The Robot Man According to Hans Moravec, universal robots will take over all the physical activities that we engage in, leaving us with little to do. Moravec sees four generations on the road to true universal robots. The first generation will be here by 2010 and will consist of free-ranging robots that can navigate by building an internal mental map of their surroundings. In new situations they’ll be able to adapt, unlike today’s mobile industrial robots. These robots will have the computing power to cope with simple speech and text recognition, and will be used for tasks such as domestic cleaning. The second generation will arrive around 2020 and will be distinguished by the ability to learn. Second generation robots are programmed with sets of primitive tasks and with feedback that provide“ pleasure“ and “pain“ stimuli. For example, a collision provokes a negative response, a completed task would be positive. Move forward another ten years to 2030 and you get to generation three. This robot can build internal simulations of the world around it. Before beginning a task, it can imagine what will happen in order to predict problems. If it has a free moment, it can replay past experiences and try variations in order to find a better way of doing things next time. It could even observe a person or another robot performing a task and learn by imitation. For the first time, we have here a robot that can think. By the time we get to generation four in 2040, Moravec predicts that robots will be able to: match human reasoning and behaviour; generalise abstract ideas from specific experience; and, conversely, compile detailed plans of action from general commands such as “earn a living“ or “make more robots“. The Moravec manifesto(宣告)runs something like this. As robots start to become useful in generation one, they’ll begin to take on many tasks in industry. Driven by the availability of this cheap and tireless labour force, the economy will boom and the demand for robots will grow so rapidly that they will soon become low-cost commodity items. So much so that they’ll move into the home, where the domestic robot will relieve us of many chores. With increasing automation in generations two and three, the length of the average working day will plummet, eventually to near zero. Most people will be unemployed as robots take over not just primary industry, but the service economy too. Moravec sees the fourth generation as an opportunity to surpass our human limitations. These future machines will be our“mind children“. Like biological children of previous generations , they will embody humanity’s best hope for a long-term future.

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Free Statins With Fast Food Could Neutralize Heart Risk Fast food outlets could provide statin drugs free of【C1】______so that customers can reduce the heart disease dangers of fatty food, researchers at Imperial College London 【C2】______in a new study. Statins reduce the【C3】______of unhealthy “LDL“ cholesterol in the blood. A wealth of trial data has proven them to be highly effective at【C4】______a person’s heart attack risk. In a paper published in the American Journal of Cardiology, Dr. Darrel Francis and colleagues calculate that the reduction in heart attack risk offered by a statin is【C5】______to offset the increase in heart attack risk from 【C6】______a cheeseburger and drinking a milkshake. Dr. Francis, from the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London, who is the senior author of the study, said, “ Statins don’t cut out all of the【C7】______effects of cheeseburgers and French fries. It’s better to avoid fatty food altogether. But we’ve worked out that in terms of your【C8】______of having a heart attack, taking a statin can reduce your risk to more or less the same【C9】______as a fast food meal increases it. “ “It’s ironic that people are free to take as many unhealthy condiments in fast food outlets as they【C10】______, but statins, which are beneficial to heart health, have to be prescribed. It 【C11】______sense to make risk-reducing stains available just as easily as the unhealthy condiments that are provided free of charge. It would cost less than 5 pence per【C12】______—not much different to a sachet of sugar, “Dr. Francis said. When people engage in risky behaviours like driving or smoking, they’re encouraged to take 【C13】______that lower their risk, like【C14】______a seatbelt or choosing cigarettes with filters. Taking a statin is a rational way of【C15】______some of the risks of eating a fatty meal.

