1、大学英语六级（阅读）模拟试卷 6及答案与解析 一、 Part II Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning) (15 minutes) Directions: In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer the questions attached to the passage. For questions 1-4, mark： Y (for YES) if the statement agrees with the infor
2、mation given in the passage; N (for NO) if the statement contradicts the information given in the passage; NG (for NOT GIVEN) if the information is not given in the passage. 0 The Love of a Robot Can computers ever really be like us, and if not, why not? The similarities are obvious. We can both wor
3、k out certain problems and apparently engage in dialogue, but the differences are striking, too. Marvin Minsky, one of the founding fathers of artificial intelligence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, confesses that the more he tries to imitate the human brain, the more wonderful he find
4、s it. Computers can engage in dialogue and even simulate speech, but it will be a very long time indeed before they indulge in metaphor, jokes or slang the things that human beings manage so effortlessly, and reprimand(谴责 )their children for doing too much. Yet the differences between human and comp
5、uter “thinking“ do not lie simply in the kinds of things that each is good at. The strategy is different. Computers are logical; they are tolerable to work with only because they do what they do so blindingly fast, processing billions of bits a second. The brains of humans, like those of all animals
6、, are survival machines that use a variety of strategies, of which logic is only one, and not usually dominant. We think our way through life with roles of thumb, making guesses and taking chances based on past successes. Computers would find us intolerable, too, if they had opinions. Besides, human
7、s do not merely think and solve immediate problems. We have consciousness, whatever that is. We are emotional. Taken all in all, we have “mind“. Nobody supposes that present-day computers possess consciousness or feeling, and, with neither, they surely cannot be “mindful“. Many artificial intelligen
8、ce enthusiasts claim that the differences are only those of complexity. Consciousness is nothing more than the brain looking at itself, thinking about its own thinking. Computers could surely acquire such ability with suitable circuitry. It may not be a matter simply of making them more complex; per
9、haps there must be new computer architecture, with the different parts of the circuit interacting in ways not yet conceived. But time will sort this out. Already, the latest robots have e-motion built into them. Without emotion, they have no motivation at all and remain inactive. The human brain, in
10、 the end, is an electrical circuit. Why should a silicon-based circuit not imitate a carbonbased circuit, if that is what it is required to do? The first great modern computer scientist, Alan Turing, said that, in principle, functional computers could be made out of anything. Turing is too clever to
11、 argue with and we must concede that computers can indeed be made of anything at all. But we know that computers, at least of the present day, do not do all that brains do. The human brain is not designed at all. It evolved by natural selection. Evolved systems have tremendous strengths. They encaps
12、ulate(压缩 )solutions to all the problems that have been posed by the environment over many millions of years. Those problems are more various than any mere designer could consider; and the systems that evolve to cope with them are more complicated and subtle than any designer could conceive. But evol
13、ved systems have their weaknesses, too. Natural selection is opportunist, but not creative. Each new generation is limited in materials and form by what was available to the generation before. It cannot simply seize what it needs from the surroundings, as a designer can. Hence the solutions to the p
14、roblems posed by life often have a rough-and-ready quality. Solutions to old problems remain as a visible trace. Evolved systems cannot exhaustively be understood. After all, the major way to understand how living things work is by “reverse engineering“: looking at what they do, and then inferring t
15、he problems they are solving. But the problems they are really solving may be hidden deep in their history. Its not like reverse-engineering an enemy plane that has crash-landed in your back garden. Computers, however, are designed and the process of designing has strengths and weaknesses of its own
16、. The strength is in the flexibility: when designers make a mistake, they can go back to the drawing board, which natural selection can never do. The weakness is that the problems that need to be solved cannot be predicted completely in advance. In practice, consumers discover their weaknesses and f
17、ind out what they can really do. Computers intended for one purpose often succeed, as animals do, by applying themselves to something completely different. Future computers will design themselves and, however much we may initially make them in our image, they will increasingly grow away from us. Sci
