九年级英语课外阅读新文章(2016.01)
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九年级英语课外阅读新文章
(2016.01)
Computers could learn like humans
You might think the technology we have
today is
incredibly smart and is
improving greatly each year,
but
some
scientists
don’t
agree.
Computers
can
do
many
things
such
as
search
for
information
at
great
speeds, recognize its
owner’s fingerprints and open a
whole
new
seemingly
impossible
gaming
world.
However, scientists believe this is
only the beginning.
They want to build
a computer capable of human-like
The
2004 US film
I, Robot
talks
about the
learning.
relationship between humans and robots.
And recently, they had a breakthrough.
The
latest
Science
magazine
introduced
a
newly
developed
computer
program
that
allows
computers to not only work with
numbers, but also in a wide range of different
languages. At the
moment, for computers
to learn something new, thousands of images and
bits of data (
数据
) need to
be inputted (
输入
).
But for humans, a child only needs one or two
images to learn something new.
This
new
program
would
mean
computers
would,
like
children,
only
need
one
or
two
images
to
understand something.
The
computers would be able to see the handwritten
letters, recognize them and recreate them.
Ruslan Salakhutdinov, professor of
computer science at the University of Toronto
said: “It has been
very difficult to
build machines that need as little data as humans
when learning
something
new.”
This
improvement
could
bring
a
range
of
new
opportunities.
If
computers
are
capable
of
human-
like thoughts, then it will greatly reduce the
amount of time it takes for new developments.
However, some think this is one step in
a dangerous direction. Is it safe to make
computers who can
think like humans? If
we succeed in making computers as capable as
humans, what would stop the
computers
from taking over humanity
(
人类
) like in the film
I, Robot
(2004) with Will
Smith?
1. Today computers can do the
following EXCEPT _____.
A. search for
information fast
B. recognize its owner’s
fingerprints
D. learn things
exactly as humans do
C. create an almost impossible gaming
world
2. What does the underlined word
“breakthrough” in Paragraph 2 mean?
A. achievement
B. discovery
C.
experiment
D. difficulty
3. With the new computer program,
computers can _____.
a. work in many
different languages
b. understand
something with only one or two images or data
c. do better than children can
d. see the handwritten letters and
recreate them
A. ab
B.
bc
C. ad
D. cd
4. What does the last paragraph talk
about?
A. The advantages and
disadvantages of the new program.
B.
The developments of computer programs.
C. The relationship between computers
and humans.
D. Introduction of the film
I, Robot
(2004).
- 1 -
九年级英语课外阅读新文章
(2016.01)
One kind act causes many
My
9-year-old daughter and I were flying from our
home
in
Charlotte,
North
Carolina,
to
spend
a
week
with
my
husband in Miami, Florida. Mike had
been working in Florida
for five
months. Kallie missed her dad terribly.
The plane was full. I had noticed a
group of Boy Scouts
at the gate and
said to my daughter that if anything happened,
we would be OK with all those scouts on
our flight!
Because
we
did
not
get
our
boarding
passes
until
we
arrived at the gate, Kallie and I could
not get seats together. That wasn’t such a big
deal, except that
Kallie was nervous
about the trip and had counted on me reading to
her the whole way.
When the passengers
in my row boarded the plane, I asked if they would
change places with
Kallie or me. They
refused, saying they wanted to stay in their own
seats.
At the same time, a mother and
her two children several rows ahead of us also met
the same
problem.
The
mother
could
hold
her
baby,
but
her
6-year-old
son
had
to
sit
with
strangers.
Yet
nobody offered to help her.
Suddenly, the scout leader stood up and
said: “Ma’am, I think we can help you.” He then
spent
five minutes rearranging his
group so there was space available for the family.
And then the mother
was much more
relaxed.
Amazingly, the man sitting
next to the scout leader, turned to me and asked:
“Would you and
your
daughter
like
our
seats?”
We
changed
seats
and
continued
on
our
trip,
very
happy
to
be
together.
Would
that
man
have
offered
us
his
seat
if
the
scouts
hadn’t
done
so
for
the
mom
and
her
children?
I
don’t
know.
But
I
do
know
that
kindness
is
good,
and
good
deeds
cause
more
good
deeds!
1.
What problem did the writer meet after boarding
the plane?
A. She didn’t get her
boarding pass on time.
B.
She and her daughter couldn’t sit
together.
C. There wasn’t an
empty seat left for her.
D.
Kallie was too excited about the trip.
2. The correct order of the following
events is ________.
a. The scout leader
rearranged his group’s seats.
b. A man offered his seat to the
writer.
c. The mom and her kids sat
together.
d. The writer and her
daughter got seats next to each other.
A. abcd
B. acbd
C.
bdac
D. cabd
3. What is the
writer’s main purpose for writing this
story?
A. To show that good
deeds lead to more good deeds.
B. To
criticize the coldness of some of the passengers.
C. To compare two different kinds of
people.
D. To tell us that we should
put children first.
- 2 -
九年级英语课外阅读新文章
(2016.01)