上海交大英語(yǔ)六級(jí)閱讀理解100篇文本
Can the Computer Learn from Experience
計(jì)算機(jī)會(huì)總結(jié)經(jīng)驗(yàn)嗎
Computers have been taught to play not only checkers, but also championship chess, which is a fairly accurate yardstick for measuring the computers progress in the ability to learn from experience.
Because the game requires logical reasoning, chess would seem to be perfectly suited to the computer .all a programmer has to do is give the computer a program evaluating the consequences of every possible response to every possible move, and the computer will win every time. In theory this is a sensible approach; in practice it is impossible. Today, a powerful computer can analyze 40 000 moves a second. That is an impressive speed. But there are an astronomical number of possible moves in chessliterally trillions. Even if such a program were written , there is no computer capable of holding that much data.
Therefore, if the computer is to compete at championship levels, it must be programmed to function with less than complete data. It must be able to learn from experience, to modify its own programm, to deal with a relatively unstructured situationin a word, to think for itself . In fact, this can be done. Chess-playing computers have yet to defeat world champion chess players, but several have beaten human players of only slightly lower ranks. The computers have had programs to carry them through the early, mechanical stages of their chess games. But they have gone on from there to reason and learn, and sometimes to win the game.
There are other proofs that computers can be programmed to learn, but this example is sufficient to demonstrate the point. Granted , winning a game of chess is not an earthshaking event even when a computer does it . But there are many serious human problems which ban be fruitfully approached as games. The Defense Department uses computers to play war games and work out strategies for dealing with international tensions. Other problemsinternational and interpersonal relations , ecology and economics , and the ever-increasing threat of world faminecan perhaps be solved by the joint efforts of human beings and truly intelligent computers .
Notes
check:a game played on a checkerboard by two players ,each using 12 pieces
ecology:the relationship between organisms and their environment 生態(tài)關(guān)系，生態(tài)學(xué)
Reading comprehension
The purpose of creating chess-playing computers is __________
A to win the world chess champion
B to pave the way for further intelligent computers
C to work out strategies for international wars
D to find an accurate yardstick for measuring computer progress
2 Today , a chess-playing computer can be programmed to ________
A give trillions of reponses in a second to each possible move and win the game
B function with complete data and beat the best players
C learn from chess-playing in the early stage and go on to win the game
D evaluate every possible move but may fail to give the right response each time
3 For a computer to think , it is necessary to ________
A mange to process as much data as possible in a second
B program it so that it can learn from its experiences
C prepare it for chess-playing first
D enable it to deal with unstructured situations
4 The authors attitude towards the Defense Department is____
A critical B unconcerned C positive D negative
5 In the authors opinion,______
A winning a chess game is an unimportant event
B serious human problems shouldnt be regarded as playing a game
C ecological problems are more urgent to be solved
D there is hope for more intelligent computers
1 b 2 c 3 b 4 c 5 d
You Call This a Good Economy
這能稱之為上佳經(jīng)驗(yàn)
You have to have lived in the 1950s and 1960s to have experienced a good economy. In the period between 1950 and 1970 it was the rulerather than the exceptionthat an ordinary family, without higher education, could sustain itself decently on the income of a single breadwinner(養(yǎng)家糊口的人). In 1955, when I was 19 and living in Brooklyn, N. Y., my father, who had a sixth-grade education, maintained our family of five on a wage of $82 a week as a bookbinder. My mother taught us fairness and compassion; my father, discipline and enterprise.
The U. S. economy in those years was good. Then where did this good economy go? It was inflated away. The price of gold, which I take as proxy for the prices of all goods, was $35 an ounce in those years. It is at roughly ten times that price today.
There is another answer, though: inflation caused the entire work force to be moved into higher tax groups, thus reducing after-tax purchasing power. That is, my fathers bindery job in1954 paid $82 a week, with $80 after deductions; today, at $ 820 per week the net would be $662.