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A sports news B our decisions and opinions C mass communication D our messages E source of information F the mass media

Science and Technology There is a difference between science and technology. 【B1】______Science has to do with discovering the facts and relationships between observable phenomena in nature and with establishing theories that serve to organize these facts and relationships; technology has to do with tools, techniques, and procedures for applying the findings of science. 【B2】______ Progress in science excludes the human factor. Scientists, who seek to understand the universe and know the truth within the highest degree of accuracy and certainty, cannot pay attention to their own or other peoples likes or dislikes or to popular ideas about the fitness of things. 【B3】______But even an unpleasant truth is more than likely to be useful; besides, we have the choice of refusing to believe it! But hardly so with technology; we do not have the choice of refusing to hear the sound produced by a supersonic(超音速的)aircraft flying overhead; we cannot refuse to breathe polluted air.【B4】______The purpose of technology is to serve people—people in general, not merely some people; and future generations, not merely those who presently wish to gain advantage for themselves. 【B5】______Many people blame technology itself for widespread pollution, resource depletion(枯竭)and even social decay in general—so much so that the promise of technology is “obscured“. That promise is a cleaner and healthier world. If wise applications of science and technology do not lead to a better world, what else will? A Another distinction between science and technology has to do with the progress in each. B Unlike science, progress in technology must be measured in terms of the human factor. C What scientists discover may shock or anger people—as did Darwin’s theory of evolution. D Science and technology are different. E We are all familiar with the improper use of technology. F Science is a method of answering theoretical questions; technology is a method of solving practical problems.

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Look After Your Voice Often speakers at a meeting experience dry mouths and ask for a glass of water. You can solve the problem by activating the saliva in your mouth. First gently bite the edges of your tongue with your teeth. Or, press your entire tongue to the bottom of your mouth and hold it there until the saliva flows. Or you can imagine that you are slicing a big juicy lemon and sucking the juice. Before you begin your talk, be kind to your voice, Avoid milk or creamy drinks which dry your throat. Keep your throat wet by drinking a little sweetened warm tea or diluted fruit juice. If you sense that you are losing your voice, stop talking completely. In the meantime, do not even talk in a low voice. Save your voice for your health. You may feel foolish using paper to write notes, but the best thing you can do is to rest your voice. If it is necessary , perhaps you can get some advice from a professional singer. What about drinking alcohol to wet your throat? I advice you not to touch alcohol before speaking. The problem with alcohol is that one drink gives you a little confidence. The second drink gives you even more confidence. Finally you will feel all-powerful and you will feel you can do everything, but in fact your brain and your mouth do not work together properly. Save the alcohol until after you finish speaking. Perhaps you want to accept the advice, but you may wonder if you can ever change the habits of a lifetime. Of course you can. Goethe, who lived before indoor skating rinks or swimming pools, said, “We learn to skate in the summer and swim in the winter“. Take this message to heart and give yourself time to develop your new habits. If you are willing to change, you will soon be able to say that you will never forget these techniques because they became a part of your body.

Messages from the Media 1 The weather forecast, a story about the candidates in an election, and movie reviews are examples of messages from the media. A communication medium, of which the plural(复数的)form is media, is a means of communicating a message. Examples of media are television, radio, news-papers and books and the telephone. The media that can reach many people at once are called mass media. 2 It is not difficult to think of other messages we receive through the mass media. Every day we get hundreds of them. Think about advertisements, for example. We see and hear these messages almost everywhere we go. Advertisements are important messages, even though they are sometimes annoying. They help us compare and evaluate products. 3 Most of us get more information from the media than from the classroom. Think for a moment, about how you learn about local news and events. Do you depend on other people or the media? What about international news? What is the most important source of information for you? People who are asked this question usually answer, “Television“. 4 Think of all the messages you received today. Perhaps you read a newspaper during breakfast, or maybe you read advertisements on billboards(露天广告牌)on your way to school. Did you listen to a weather forecast or the sports news on the radio this morning? Right now you are getting information through a very important medium of mass communication a book. 5 We use the information we get from radio, television, newspapers, and other media to make decisions and form opinions. That is why the mass media are so important. Editorials and articles in newspapers help us decide how to vote, consumer reports on television help us decide how to spend our money, and international news on the radio makes us think and form opinions about question of war and peace. A Importance of Classroom Learning. B Television A Rich Source of Information. C Advertisements as important Messages from the Mass Media. D Various Messages One May Receive Each Day. E Media Means to Communicate Messages. F Importance of the Mass Media.

What will be the distinctive feature of the second generation robots?

Which of the following statements is true of the future robots?

The author’s main purpose is to______.

The word“plummet“ in paragraph 6 means______.

What does Moravec think of these future robots?