全国大学生英语竞赛D类初赛卷AWord文档格式.docx

1、Are Computers Alive?The topic of thought is one area of psychology, and many observers have considered this aspect in connection with robots and computer: some of the old worries about AI-artificial intelligence-were closely linked to the question of whether computers could think. The first massive

2、electronic computers, capable of rapid （if often unreliable） computation and little or no creative activity, were soon called“electronic brains”.A reaction to this terminology quickly followed. To put them in their place, computers were called “high-speed idiots”, an effort to protect human vanity.

3、In such a climate, the possibility of computers actually being alive was rarely considered: it was bad enough that computers might be capable of thought. But not everyone realized the implications of the high-speed idiot tag. It has not been pointed out often enough that even the human idiot is one

4、of the most intelligent life forms on Earth. If the early computers were even that intelligent, it was already a remarkable state of affairs. One consequence of speculation about the possibility of computer thought was that we were forced to examine with new care the idea of thought in general. It s

5、oon because clear that we were not sure what new meant by such terms as thought and thinking .We tend to assume that human beings think, some more than others, thought we often call people thoughtless or unthinking. Dreams cause a problem, partly because they usually happen outside our control. They

6、 are obviously some type of mental experience, but are they a type of thinking? And the question of nonhuman life forms adds further problems. Many of us would maintain that some of the higher animals -dogs, cats, apes, and so on-are capable of at least basic thought, but what about fish and insects

7、? It is certainly true that the higher mammals show complex brain activity when tasted with the appropriate equipment. If thinking is demonstrated by evident electrical activity in the brain, then many animal species are capable of thought. Once we have formulated clear ideas on what thought is in b

8、iological creatures, it will be easier to discuss the question of thought in artifacts（人工制品）. And what is true of thought is also true of many other mental processes. One of the immense benefits of AI research is that we are being forced to check carefully the working of the human mind.It is already

9、 clear that machines have superior mental abilities to many life forms. No fern or oak tree can play chess as well as even the simplest digital computer; nor can frogs weld（焊接） car bodies as well as robots. The mechanical manipulator is clever in some ways that the three-toed sloth （树懒）. It seems th

10、at, viewed in terms of intellect, the computer should be set well above plants and most animals. Only the higher animals can, it seems, compete with computers with regard to intellect-and even then with diminishing success. （Examples of this are in the games of chess. Some of the Worlds best players

11、 now computers.）Questions 5658: Read the questions and the four choices marked A, B, C, and D, and decide which is best choice according to the passage.56. The first electronic computers were_.A. slow and reliable B. large and fastC. creative and accurate D. unreliable and small57. In the authors vi

12、ew, mental activities are characteristic of _.A. all plants and animals B. some animals C. human being alone D. computers58. What does the author say about machines thinking?A. It is somewhat possible B. It is totally impossibleC. It will not be realized too soon D. It may surpass human thinking som

13、edayQuestion 59-60: Complete the following statements with information given in the passage in a maximum of three words for each blank.59. The author feels that by calling these early computers “high-speed idiots”, people were really implying that computers would never be capable of_.60. The author

14、believe that such words as thought and thinking might come to better understood because of research into _ and computers.Section B（10 marks）Questions 61-65 are based on the following passage.The life of Jackie Chan One of the most popular film personalities in the world, Jackie Chan came from a pove

15、rty stricken Hong Kong family-so poor, claims Chan, that he was almost sold in infancy to a wealthy British couple. As it turned out, Chan became his familys sole support. Enrolled in the Chinese Opera Research Institute at the age of seven, he spent the next decade in rigorous training for a career

16、 in the Peaking Opera, excelling in martial arts and acrobatics. Billed as Cheng Long, Chan entered films in his mid-teens, appearing in 25 productions before his 20th birthday. Starting out as a stunt man, Chan was promoted to stardom as the potentiala stunt man, Chan was promoted to stardom as the

17、 potential successor to the late Bruce Lee. In his earliest starring films, he was cast as a stone-cold serious type, determined to avenge Lees death. Only when he began playing for laughs did Chan truly attain full celebrity status. Frequently referred to as the Buster Keaton of kung-fu, Chans outl