18、ence does not progress in steady, logical steps, as conventionally conceived. Machines are innately impulsive and unpredictable, too. As soon as computer programs become even a little complex, it becomes theoretically impossible to predict all that they are capable of. The social relationships betwe
19、en unpredictable human beings and advanced, innately unpredictable robots are beyond guessing. The less imaginative scientists assume that all outstanding questions can be answered within their existing paradigm, that more of the same researches will provide whatever answers are lacking. The great s
20、cientists, however, think beyond the paradigm. Historians tend to argue that Newton gave up experimental physics in the late 17th century because he ran out of ideas. Surely, though, he ran out of physics: he knew that his mechanics was not adequate, but he also knew that 17th-century data and maths
21、 could not lead to better understanding. Todays physicists, it has been suggested, may face the same problem: they have developed the idea of “superstrings“, as the most fundamental of all fundamental entities in the universe, but they may need 23rd-century maths to understand them. This surely is t
22、he case also with the problems of mind and consciousness, and of whether computers can truly partake of them. We just dont have the data or the means of thinking about what we do have. To understand the human brain we need a new paradigm. We should not assume that it will simply extend the present o
23、ne, which involves neurology and pharmacology. It may well include new physics, or elements of eastern mysticism. The next few centuries will surely bring us supertoys. They will also bring insights. Whether they bring the enlightenment we seek remains to be seen. 1 Which of the following features d
24、oes a computer have? （ A） Using metaphors in a dialogue. （ B） Playing jokes with people. （ C） Having its own opinions. （ D） Reproducing someones words. 2 The differences between human and computer “thinking“ lie in_. （ A） things that each is good at （ B） the strategies that they use （ C） the process
25、ing speed （ D） the past successful experiences 3 Computers are tolerable to work with only because_. （ A） they follow peoples orders （ B） they do things very fast （ C） they do things well （ D） they use many strategies 4 What is the authors attitude towards computers possessing consciousness? （ A） It
26、 is nonsense and surely computers wont be “mindful“. （ B） It only needs to make computers more complex. （ C） It needs to invent a carbonbased circuit and apply it to computers. （ D） It may need new computer architecture and time will solve it. 5 What is the weakness of evolved systems? （ A） The syst
27、ems that evolve to cope with the problems are complicated. （ B） The problems that need to be solved cannot be predicted completely in advance. （ C） They encapsulate solutions to all the problems that have been posed. （ D） They are not creative and cannot exhaustively be understood. 6 The social rela
28、tionships between human and computers are_. （ A） designers and products （ B） masters and slaves （ C） equal in status （ D） not known 7 What is the common problem that Newton and todays physicists face? （ A） They lack for imagination. （ B） The computer cannot be mindful. （ C） They run out of available
29、 theories. （ D） They are misty about future. 8 The advantage of the process of designing a computer is_ that whenever there is a mistake, designers can go back to the drawing board. 9 _think that all unanswered questions can be resolved within their paradigm. 10 Whether computers can truly partake _
30、 depends on the future data and means. 10 Recovering Memory: Can a New Device Help Amnesia(健忘症 )Patients? Claire Robertson was in the changing room at her local swimming pool when she glanced up to see a woman looking at her. The woman had a nice face warm, searching blue eyes; a hesitant smile but
31、seemed unsure of what to say. This often happens to Claire, a 49-year-old former nurse who six years ago suffered brain damage due to a rare viral infection. Now an amnesiac(健忘症患者 )who is unable to recognize faces, Claire lives in a world in which even her lifelong friends appear as strangers. Her h
32、usband Ed wears a distinct shark-tooth necklace at all times to help her identify him. Memory is so foundational to friendship that even those aware of Claires brain injury often wait a second or two upon seeing her before reintroducing themselves, hoping their presence might spark a flicker of reco
33、gnition which of course it never does. Claire assumed that was the case with the woman across from her in the changing room. But the woman continued to hover, not saying a word. Claire looked up again; this time the woman looked at her with an anxious expression. Claire decided to introduce herself.
