2020考研英語閱讀理解精讀100篇：Unit 46

Unit 46

In a Cairo school basement, two dozen women analyze facial expressions on laptops, training the computers to recognize anger, sadness and frustration. At Cambridge University, an eerily realistic robotic head named Charles sits in a driving simulator, furrowing its brows, looking interested or confused. And in a handful of American middle school classrooms this fall, computers will monitor students’ emotions in an effort to track when they are losing interest and when they are getting excited about lessons. All three are examples of an emerging approach to technology called affective computing, which aims to give computers the ability to read users’ emotions, or “affect.”

Yet until recently, our machines could not identify even seemingly simple emotions, like anger or frustration. The GPS device chirps happily even when the driver is ready to hurl it out the window. The online class keeps going even when half the students are lost in confusion. The airport security system can’t tell whether someone is behaving as if he were concealing something or is just anxious about flying.

Technology that masters these skills could also help people who struggle to read the emotions of others, like those on the autism spectrum, or provide companionship and encouragement for nursing home residents. Without a grasp of emotions, some researchers argue, computers will never reach their full potential to support people.

“Our digital world is for the most part devoid of rich ways of expressing our emotions,” said Rosalind Picard, director of the affective computing research group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab. She has been working for more than two decades to translate emotions into 1’s and 0’s, the language of machines. One early project, with a collaborator, Rana el Kaliouby, was to design glasses for people with Asperger syndrome, a mild variant of autism, that warned them when they were boring someone. People with Asperger’s often fixate on particular topics and find it hard to read the social cues, like yawning, fidgeting and looking away, that indicate the listener is bored.

More recently, Dr. Picard and Dr. el Kaliouby have been developing software that maps 24 points on the face to intuit an emotion. In the past, computer algorithms have had trouble distinguishing among genuine smiles, smirks and the gritted teeth that come with frustration, Dr. el Kaliouby said, because they are often fleeting and result in only very small changes to the overall configuration of the face.

注（1）：本文選自The New York Times;

注（2）：本文習(xí)題模仿對象：本文習(xí)題的第1題模仿2009年真題Text 2的第1題；第2、4題模仿2010年真題Text 2的第2、3題；第3、5題模仿2011年真題Text 3第2題、Text 1的第5題。

1. In paragraph 1, the text shows that ______.

A) women analyze facial expressions on computer in a Cairo school basement

B) computers will supervise students’ emotions to check their behavior in America

C) a robot siting in a driving simulator looks interested or confused

D) there emerges a new technology called affective computing

2. Which of the following is true?

A) The machines can tell simple personal moods.

B) The GPS doesn’t function, so the driver throws it out of the window.

C) The online class continues though 50% students can’t follow.

D) The airport security system can identify passengers’ personal thoughts.

3. According to the author, one of the distinctive functions of the technology is ______.

A) to help people understand others’ inner feelings

B) the residents in the nursing home feel encouraged and not isolated

C) computers can’t help people without catching the emotions

D) to endow people with rich ways to express their feelings

4. The phrase “Asperger syndrome” （Line 5, Paragraph 4） most probably means ______.

A) complicated feelings

B) various emotions

C) a kind of disease

D) symptom

5. From the text we can see that the writer seems ______.

A) positive

B) negative

C) uncertain

D) neutral

篇章剖析

本文是一篇科技說明文，介紹了利用計(jì)算機(jī)讀取人類情緒的技術(shù)，也就是情感計(jì)算技術(shù)，其目的是為了賦予計(jì)算機(jī)讀取用戶情緒的能力。第一段首先介紹了人們在實(shí)驗(yàn)中想利用電腦讀取人的情緒進(jìn)而了解其內(nèi)心世界，也即是所謂的情感計(jì)算技術(shù)；第二段點(diǎn)出這一技術(shù)之難，到目前為止仍然無法實(shí)施；第三、四段說明這一技術(shù)用途之廣；最后一段講述了這一技術(shù)的最新突破，即開發(fā)能判斷人的情緒的軟件。

詞匯注釋

eerily /???r?li/ adv. 怪誕地，可怕地

furrow /?f?r??/ v. 使起皺紋

chirp /t???p/ v. 喳喳叫

autism /???t?z?m/ n. 孤僻癥，自我中心主義

spectrum /?spektr?m/ n. 系列；范圍；幅度

devoid /d??v??d/ adj. 缺乏的；全無的

Asperger syndrome 亞斯伯格綜合征

fixate /?f?kse?t/ v. 注視

fidget /?f?d??t/ v. 煩躁，坐立不安

intuit /?n?tju??t/ v. 憑直覺感知

algorithm /??lg?r?e?m/ n. 運(yùn)算法則

smirk /sm??k / n. 傻笑，假笑

grit /gr?t/ v. 摩擦作聲，研磨

configuration /k?n?f?ɡj??re??n/ n. 結(jié)構(gòu)；外形；配置

難句突破

One early project, with a collaborator, Rana el Kaliouby, was to design glasses for people with Asperger syndrome, a mild variant of autism, that warned them when they were boring someone.

主體句式：One early project was to design glasses for people...

