Text 2The next big breakthrough in artificial intelligence could come from giving machines not just more logical capacity, but emotional capacity as well.Feelings aren’t usually associated with inanimate machines, but Rosalind Picard, a professor of computer technology at MIT, believes emotion may be just the thing computers need to work effectively. Computers need artificial emotion to understand their human users better and to achieve self-analysis and self-improvement.The more scientists study the "wetware" model for computing—the human brain and nervous system—the more they conclude that emotions are a part of intelligence, not separate from it. Emotions are among the tools that we use to process the tremendous amount of stimuli in our environment. They also pay a role in human learning and decision making. Feeling bad about a wrong decision, for instance, focuses attention on avoiding future error. A feeling of pleasure, on the other hand, positively reinforces an experience."If we want computers to be genuinely intelligent, to adapt to us, and to interact naturally with us, then they will need the ability to recognize and express emotions, to have emotions, and to have what has come to be called ’emotional intelligence,’" Picard says.One way that emotions can help computers, she suggests, is by helping keep them from crashing. Today’s computers produce error messages, but they do not have a "gut feeling" of knowing when something is wrong or doesn’t make sense. A healthy fear of death could motivate a computer to stop trouble as soon as it starts. On the other hand, self-preservation would need to be subordinate to service to humans. It was fear of its own death that prompted HAL, the fictional computer in the film 2002: A Space Odyssey, to kill most of its human associates.Similarly, computers that could "read" their users would accumulate a store of highly personal information about us—not just what we said and did, but what we likely thought and felt."Emotions not only contribute to a richer quality of interaction, but they directly impact a person’s ability to interact in an intelligent way," Picard says. "Emotional skills, especially the ability to recognize and express emotions, are essential for natural communication with humans." It is implied that the emotional computer ().
A. may be a danger to human beings
B. no longer needs hardware upgrading
C. may be a threat to the life of its designer
D. no longer worries about the fear of death
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TextThe American definition of success is largely one of acquiring wealth and a high material standard of living. It is not surprising, (1) , that Americans have valued education for its monetary value. The belief is widespread in the United States (2) the more schooling people have, the more money they will (3) when they leave school. The belief is strongest (4) the desirability of an undergraduate university degree, or a (5) degree such as medicine or law (6) the undergraduate degree. The money value of graduate degrees in (7) such as art, history, or philosophy is not (8) great.This belief in the monetary value of education is (9) by research outcomes on income. Ben Wattenberg, a social scientist, estimates that in the (10) of a lifetime a man (11) a college school diploma in 1972 could earn about $380,000 more than a man who (12) had a high school diploma. Perhaps this helps to explain survey (13) which showed that Americans who (14) they had lived their lives differently in some way regretted (15) of all that they did not get more education. The regret is (16) by those who have made (17) to the top and by those who have not. (18) a man like Douglas Fraser, the president of the United Auto Workers Union, a nationally known and successful leader, was (19) by regrets that he did not climb higher on the (20) ladder. 12()
A. hardly
B. only
C. really
D. readily
Text 1During the past fifteen years a great deal of attention has been given to "letting it all hang out." My impression is that this over-zealous devotion to speaking one’s mind has more often led to hurt feelings and mined relationships than to great joy and fulfillment.I think we generally agree that holding in real feelings and never expressing less-than-lovely thoughts about each other hardly lead to constructive communication. It’s a great relief to allow ourselves the luxury of admitting our human weaknesses and pursuing more honest relationships with others. But we need to strike a balance between telling it all and telling nothing.Recently I received a letter from a mother who had been persuaded by her troubled twenty-five-year-old son to attend a weekend "troth" marathon with him. Under pressure from the group, her defenses collapsed and she heard herself telling her son for the first time that he had been an accident—that she hadn’t been planning to have a child. He in turn told her that he couldn’t recall a single day in his childhood that he’d been happy."At that time," this woman wrote, "it seemed helpful. We cried and we made up; I thought telling the truth had been good for us. But the trouble is, it wasn’t the whole truth. By the time Tommy was born, I did want him, and at times he was happy. Ever since that day, we’ve both been disturbed by some terrible feelings we shared."I must admit we’ve come to the conclusion that some things are better left unsaid. Honesty is a fine policy as long as we know what the truth really is—but most of the time we don’t. It’s a fine goal to encourage children to express their real feelings. But we need a new sense of balance. Telling it all is not a cure-all for every problem nor even an end in itself. It’s useful and freeing under some circumstances and terribly hurtful and damaging under others.It’s a good idea, I think, to bite your tongue for ten or fifteen minutes before saying what’s on your mind. Try to decide whether it’s going to open up new and better avenues of communication or leave wounds that may never heal. The author suggests that we should ().
A. stop ourselves from telling lies
B. know clearly what is on our minds
C. heal all the wounds to free ourselves
D. say with caution what we really think
Questions15 to18 are based on a dialogue about traveling in Europe. How did the Japanese woman travel on a five-day tour around Europe?()
A. By bus
By car
C. By train
D. By air