Microsoft announced this week that its facial-recognition system is now more accurate in identifying people of color, touting （吹嘘）its progress at tacking one of the technology’s biggest biases （偏见）.But critics, citing Microsoft's work with immigration and Customs Enforcement ,quickly seized on how that improved technology might be used. The agency contracts with Microsoft for cloud-computing tools that the tech giant says is largely limited to office work but can also face recognition.
Columbia University professor Alondra Nelson tweeted. “We must stop confusing 'inclusion5 in more 'diverse' surveillance （监管）systems with justice and equality.”
Facial-recognition systems more often misidentify people of color because of a long-running data problem: The massive sets of facial images they train on skew heavily toward white men. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology study this year of the face-recognition systems designed by Microsoft, IBM and the China-based Face found facial-recognition systems consistently giving the wrong gender for famous women of color including Oprah Winfrey, Serena Williams, Michelle Obama and Shirley Chisholm, the first black female member of Congress.
The companies have responded in recent months by pouring many more photos into the mix, hoping to train the systems to better tell the differences among more than just white faces. IBM said Wednesday it used 1 million facial images, taken from the photo-sharing site Flickr, to build the "world's largest facial data-set" which it will release publicly for other companies to use.
IBM and Microsoft say that allowed its systems to recognize gender and skin tone with much more precision. Microsoft said its improved system reduced the error rates for darker-skinned men and women by "up to 20 times,n and reduced error rates for all women by nine times.
Those- improvements were heralded （宣布）by some for taking aim at the prejudices in a rapidly spreading technology, including potentially reducing the kinds of false positives that could lead police officers misidentify a criminal suspect.
But others suggested that the technology's increasing accuracy could also make it more marketable. The system should be accurate, "but that’s just the beginning, not the end, of their ethical obligation,” said David Robinson, managing director of the think tank Upturn.
At the center of that debate is Microsoft, whose multimillion-dollar contracts with ICE came under fire amid the agency's separation of migrant parents and children at the Mexican border.
In an open letter to Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella urging the company to cancel that contract, Microsoft workers pointed to a company blog post in January that said Azure Government would help ICE “accelerate recognition and identification.” “We believe that Microsoft must take an ethical stand, and put children and families above profits,”the letter said.
A Microsoft spokesman, pointing to a statement last week from Nadella, said the company's "current cloud engagement” with ICE supports relatively anodyne （温和的）office work such as calendar, massaging and document management workloads.” The company said in a statement that its facial-recognition improvements are “part of our going work to address the industry-wide issues on bias.”
Criticism of face recognition will probably expand as the technology finds its way into more arenas, including airport. stores and schools. The Orlando police department said this week that it Would not renew its use of Amazon. Com's Rekognition system.
“Companies have to acknowledge their moral involvement in the downstream use of their technology,” Robinson said : “The impulse is that they're going to put a product out there and wash their hands of the consequences. That’s unacceptable”.
1.What is “one of the technology's biggest biases ”in Paragraph 1?
A.Class bias. B.Racial discrimination.
C.Professional prejudice. D.Regional difference.
2.What can we know about the improvement of facial-recognition technology?
A.It is due to the expansion of the photo database.
B.Justice and equality have been truly achieved.
C.It has already solved all the social issues on biases.
D.Migrant parents and their children can be reunited.
3.What is the focus of the face-recognition debate?
A.Data problems. B.The market value.
C.The application field. D.A moral issue
4.What is David Robinson's attitude towards facial-recognition technology?
A.optimistic. B.Approval.
C.Skeptical. D.Neutral.
5.We can infer from the last paragraph that ______.
A.companies had better hide from responsibilities
B.companies should not launch new products on impulse
C.companies deny problems with the technical process of facial-recognition system
D.companies should be responsible for the new product and the consequences
6.Which can be the suitable title for the passage?
