humans and robots.
4.Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
A.Robots, A Must for Future
B.Humanized Robots, A New Trend
C.Robot Saved, People Take the Hit
D.Humanized Robots, Replace Human
高二英语阅读选择中等难度题查看答案及解析
Tips for Developing Your Artistic Talent
Everyone has an artistic talent. You might not even know it. 1.. However, in fact, there are a lot of different ways to express your artistic side. You don't necessarily have to be a professional(专业人员). You can enjoy art just for its own value. Check out a few tips for developing artistic skills.
1. Art takes a variety of forms
Most people think that art can only be found in museums and is only for the elite(精英). You can look around you.2.. They may be found in nature, and even in usual advertisements and posters. Just start to look at such sides as line, color, composition and style.
2. Try things out
If you want to develop your artistic talent, start trying things out.3.
3. Appreciate
4.. Almost anything can be used for inspiration. Visit museums and galleries, or look at art books. When you look around you, you develop your artistic appreciation and use it to work on developing your own skills.
4.5.
Don't expect to create a masterpiece(杰作)with your first try. There must be mistakes. Many artists spent years studying and perfecting their skill. You might not want to reach their level, but don't feel shy about your work. Even if it's not perfect, it will be. Try out，learn from your mistakes, and improve your skills.
A.Take art classes
B.Don't be afraid to make mistakes
C.You'll find art and beauty are everywhere
D.You might have always thought that you don't have any skills in the arts
E.Another way to develop your artistic talent is to learn how to use your eyes
F.There are many things you can try from painting, costume, dance and singing
G.Discuss the art with other art lovers to see what they think and then form your own opinion
高二英语七选五中等难度题查看答案及解析
In the film The Matrix, Agent Smith, a super-computer in human shape, says, “You move to an area, and you multiply, and multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern: a virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. ”
Yes, relatively speaking, we are just a large virus. While most species live in balance with their ecosystems, we fail to do so. We are taking more from nature than it has to give. We wipe out animals and plants as a virus might invade and kill a host. We are destroying our host, the earth.
Our brain has been our most successful tool for survival. The funny thing is that our mind has developed to such a degree that we have thought up solutions to more survival problems. We are for the first time in earth's history changing nature to suit our comfort and desires. Being a human, I do like the advancement of technology and medicine as we nave the chance to survive longer and sometimes feel less pain. After all, nature is cruel and we can soften its blow through these inventions. However, people surviving genetic faults or illness, could they be actually making the gene pool more “dirty” and could even more people in the future suffer due to an increase in faulty DNA? It seems that even though we deal with a short-term problem we could be causing more. Are we being kind to be cruel?
We are lucky enough to own a brain complex enough to think and create. But we fail to realize the only way to really survive is through respect of our host, the earth, and working with it as the only way a living thing can benefit is by benefiting its host as it depends on it to survive.
1.According to the passage, what characteristics do humans and viruses share?
A.They take and give. B.They expand and destroy.
C.They create and consume. D.They balance and survive.
2.What does the author think of modern technology and medicine?
A.They can help humans control nature. B.They can guarantee purer human DNA.
C.They may reduce humans' effect on the earth. D.They may bring humans more harm than good.
3.What is the author's purpose of writing the passage?
A.To appeal for humans' respect for nature. B.To put forward ways to advance medicine.
C.To talk about a film character, Agent Smith. D.To argue against comparing humans to viruses.
高二英语阅读选择中等难度题查看答案及解析