-
A board game is a game played on a pre-marked surface or “board” according to a set of rules. Board games have been played in most cultures and societies throughout history. Do you think o
f yourself as a bit of an expert at board games like chess or Go?
Maybe you’re not quite as good as you think. New research from the University of Manchester and Oxford suggests complex games like these are impossible to learn fully. They may even be too complex for the human mind to understand.
Researchers studied two-player games, to try and understand the strategies which people use to make decisions during the game. Some games with two players are simple, with only a small number of possible moves. Players can quickly work out the best strategy but that means the game soon becomes boring.
It gets more interesting when there are many possible moves. That’s why people are so fascinated by complex board games like chess or Go, or some card games. But what the researchers found was that with difficult games, players find it hard to work out the best strategy and their actions become less reasonable.
This research is part of the field called game theory: the study of human strategic decision-making. Much thinking on how people play complex games is based on something called “the balance point”, which is when players have a perfect knowledge of what they are going to do and of what their rivals are going to do.
When you add more than two players then of course the game becomes even harder to understand. Trading on the stock market is an example of a complex multi-player game.
1.Which of the following games belongs to board games?
A. football B. badminton C. swimming D. Mahjong
2.It can be inferred in the passage that _______.
A. the simpler the board game is, the better it is
B. people dislike board games for the complex moves
C. players are easy to lose patience when in difficult games
D. it’s possible for people to understand complex games thoroughly
3.If players want to get to the balance point, they should ______.
A. ask other players to work out the best strategy
B. have a good knowledge of the games they are playing
C. figure out the next actions of themselves and their opponents
D. come to a quick decision about what to do next by themselves
4.In which section can we read this passage in a newspaper?
A. Culture B. Discovery C. Career D. Campus
5.The author intends to tell us ___________.
A. a new research about board games
B. the importance of playing board games
C. how the players win board games
D. how to learn board games fully
-
Chess is one of the oldest board games in the world. A version of the game was first played in India in the sixth century. Throughout time, the game has been played by kings, knights, and generals who warned to prove their military skills and practice war strategies.
Today，the game is played by millions of ordinary people as well. Most play for fun,but there are players who compete seriously and have gone on to gain the rank of grandmaster -the highest rank a player can achieve.
In 1991, when Hungarian Judit Polgar achieve the rank of grandmaster, it caused quite an uproar (骚动）. First of all, Polgar is a female playing in a sport traditionally dominated by men. Also, Polgar was only 15 years old, making her the youngest in history at the time. In 1993, she defeated former world champion Boris Spassky in Budapest, Hungary. In 1998, she became the first woman in history to win the U. S, Open Chess Championship, which was held in Kailua-Kona，Hawaii.
Like her two older sisters, Polgar was strictly trained to be a master chess player as a young girl. She was homeschooled in all her subjects and played chess several hours every day. At the age of five, she was beating her father at the game. At eight years old，she was competing internationally. At the age of nine，she competed in and won the New York Open Chess tournament，placing first among unranked players. The young Polgar was just getting started.
Known for her fiercely competitive nature and ability to understand her opponents strategy early in a game, Polgar quickly won the respect of both fans and fellow chess players. Despite her achievements and clear talent, she often had trouble getting into top competitive situations because many of them didn’t include women. Polgar wanted to compete with the best一to be a world champion and not just a female champion. For this reason, she absolutely refused to play in women-only competitions. Her refusal paved the way for the next generation of female chess players.
1.What is the purpose of Paragraph 1?
A.To call on people to play chess. B.To introduce chess briefly.
C.To explain how to play chess. D.To show the popularity of chess.
2.What made Polgar a master chess player at such an early age?
A.Her strict chess training. B.Her international travel.
C.Her two older sisters' help. D.Her being homeschooled.
3.Why did Polgar have difficulty entering top competitions?
A.She lacked enough confidence.
B.She was too young to enter tournaments.
C.There were no tournaments in her country.
D.Many of them did not admit female players.
4.Which of the following can best describe Polgar?
A.Proud but warm-hearted. B.Fierce but considerate.
C.Serious and cautious. D.Talented and ambitious.
-
There is a good chance that you have played Monopoly. _______ you have not played this board game, a quick _______ is in order. At the start of the game all the players are_______some fake cash. _______every player gets to roll the dice（骰子）to move around the board.
When they land on a property on the board they can _______ it if it is not already owned. But if it iS already owned by another player they have to pay rent to the _______. The more properties you own the more rent you_______. The aim of the game is to _______ the entire economy. The game ends when the "monopolist(垄断者)"owns _______and all other players are driven into bankruptcy(破产).
