单选题 In 1981 Kenji Urada, a 37-year-old Japanese factory worker, climbed over a safety fence at a Kawasaki plant to carry out some maintenance work on a robot. In his haste, he failed to switch the robot off properly. Unable to sense him, the robot's powerful hydraulic arm kept on working and accidentally pushed the engineer into a grinding machine. His death made Urada the first recorded victim to die at the hands of a robot.
This astounding industrial accident would not have happened in a world in which robot behavior was governed by the Three Laws of Robotics drawn up by Isaac Asimov, a science fiction writer. The laws appeared in I, Robot, a book of short stories published in 1950 that inspired a Hollywood film. But decades later the laws, designed to prevent robots from harming people either through action or inaction, remain in the realm of fiction.
With robots now poised to emerge from their industrial cages and to move into homes and workplaces, roboticists are concerned about the safety implications beyond the factory floor. To address these concerns, leading robot experts have come together to try to find ways to prevent robots from harming people. "Security, safety and sex are the big concerns," says Henrik Christensen, chairman of the European Robotics Network at the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and one of the organisers of the new roboethics group. Should robots that are strong enough or heavy enough to crush people be allowed into homes? Should robotic sex dolls resembling children be legally allowed?
These questions may seem esoteric but in the next few years they will become increasingly relevant, says Dr. Christensen. According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe's World Robotics Survey, in 2002 the number of domestic and service robots more than tripled, nearly outstripping their industrial counterparts. Japanese industrial firms are racing to build humanoid robots to act as domestic helpers for the elderly, and South Korea has set a goal that 100K of households should have domestic robots by 2020. In light of all this, it is crucial that we start to think about safety and ethical guidelines now, says Dr. Christensen.
So what exactly is being done to protect us from these mechanical menaces? "Not enough," says Blay Whitby, an artificial-intelligence expert at the University of Sussex in England. This is hardly surprising given that the field of "safety-critical computing" is barely a decade old, he says. But things are changing, and researchers are increasingly taking an interest in trying to make robots safer. One approach, which sounds simple enough, is to try to program them to avoid contact with people altogether. But this is much harder than it sounds. Getting a robot to navigate across a cluttered room is difficult enough without having to take into account what its various limbs or appendages might bump into along the way.
Regulating the behavior of robots is going to become more difficult in the future, since they will increasingly have self-learning mechanisms built into them, says Gianmarco Veruggio, a roboticist at the Institute of Intelligent Systems for Automation in Genoa, Italy. As a result, their behavior will become impossible to predict fully, he says, since they will not be behaving in predefined ways but will learn new behavior as they go.

单选题 The word "astounding" in the second paragraph is closest in meaning to
[A] gullible. [B] awesome. [C] gruesome. [D] stupendous.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】语义题。由题干定位至第二段。首段描述1981年一个日本工程师为了维修工厂的机器人，被机器人推入粉碎机，不幸身亡的事故。末句指出His death made Urada the first recorded victim to die at the hands of a robot，既然是第一例事件，按常理会引起人们震惊．故[C]为答案。[A]“轻信的”及 [D]“极好的”不符合语境，排除。[B]意为“敬畏的”，含有“尊敬”之意，排除。
单选题 It can be inferred from the second paragraph that
[A] Isaac Asimov will make new laws to replace the old ones.
[B] the Three Laws of Robotics have been invalidated.
[C] the book I, Robot was published in Hollywood,
[D] Isaac Asimov has shifted his attention to films.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】推断题。由题干定位至第二段。末句指出：但是几十年之后，这些旨在防止机器人伤人的法律仍只存在于小说中。[B]符合文意，故为答案。第二句提到好莱坞最近根据这本书新拍了一部电影，但并没有说此书是在好莱坞出版的，[C]与文意不符，排除。
单选题 According to the passage, domestic robots will
[A] be welcomed by housewives. [B] surely go into every household.
[C] help people a lot with their housework. [D] help people with manual and mental work.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】细节题。由题干中的domestic robots定位至第四段。第三句指出Japanese industrial firms are racing to build humanoid robots to act as domestic helper...，既然日本企业在争先恐后地生产家用机器人，自然会为人们的家务劳动提供很大帮助，[C]符合文意，故为答案。该句后面提到South Korea has set a goal that 100% of households should have domestic robots by 2020，这只是一个目标而已， [B]为绝对项。排除。[A]和[D]未提及，排除。
单选题 Blay Whitby thinks that "safety-critical computing"
[A] is in its infancy. [B] has its heyday.
[C] undergoes rapid development. [D] can hardly be improved.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】细节题。由题干中的Blay Whitby定位至第五段。第三句提到the field of "safety-critical computing" is barely a decade old，这说明其发展时间很短，还不到10年。此外，从第二句中的回答“Not enough”和第三句中的This is hardly surprising，说明在如此短的时间内，safety-critical computing发展得还不够好，丝毫不足为奇，由此可以推断该技术仍处于初期阶段，[A]符合文意，故为答案。[B]意为“处于鼎盛时期”，与文意不符，排除。
单选题 Which of the following statements is NOT true of robots?
[A] It's difficult to prevent robots from contacting people.
[B] The behavior of robots will be more unforeseeable.
[C] Robots in the future will be more intelligent than those today.
[D] Programming robots through a cramped room is the most difficult task.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】细节题。末段第二句指出As a result, their behavior will become impossible to predict fully...，[B]符合文意。第五段第五、六句提到One approach... is to try to program them to avoid contact with people... But this is much harder...，[A]符合文意。第五段末句指出：操纵机器人穿过凌乱的房间就是很困难的事了，更不用说考虑它的肢体在路上碰到什么了。可见后者比前者更为困难，[D]与文意不符，故为答案。