A.Fears of facial-recognition technology B.The wide use of Microsoft system
C.The improvement of Microsoft system D.Failure of recognizing black women
高三英语阅读理解困难题
Microsoft announced this week that its facial-recognition system is now more accurate in identifying people of color, touting （吹嘘）its progress at tacking one of the technology’s biggest biases （偏见）.But critics, citing Microsoft's work with immigration and Customs Enforcement ,quickly seized on how that improved technology might be used. The agency contracts with Microsoft for cloud-computing tools that the tech giant says is largely limited to office work but can also face recognition.
Columbia University professor Alondra Nelson tweeted. “We must stop confusing 'inclusion5 in more 'diverse' surveillance （监管）systems with justice and equality.”
Facial-recognition systems more often misidentify people of color because of a long-running data problem: The massive sets of facial images they train on skew heavily toward white men. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology study this year of the face-recognition systems designed by Microsoft, IBM and the China-based Face found facial-recognition systems consistently giving the wrong gender for famous women of color including Oprah Winfrey, Serena Williams, Michelle Obama and Shirley Chisholm, the first black female member of Congress.
The companies have responded in recent months by pouring many more photos into the mix, hoping to train the systems to better tell the differences among more than just white faces. IBM said Wednesday it used 1 million facial images, taken from the photo-sharing site Flickr, to build the "world's largest facial data-set" which it will release publicly for other companies to use.
IBM and Microsoft say that allowed its systems to recognize gender and skin tone with much more precision. Microsoft said its improved system reduced the error rates for darker-skinned men and women by "up to 20 times,n and reduced error rates for all women by nine times.
Those- improvements were heralded （宣布）by some for taking aim at the prejudices in a rapidly spreading technology, including potentially reducing the kinds of false positives that could lead police officers misidentify a criminal suspect.
But others suggested that the technology's increasing accuracy could also make it more marketable. The system should be accurate, "but that’s just the beginning, not the end, of their ethical obligation,” said David Robinson, managing director of the think tank Upturn.
At the center of that debate is Microsoft, whose multimillion-dollar contracts with ICE came under fire amid the agency's separation of migrant parents and children at the Mexican border.
In an open letter to Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella urging the company to cancel that contract, Microsoft workers pointed to a company blog post in January that said Azure Government would help ICE “accelerate recognition and identification.” “We believe that Microsoft must take an ethical stand, and put children and families above profits,”the letter said.
A Microsoft spokesman, pointing to a statement last week from Nadella, said the company's "current cloud engagement” with ICE supports relatively anodyne （温和的）office work such as calendar, massaging and document management workloads.” The company said in a statement that its facial-recognition improvements are “part of our going work to address the industry-wide issues on bias.”
Criticism of face recognition will probably expand as the technology finds its way into more arenas, including airport. stores and schools. The Orlando police department said this week that it Would not renew its use of Amazon. Com's Rekognition system.
“Companies have to acknowledge their moral involvement in the downstream use of their technology,” Robinson said : “The impulse is that they're going to put a product out there and wash their hands of the consequences. That’s unacceptable”.
1.What is “one of the technology's biggest biases ”in Paragraph 1?
A.Class bias. B.Racial discrimination.
C.Professional prejudice. D.Regional difference.
2.What can we know about the improvement of facial-recognition technology?
A.It is due to the expansion of the photo database.
B.Justice and equality have been truly achieved.
C.It has already solved all the social issues on biases.
D.Migrant parents and their children can be reunited.
3.What is the focus of the face-recognition debate?
A.Data problems. B.The market value.
C.The application field. D.A moral issue
4.What is David Robinson's attitude towards facial-recognition technology?
A.optimistic. B.Approval.
C.Skeptical. D.Neutral.
5.We can infer from the last paragraph that ______.
A.companies had better hide from responsibilities
B.companies should not launch new products on impulse
C.companies deny problems with the technical process of facial-recognition system
D.companies should be responsible for the new product and the consequences
6.Which can be the suitable title for the passage?