34、 And thats when she understood: she was walking toward a mirror. The anxious, unsure face that was staring at her was her own. There is no cure for Claires memory loss. The brain remains far too complex an organ for modern medicine to master, let alone reanimate(使复苏 )after parts of it die off. Primi
35、tive memory aids diaries, photo albums, reminder alerts on electronic devices remain the most effective tools for helping amnesiacs like Claire cope with their condition. But the technology available to neuropsychologists is evolving fast, and Claire is among the first brain-injury patients to benef
36、it from something as simple as a camera though a very special one. The portions of Claires brain most damaged by the virus are known as the hipp-ocampi(海马 ). two deep, seahorse-shaped structures where new memories are formed and others are retrieved. Destruction of the hippocampi causes memory loss
37、but only of a particular kind. Claire, like most such amnesiacs, retains a functioning procedural memory. She remembers, for instance, how to drive a car, and she could learn to play the piano if she wanted, although she would have little or no memory of receiving lessons. Likewise, Claires so-calle
38、d semantic(语义的 )memory remains largely intact; her brain has preserved previously learned facts(Paris is the capital of France; her husbands name is Ed), and she can retain a limited amount of new information. But she can rarely remember the sensations of an experience the sights, sounds and feel, w
39、hat psychologists call her episodic memory. This is where the new memory-enhancing camera can help. Called the Sensecam, it hangs around a patients neck and automatically takes photos with a wide-angle lens every 30 seconds and when it senses movement or a change in lighting. The patient can downloa
40、d the pictures later and review them in sequence. But why should a two-dimensional image of, say, a museum Claire visited jog her memory when actually returning to the same museum a week later draws a blank? Neuropsychologist, Catherine Loveday of Westminster University, explains that the Sense-cam
41、helps in two ways. First, it provides a record rather like a jetliners black box of Claires life that she can revisit as often as she pleases. As she scans the images, her memory cant store most of the pictures in any lasting way, but her ability to retain facts(her semantic memory)at least allows h
42、er to know she has experienced something. Claire will often review images of days spent with friends before seeing them, allowing her to bond with them over common experiences. “It gives me a sense of belonging, “ Claire says. “So many people know so many things about my life, and I havent any idea
43、whatsoever. But I have these pictures now. “ Of more interest to neuropsychologists is the fact that reviewing Sensecam images seems to stimulate what little remains of Claires episodic memory. Emma Berry, a neuropsychologist at Microsoft, the company that developed the camera, hypothesizes that Sen
44、secams impromptu wide-angle photographs, which capture everything in Claires field of vision, provide much stronger memory cues than staged, traditionally proportioned pictures. Even in healthy brains, episodic memory often responds to bizarre, seemingly extraneous stimuli. Without recognition, Clai
45、re often passes over frames that include her close friends, but a tiny detail from a seemingly meaningless frame a sign on a wall, perhaps, or the fact that a waiter was left-handed triggers her memory of that moment. Function-al-MRI scans of Claires brain show that the areas associated with memory
46、light up with far greater activity when she tries to remember experiences previously reviewed on Sensecam than when she attempts to recall events recorded in her diary or by traditional photographs. Microsoft has licensed British company Vicon to sell Sensecam as a medical device, but there may be a
47、 bigger market than just amnesiacs. Berry believes that since Alzheimers disease targets the hippocampi and nearby structures first, these cameras may provide a prophylactic(预防法 )for people at risk of the disease by keeping their hippocampi healthy longer, though she says more research is needed. No
48、t all experts share Berrys enthusiasm. The University of Cambridges Barbara Wilson, a leading amnesia expert who has co-authored a study using a Sensecam, says that for brain-injury patients, the mantra must always be “rehabilitation is not synonymous with recovery. “ The device “can help people cop
49、e,“ she says, “but theres no evidence it can restore episodic memory. “ Dr. Gregory O Shanick, national medical director for the Brain Injury Association of America, worries that if Microsoft “markets it as a cure-all, we are going to disappoint patients or, worse, make them feel as if there is something deficient in them. “ For her part, Claire prizes her Sensecam and says she would feel bereft(丧失的 )without it. When I met with her, she searched through dozens of Sensecam photos from a rece