To ordinary people, the economy doesnt look very good at all. After-tax incomes continue to decrease in purchasing power. The jobs offered in the employment ads pay only a little more than the minimum wage, maybe $5 an hour, which, after payroll deductions, yields $4 an hour. Compare that with minimum-wage jobs of the early 1950s, when 75 cents was worth todays $7.50 before and after taxes.
Notes
1 Brooklyn: a district of New York city
2 inflate:通貨膨脹
3 proxy: the authority to act for another
4 payroll: a list of employees and the wages due to each
Reading Comprehension
In the authors opinion, a good economy, to ordinary people can be expressed in terms of ______
the amount of wage
after-tax income
the actual purchasing power
the minimum wage per hour
In the period between 1950 and 1970,_______
there was not much difference in the living standards between people of higher and lower education
an ordinary family of five without exception could live on one person income
the income of an ordinary family was more than enough for buying food
for an average family the income was sufficient to support all the members
Today a bookbinders wage is ten times that of the 1950s but its income tax rate has increased ______
a.50 times b.60times c. 70 times d. 80 times
4 The worsening of a bookbinders livelihood results from _____
a. his low education and the amount of wage
b. the high-taxation and the income deductions
c. the high taxation and cost of living
d. thelow wage and higher prices
5 The passage implies that while the cost of living is getting higher______
a. the value of labor actually is shrinking
b. the minimum wage level is increasing likewise
c. the income tax rate is rising along
d. the employment ads naturally offer a higher minimum wage
6 The authors tone in writing the article is_____
a. ironical b. subjective c. high-sounding d. convincing
7 the article aims to _________.
a. help control the rapidly increasing prices
b. give some advice to the policy-makers
c.impress the younger generation with some basic facts
d.call upon the societys attention against inflation
1 c 2 b 3 d 4 c 5 a 6 d 7 c
Are Experts Always Right
專家總是對(duì)的嗎
The world has become so complicated that weve lost confidence in our ability to understand and deal with it. But common sense is useful now as it ever was. No amount of expertise substitutes for an intimate knowledge of a person or a situation. At times you just have to trust your own judgement.
It almost cost me my life to learn that. I was reading a book one day, idly scratching the back of my head, when I noticed that, in one particular spot, the scratching echoed inside my head like fingernails on an empty cardboard carton, I rushed off to my doctor.
Got a hole in your head, have you? he teased. Its nothingjust one of those little scalp nerves sounding off.
Two years and four doctors later, I was still being told it was nothing. To the fifth doctor. I said, almost in desperation,But I live in tis body. I know somethings different.
If you wont take my word for it,Ill take an X-ray and prove it to you, he said.
Well, there it was, of course, the tumor that had made a hole as big as an eye socket in the back of my skull. After the operation, a young resident paused by my bed. Its a good thing youre so smart, he said. Most patient die of these tumors because we dont know theyre there until it is too late.
Im really not so smart. And Im too docile in the face of authority. I should have been more aggressive with those first four doctors. Its hard to question opinions delivered with absolute certainty.
Experts always sound so sure. Nevile Chamberlain, the British prime minister, was positive, just before the start of World War II, that there would be peace for our time. Producer Irving Thalberg did not hesitate to advise Louis B. Mayer against buying the rights to Gone With the Wind because no Civil War picture ever made a nickel. Even Abraham Lincoln surely believed it when he said in his Gettysburg Address: The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here
We should not, therefore, be intimidated by experts. When its an area we really know aboutour bodies, our families, our houseslets listen to what the experts say, then make up our own minds.