A.Fears of facial-recognition technology B.The wide use of Microsoft system
C.The improvement of Microsoft system D.Failure of recognizing black women
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
Earlier this year, the social media website Facebook announced that it would work with several news organizations — including The New York Times, The Guardian, and the BBC — to place news stories directly into users’ personal Facebook webpage. Stories published using Facebook Instant will load more quickly and keep the style of the original publisher, who will keep all the advertising income the stories earn — at least for now. The deal shows how important social media has become to news organizations, and is a clear sign of how the world of news is changing — and has been for a while.
When Google News began in 2002, many saw it as the death of the newspaper. It had no human editor. Instead Google used, and still uses, a secret computer program that selects and displays news stories according to the reader’s personal interests. More recently, Associated Press and Yahoo! have been publishing computer-written articles. Both use special software to automatically produce stories about company financial results and sports reports — areas where the quality of writing is felt to be of secondary importance to the accuracy of the data.
Should we be worried about such developments? I think we should. One concern is that facebook, Google and other social media websites see journalism as a sideline, a way of putting people in front of advertisements. It isn’t their primary function — so if it stops making them lots of money, they're likely to stop doing it.
There’s also a concern that computer-written articles are not actually journalism at all, because what a human news team produces is actually quite complex. A well-written news story puts information in context, offers a voice to each side of an argument and brings the public new knowledge.
Though economics and speed of delivery mean readers will probably choose a computer-written story over a carefully shaped article — at least for daily news — I don't think the computers will be writing any in-depth articles for a while yet.
1.What is the main purpose of the article?
A. To report on a new computer service offered by Facebook..
B. To advise readers against reading computer-written news.
C. To express concern about recent trends in online news.
D. To describe the process of online news reporting.
2.Computer-written news reports have so far focused on sports and finance because ________.
A. these are the most popular topics for online readers
B. there are fewer journalists specializing in these areas
C. information on these topics is more easily available
D. writing style is less important than accuracy in these areas
3.What does the underlined word “It” in Paragraph 3 refer to?
A. Journalism. B. Advertising.
C. Facebook. D. Business.
4.In Paragraph 4, which of the following is mentioned as a characteristic of a well-written news article?
A. The information presented is up-to-date.
B. The author's opinion is clear.
C. Different views on the topic are presented.
D. The language used is vivid.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Earlier this year, the social media website Facebook announced that it would work with several news organizations — including The New York Times, The Guardian, and the BBC — to place news stories directly into users’ personal Facebook webpage. Stories published using Facebook Instant will load more quickly and keep the style of the original publisher, who will keep all the advertising income the stories earn — at least for now. The deal shows how important social media has become to news organizations, and is a clear sign of how the world of news is changing — and has been for a while.
When Google News began in 2002, many saw it as the death of the newspaper. It had no human editor. Instead Google used, and still uses, a secret computer program that selects and displays news stories according to the reader’s personal interests. More recently, Associated Press and Yahoo! have been publishing computer-written articles. Both use special software to automatically produce stories about company financial results and sports reports — areas where the quality of writing is felt to be of secondary importance to the accuracy of the data.
Should we be worried about such developments? I think we should. One concern is that facebook, Google and other social media websites see journalism as a sideline, a way of putting people in front of advertisements. It isn’t their primary function — so if it stops making them lots of money, they're likely to stop doing it.
There’s also a concern that computer-written articles are not actually journalism at all, because what a human news team produces is actually quite complex. A well-written news story puts information in context, offers a voice to each side of an argument and brings the public new knowledge.
Though economics and speed of delivery mean readers will probably choose a computer-written story over a carefully shaped article — at least for daily news — I don't think the computers will be writing any in-depth articles for a while yet.
1. What is the main purpose of the article?
A. To report on a new computer service offered by Facebook..
B. To advise readers against reading computer-written news.
C. To express concern about recent trends in online news.
D. To describe the process of online news reporting.
2.Computer-written news reports have so far focused on sports and finance because ________.
A. these are the most popular topics for online readers
B. there are fewer journalists specializing in these areas
C. information on these topics is more easily available
D. writing style is less important than accuracy in these areas
3.What does the underlined word “It” in Paragraph 3 refer to?