結(jié)構(gòu)分析：這個(gè)長句看上去結(jié)構(gòu)復(fù)雜，其實(shí)主句非常短。with a collaborator, Pana el Kaliouby作后置定語修飾project，進(jìn)一步說明是和誰一起做的研究。a mild variant autism是Asperger syndrome的同位語，解釋說明這種病癥。緊接著是一個(gè)定語從句，先行詞是glasses，用來進(jìn)一步解釋說明這種眼鏡的用途。

句子譯文：在早期的一項(xiàng)研究中，她與合伙人拉娜·埃爾·卡利歐比共同為亞斯伯格綜合征患者設(shè)計(jì)了一款眼鏡，這種綜合征是孤獨(dú)癥的一種較輕的癥狀，戴這種眼鏡就可以提醒綜合征患者他們何時(shí)已經(jīng)使別人感到厭煩了。

題目分析

1. D 推斷題。作者在第一段中以3個(gè)例子作為文章的開始，指出“情感計(jì)算”這一新科技。A、B、C分別是作者列舉的3個(gè)實(shí)例，用于引出“情感計(jì)算”這一科技的出現(xiàn)。

2. C 細(xì)節(jié)題。原文的對應(yīng)信息是The online class keeps going even when half the students are lost in confusion. 其他選項(xiàng)的信息內(nèi)容皆與原文意思不符。

3. B 細(xì)節(jié)題。原文的對應(yīng)信息是provide companionship and encouragement for nursing home residents，意為：給予養(yǎng)老院的人鼓勵并陪伴他們，使他們不覺得被孤立。A、C和D選項(xiàng)并不是在說這一科技的顯著功能，與題意不符。

4. C 語義題。我們從文中該詞組的同位語a mild variant of autism可知這是一種疾病，是自閉癥的一種變體。

5. D 情感態(tài)度題。本文是一篇科技說明文，旨在陳述科技事實(shí)，因此作者持中立態(tài)度。

參考譯文

在開羅一所學(xué)校的地下室里，20多名女性通過筆記本電腦來分析面部表情，訓(xùn)練計(jì)算機(jī)識別人類的憤怒、悲傷和沮喪。在劍橋大學(xué)，有一個(gè)怪誕、逼真、名叫查爾斯的機(jī)器人坐在駕駛模擬器上，緊鎖雙眉，看起來時(shí)而興致沖沖，時(shí)而疑慮重重。今年秋天，在美國少數(shù)幾個(gè)中學(xué)教室里，將會安裝一些計(jì)算機(jī)，以追蹤監(jiān)控學(xué)生們的情緒，看他們什么時(shí)候?qū)κ谡n內(nèi)容感興趣，什么時(shí)候不感興趣。以上三個(gè)例子都是一種新興的科學(xué)技術(shù)——情感計(jì)算技術(shù)的例子，其目的是為了賦予計(jì)算機(jī)讀取或者“影響”用戶情緒的能力。

但到目前為止，我們的機(jī)器甚至還無法識別像憤怒或者沮喪這些看上去簡單的情緒。即使是司機(jī)把GPS扔到窗外的心都有了，它還仍然愉快地進(jìn)行著導(dǎo)航。即使有一半學(xué)生已經(jīng)困惑不已，在線課堂卻仍在繼續(xù)。機(jī)場安全系統(tǒng)也還無法分辨出一些人究竟是在隱藏什么非法勾當(dāng)還是只是著急趕飛機(jī)。

掌握了這些技能的科技也能夠幫助那些不善于識別他人的情緒的人，比如自閉癥患者，或者給予養(yǎng)老院里的人以陪伴和鼓勵。一些研究人員認(rèn)為，不理解情緒，電腦將永遠(yuǎn)不會充分發(fā)揮它們幫助人類的潛力。

麻省理工學(xué)院媒體實(shí)驗(yàn)室情感計(jì)算研究組主任羅莎琳德·皮卡德說：“我們這個(gè)數(shù)字化世界最缺乏的就是表達(dá)我們情緒的豐富多樣的方式?！痹谟?0年的研究中，皮卡德一直在探索如何將情緒翻譯為由1和0組成的計(jì)算機(jī)語言。在早期的一項(xiàng)研究中，她與合伙人拉娜·埃爾·卡利歐比共同為亞斯伯格綜合征患者設(shè)計(jì)了一款眼鏡，這種綜合征是孤獨(dú)癥的一種較輕的癥狀，戴這種眼鏡就可以提醒綜合征患者他們何時(shí)已經(jīng)使別人感到厭煩了?；歼@種病癥的人在談?wù)撃硞€(gè)話題時(shí)會滔滔不絕，而且很難明白社交暗示，比如傾聽者已經(jīng)開始打呵欠，坐立不安并且轉(zhuǎn)移視線，這些意味著傾聽者已經(jīng)厭倦了。

最近，皮卡德博士和埃爾·卡利歐比博士一直在開發(fā)通過定位臉上24個(gè)點(diǎn)來判斷一個(gè)人的情緒的軟件。過去，計(jì)算機(jī)程序一直很難區(qū)別人們相似的面部動作，比如真實(shí)的微笑、假笑，以及因?yàn)榇煺鄱憩F(xiàn)出的咬牙切齒。埃爾·卡利歐比博士說，因?yàn)樗鼈兺寝D(zhuǎn)瞬即逝的，而且給整個(gè)面部結(jié)構(gòu)僅帶來非常微小的變化。