18、ook on life is a lot more optimistic than Keatons, but in his tireless devotion to the most elaborate of sight gags and the most awe-inspiring of stuns （many of which have nearly cost him his life）, Chan is Keaton incarnate.From 1987s The Young Master inward, Chan has usually been his own director a

19、nd screenwriter. His best Hong Kong produced films include the nonstop action-fests Project A （1983）, Police Story （1986）, and the Golden Horse Award-winning Crime Story （1993）-not to mention the mention the multiple sequels of each of the aforementioned titles. Despite his popularity in Europe and

20、Asia, Chan was for many years unable to make a dent in the American market. He tired hard in such films as The Big Brawl （1980） and the first two Cannonball Run flicks, but American filmgoers just werent buying.At long last, Chan mined U.S. box-office gold with 1996s Rumble in the Bronx, a film so e

21、xhilarating that the audience never noticed those distinctly Canadian mountain ranges looming behind the “Bronx” skyline. Chan remained the most popular Asian actor with the greatest potential when he co-starred with Chris Tucker in the 1998 box-office hit Rush Hour. Chan had another success on his

22、hands with Shanghai Noon, a comedy Western in which he starred as an Imperial Guard dispatched to the American West to rescue the kidnapped daughter（Lucy Liu） of the Chinese Emperor.Questions 61-63: Read the questions, and then tell whether the following statements are true （T） or false （F）61. Jacki

23、e Chan stated as a comedy actor and then moved into serious roles.62. Chan was very popular in the United States right away with his first movie. 63. The last three movies mentioned, Rumble in the Bronx, Rush Hour, and Shanghai Noon-were very successful.Questions 64-65: Answer the following question

24、 according to the passage.64. What did Jackie Chan learn for a career in the Peking Opera?65. When did Jackie Chan get full celebrity status?Section C（10 marks）Questions 66-70 are based on the following passage. What Makes Sound Beautiful?（69）Beauty is certainly more than shin-deep. However you migh

25、t define it, beauty extends far beyond the visual to that which pleases other the mind. The most important a beyond these other routes for the observation of beauty is the sense of hearing. Music is routinely recognized as beautiful. So are other sounds, like the whispering of wind through pines or

26、the gentle purring of a cat.Just as philosophers and scientists have struggled to define visual beauty, they have attempted to analyze the appeal of pleasant sounds as well. Ultimately, sonic（声音的） beauty is in the ear of the beholder. Research and intuition can, however, suggest why one person consi

27、ders a musical piece gorgeous while another considers it a bucketful of noise.The existence of noise is a clue in itself. A conventional definition of noise would include adjective like unwanted, annoying, disorganized, or meaningless. Sounds that have no discernible（可是别的） pattern to them or that in

28、trude on mental order are not generally considered beautiful. The relationship of sound to the situation is crucial. An assertive orchestral piece like Coplands “Fanfare for the Common Man” could be strikingly beautiful at a Fourth of July celebration yet decidedly annoying when it blares from someo

29、ne elses apartment while you are trying to concentrate on a difficult task.But it is the quest to discover the role of pattern that takes us beyond such obvious intuitive judgments about the beauty of sound. In the 1930s, a mathematician named George Birkhoff proposed formulas that would place a giv

30、en work of art on a numerical aesthetic（审美的） scale. More beautiful art would score higher than less beautiful art. He Proposed different specifics for analyzing painting, or geometric figures, or poetry, or music, but his central formula is M=O/C. The symbol M stands for beauty, O for origination, a

31、nd C for complexity. （70）In other words, a work of music that is very well organized and not very complicated scores higher than a work with similarly good organization but a high degree of complexity. Organization is good, complexity is bad.This aspect of Birkhoffs approach clearly oversimplifies the case. Organization and complexity do contribute to the perceived beauty of a musical piece, but not as mere opposites. They entwine and influence the piece in combination with each other and with other factors. To illustrate this, lets consider one of th