Over the years this game has come to be seen by many ________ as a good game to "teach" children ________ knowledge. It not only helps children understand how the world of money ________，but also "teaches" them skills to negotiate and make tough decisions ________life skills, in today's ________world.
What might ________ you is that ________ this game was called "Monopoly", it was called “The Landlord's Game". The game designer Elizabeth Magie had almost the ________vision of what the game has now come to be. She wanted to ________the game to teach the ________ of cruel capitalism(资本主义).
Perhaps when you play this game next time, you will think ________before totally bankrupting your best friend.
1.A. In case B. As if C. Unless D. After
2.A. response B. recovery C. example D. explanation
3.A. paid B. given C. shown D. return
4.A. Still B. Then C. Finally D. Perhaps
5.A. buy B. earn C. pick D. borrow
6.A. owner B. renter C. starter D. designer
7.A. owe B. afford C. reduce D. collect
8.A. ruin B. study C. control D. develop
9.A. nothing B. anything C. something D. everything
10.A. adults B. children C. merchants D. games
11.A. detailed B. advanced C. financial D. political
12.A. changes B. operates C. begins D. ends
13.A. original B. urgent C. necessary D. related
14.A. new B. digital C. strange D. competitive
15.A. annoy B. attract C. satisfy D. surprise
16.A. once B. before C. though D. because
17.A. double B. unique C. opposite D. same
18.A. use B. win C. host D. accept
19.A. future B. dangers C. inventions D. importance
20.A. back B. aloud C. carefully D. independently
-
When the weather is fine, watching Korean TV plays or playing computer games all day at home is not a(n) _____ way to spend your free time.
A. necessary B. artificial
C. worthwhile D. Convenient
-
Many a student _____ playing games on the playground and only one girl or two _____ reading in the classroom.
A. are; are B. is; is C. are; is D. is are
-
If you sit down to play an old-school board game like chess this holiday season, it might be surprising to keep in mind just how bad you'd be against a computer. In fact, computers have shown they're capable of taking humans' lunch money at board games for a while now. Remember Deep Blue versus Gary Kasparov in 1997 or AlphaGo against Lee Sedol, in South Korea, at the game of Go(围棋), in 2016?The computer won.
Now, the same team that created the Go-playing robot is celebrating something more powerful: an artificial intelligence system that is capable of teaching itself and winning at three different games.
They call it AlphaZero, and it knows two kinds of chess and Go. All of these games fall into the kind of “full information” or “perfect information” contests-each player can see the entire board and has access to the same information. That's different from games like poker, for example, where you don't know what cards an opponent is holding.
“AlphaZero needs to be told the rules of the games first, and after that, it learns by competing with itself in the games,” says Julian Schrittwieser."It suggests that we have a good chance to extend this to even more real-world problems that we might want to solve later."
And board games have historically been a good way to test computers' abilities. “It took us decades of work on these games to reach the point where AlphaZero can perform them better than people,” Campbell says. “I think they've served the field very well. They've allowed us to explore techniques such as the ones used in AlphaZero, which will be helpful as the field aims at more complex tasks.” Campbell adds. “And that is the whole point in the first place of solving games-it isn't for their own sake, but for it is a limited kind of environment where we can make progress in many other branches of science and technology.”
1.What's the author's main purpose in mentioning the two games in paragraph 1?
A.To show computers are bad at playing board games,
B.To prove computers can defeat humans at board games.
C.To emphasize humans are capable of playing computer games.
D.To demonstrate people can earn money by playing board games.
2.What is paragraph 3 mainly about?
A.The operating principle of AlphaZero. B.The differences between chess and Go.
C.The information about hi-tech contests. D.The features of the games AlphaZero knows.
3.How can AlphaZero learn in the games?
A.By playing the games against itself. B.By playing multiple online games.
C.By being programmed by humans. D.By setting the rules of the games.
4.What does Campbell say about board games?
A.They help solve computers' problems.
B.They are used to test people's abilities.
C.Their techniques can be applied to other fields.
D.Their technology can be merely limited in games.
-
He used to ______ games on the Internet, but now he is used to _______ a walk after supper.
| A．play; taking | B．playing; take | C．play; take | D．playing; taking |
-
In general, most tennis ________ on hard courts or on clay.
A．plays B．is played
C．has played D．has been played
-
__________ in the new on-line game , he missed the final boarding call of his flight .
A. Absorbed B. Absorbing
C. Having absorbed D. Being absorbed
-
_________either the twins or John going with me when the play _________here?
A. Is; is put on B. Are; is put on C. Is; is put up D. Are; is put up
f yourself as a bit of an expert at board games like chess or Go?