A. Journalism. B. Advertising.
C. Facebook. D. Business.
4.In Paragraph 4, which of the following is mentioned as a characteristic of a well-written news article?
A. The information presented is up-to-date.
B. The author's opinion is clear.
C. Different views on the topic are presented.
D. The language used is vivid.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
This year, Facebook, the social media website, announced that it would cooperate with several news organizations —including The New York Times, The Guardian, and the BBC —to place news stories directly into users’ personal Facebook webpage. Stories published using Facebook Instant will load more quickly and keep the style of the original publisher, who will keep all the advertising income the stories earn —at least for now. The deal shows how important social media has become to news organizations, and it is a clear sign of how the world of news is changing —and has been for a while.
Many thought of it as the death of the newspaper, when Google News began in 2002. It had no human editor. Instead, Google used, and still uses, a secret computer program that selects and displays news stories according to the reader’s personal interests. More recently, Associated Press and Yahoo have been punishing computer-written articles. Both use special software to automatically produce stories about company financial results and sports reports —areas where the quality of writing is felt to be of secondary importance to the accuracy of the data.
I think we should be concerned about such developments. One concern is that Facebook, Google and other social media websites see journalism as a sideline(副业), a way of putting people in front of advertisements. It isn’t their primary function —so if it stops making them lots of money, they're likely to stop doing it.
There’s another concern that computer-written articles are not actually journalism at all, because what a human news team produces is actually quite complex. A well-written news story puts information in context, offers a voice to each side of an argument and brings the public new knowledge.
Though economics and speed of delivery mean readers will probably choose a computer-written story over a carefully shaped article — at least for daily news —I don’t think the computers will be writing any in-depth articles for a while yet.
1.What is the main purpose of the article?
A. To report on a new computer service offered by Facebook.
B. To advise readers against reading computer-written news.
C. To express concern about recent trends in online news.
D. To describe the process of online news reporting.
2.Computer-written news reports have so far focused on sports and finance because ________.
A. these are the most popular topics for online readers
B. writing style is less important than accuracy in these areas
C. information on these topics is more easily available
D. there are fewer journalists specializing in these areas
3.What does the underlined word “It” in Paragraph 3 refer to?
A. Journalism. B. Advertising. C. Facebook. D. Business.
4.In Paragraph 4, which of the following is mentioned as a characteristic of a well-written news article?
A. The information presented is up-to-date.
B. The author's opinion is clear
C. The language used is vivid.
D. Different views on the topic are presented.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
This year, Face book, the social media website announced that it would cooperate with several news organizations — including The New York Times, The Guardian, and the BBC — to place news stories directly into users’ personal Face book webpage. Stories published using Face book Instant will load more quickly and keep the style of the original publisher, who will keep all the advertising income the stories earn — at least for now. The deal shows how important social media has become to news organizations, and is a clear sign of how the world of news is changing — and has been for a while.
Many thought of it as the death of the newspaper, when Google News began in 2002. It had no human editor. Instead Google used, and still uses, a secret computer program that selects and displays news stories according to the reader’s personal interests, More recently, Associated Press and Yahoo have been publishing computer-written articles. Both use special software to automatically produce stories about company financial results and sports reports — areas where the quality of writing is felt to be of secondary importance to the accuracy of the data.
I think we should be concerned about such developments. One concern is that Facebook, Google and other social media websites see journalism as a sideline （副业）, a way of putting people in front of advertisements. It isn’t their primary function — so if it stops making them lots of money, they’re likely to stop doing it.
There’s another concern that computer-written articles are not actually journalism at all, because what a human news team produces is actually quite complex. A well-written news story puts information in context, offers a voice to each side of an argument and brings the public new knowledge.
Although economics and speed of delivery mean readers will probably choose a computer-written story over a carefully shaped article — at least for daily news — I don’t think the computers will be writing any in-depth articles for a while yet.
1.What is the main purpose of the article?
A. To report on a new computer service offered by Facebook.
B. To advise readers against reading computer-written news.
C. To express concern about recent trends in online news.
D. To describe the process of online news reporting.
2.Computer-written news reports have so far focused on sports and finance because ________.