Notes
cardboard carton:a box or container made of a stiff pasteboard of paper
scalp: the skin covering the head
tumor:腫瘤
eye socket: the opening or cavity in which the eye fits
docile: easily managed or taught
reading comprehension
It in deal with it refers to ______
a. confidence b. the world c. ability d. complication
2. Expertise in para.1 means______
a. common sense b. expert skill or knowledge c. unusual ability to appreciate
d. personal experience
3. We have to trust our own judgement since ____
a. not all of us have acquired reliable expertise
b. experts often lose their common sense
c. experts may sometimes fail to give good advice
d. intimate knowledge of a person is not to be substituted for by expertise
4 That in it almost cost me my life to learn that refers to______
a. I can learn to trust my judgement
b. I can acquire an intimate knowledge of myself
c. common sense is not as useful as knowedge
d. expertise may not be reliable
5 While reading one day, the author______
a. found a hole at the back of his head
b. heard a scratching sound from a carton
c. noticed some echo from his head where he was scratching
d. noticed a sound coming out from his head
6 tease in paragraph 3 means______
a. to make fun of b. to comfort c. to reply d. to disbelieve
7 if you wont take my word for it in para.5 may be paraphrased_____
a. if you dont think my word is worth anything
b. if you dont listen to my advice
c. if you dont believe my judgement
d. if you prefer actions to words
8 Skull in para.6 most probably means____
a. the bony framework of the head
b. the surface skin of the head
c. the nerve system inside the head
d. the top part of the head
9 The author didnt think he was smartbecause____
a. he had already suffered for two years
b. he had not been able to put up with the pain
c. he had believed too much in expertise
d. he had formed too strong an opinion of himself
10 It happens that the examples given by the author_____
a. all concern with wars
b. are taken from modern American history
c. have become popular themes in movies
d. have American Civil War as the background
11 In the last paragraph, the work intimidate may mean_____
a. deceive b. frighten c. make timid d. encourage
1 b 2 b 3 c 4 d 5 c 6 a 7 c 8 a 9 c 10 a 11 c
Just Call Me Mister
1 On cold days people in Manhattan like to take their children to PlaySpace, an indoor playground full of wonderful climbing and sliding contraptions. Theres just one irritating detail: when you pay your money, the cashier pulls out a felt-trip marker and an adhesive lapel tag and asks you your name.
Frum, I say.
No, your first name.
What do you need my first name for?
To write on the tag, so all the children and the staff will know what to call you.
In that case, write Mr. Frum.
2 At which I am shot a look as if I had asked to be called to Duke of Plaza Toro.
3 In encouraging five-year-olds to address grownups by their first names, PlaySpace is only slightly ahead of the times. As a journalist, I faithfully report that the custom of addressing strangers formally is as dead as the practice of leaving a visiting card.
4 Theres hardly a secretary left who does not reply, when I give a message fro her boss, Ill tell him you called, David. Or a public relations agent, whether in Bangor or Bangkok, who does not begin his telephonic spiel with a cheerful Hello, David!
5 You dont have to be a journalist to collect amazing first-name stories. Place a collect call, and the operator first-names you. The teenager behind the counter at a fast-food restaurant asks a 70-year-old customer for his first name before taking his order.
6 Habitual first-names claim they are motivated by nothing worse than uncontrollably high-spirited friendliness. I dont believe it. I f I asked the fast-food order-takers to lend me $50, their friendliness would vanish in a whoosh. The PR man drops all his cheerfulness the moment he hears I wont go along with his story idea. No, its not friendliness that drives first-namers; its aggression. The PR agents who call me David uninvited would never, if they could somehow get him on the phone, address press baron Rupert Murdoch that way. The woman at the bank who called me David would never first-name the banks chairman. Like the mock-cheery staff at PlaySpace, they are engaged in a smiley-faced act of belittlement, an assertion of power disguised as good cheer.
Notes
1 contraptions:mechanical devices;gadgets
2 felt-tip marker:軟筆尖的顏色筆
3 adhesive lapel tag:不干膠標(biāo)牌
4 Duke of Plaza Toro: Duke is a nobleman with the highest hereditary rank, especially in Britain. Plaza Tora is Spanish, something like Bull Fighting Ring in English
5 Bangor:City of South central Maine