A. these are the most popular topics for online readers
B. writing style is less important than accuracy in these areas
C. information on these topics is more easily available
D. there are fewer journalists specializing in these areas
3.What does the underlined word “It” in Paragraph 3 refer to?
A. Business. B. Advertising.
C. Facebook. D. Journalism.
4.In Paragraph 4, which of the following is mentioned as a characteristic of a well-written news article?
A. The information presented is up-to-date.
B. The author’s opinion is clear.
C. The language used is vivid.
D. Different views on the topic are presented.
高三英语阅读理解简单题查看答案及解析
It is safe to say that on this week’s roundup of G.L Events This Weekend, we celebrate a legend and a major percentage of the events are organized for the annual Ferlabration Festival.Your weekend roundup starts here!!!
Electronic Soundscapes
Electronic Soundscapes returns this year with double the music! If you enjoyed the 2015 concert at Printing Press, don’t miss the performances taking place during next week’s Ferlabration at FreedomPark programme. Enjoy the best of European and Nigerian electronic music on Friday, October 14 and Saturday, October 15.
Time: 7:00PM
Fee: N500
Just Listen
16/16 is excited to host an intimate listening session of songs from South African artist Lindiwe Maxolo’s upcoming album on Friday, October 14th. Lindiwe Maxolo is an emerging powerful singer in the South African Jazz music industry. She has worked with South African legends such as Sibongile Khumalo, Concord Nkabide.
Tickets can be bought at the door or in advance. Tickets are limited so get them early.
Time: 7:00PM
Fee: N7000
Jeun Soke (Supper Club)
Meaning ‘to eat up’ in Yoruba, Jeun Soke is Lagos’ premier supper club. We host a dinner with drinks pairings. Jeun Soke features a Taste of Asia menu. 7 courses of shared plates along with 3 cocktails. NGN 20,000 gets you food and drinks. The sans-drinks (without drinks) menu costs NGN 15,000. You are welcome to bring your own bottle of wine but that will cost a corkage fee of NGN 3,000.
Time: 6:30PM
Fee: N20,000 or N15,000
For reservations: 09098800995 or 08188325714.
Echoes (Closing Ceremony)
Echoes is an exhibition that includes, but is not limited to, over a hundred masks of Fela and the queen mother in diverse colors and moods and a study and display of his fashion sense and wardrobe, all of which were inspired by his struggle for freedom, human dignity, courage, to mention a few. The closing ceremony promises to be a grand affair with an Artist’s talk and dance performance. Cocktail will follow as the guests get to enjoy the rest of the exhibition before closing.
Time: 1:00PM - 7:00PM
Fee: Open to All
1.In which event will people surely enjoy jazz music?
A.Electronic Soundscapes. B.Just Listen.
C.Jeun Soke. D.Echoes.
2.How much should one with his own wine pay for a sans-drinks meal?
A.NGN 3,000. B.NGN 15,000.
C.NGN 18,000. D.NGN 20,000.
3.What do we know about Echoes?
A.It offers a dinner with drinks pairings.
B.Tickets to Echoes are expensive and limited.
C.It provides the best of Nigerian electronic music.
D.Masks in various colors and moods are on display.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
—How long _________like this?
— Three weeks! It's normal that it rains without stopping these days of the year．
| A．will it rain | B．is it raining | C．has it been raining | D．does it rain |
高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析
— Look! How long _____ like this?
— Three weeks! It’s usual here that rain _____ without stopping these days of the year.
A．had it rained; pours B．has it been raining; pours
C．is it rained; is pouring D．does it rain; pours
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
— Look! How long _____ like this?
— Three weeks! It’s usual here that rain _____ without stopping these days of the year.
A.had it rained; pours
B.has it been raining; pours
C.is it rained; is pouring
D.does it rain; pours
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
Britain announced tighter security measures this week, with plans ______ full-body scanners at Heathrow airport within three weeks.
A. to use B. to be using C. being used D. having used
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析