单选题
Even in an era of global networks and cheap travel, international communication still faces one great barrier: we don't all speak the same language. But that gap is (1) as online translation services advance. Recently (2) website Meedan translates Arabic-language news stories into English, and vice versa, and displays the two versions (3) each other. Comments in either language are (4) translated. A new site for bloggers, called Mojofiti, automatically makes posts (5) to readers in 27 languages. And Google now has a tool that will (6) allow anyone with a camera-phone to photograph, say, a German restaurant menu, send the (7) as a multimedia message to Google's servers, and get an English translation sent back to them. All these services ultimately (8) a technique called statistical machine translation, in which software learns to translate by using mathematics to (9) large collections of previously translated documents. It then uses the (10) it has learned this way to (11) the most likely translation in future. (12) translation procedures have improved, some human (13) is still needed to provide a translation that reads well. Meedan's news articles, (14) , are machine translated and then tidied up by editors. Google's Toolkit for professional translators produces a machine translation for them to tidy up, in the process providing (15) to the software to improve its translation (16) With the fight help even a monoglot user (someone that speaks only a single language) could produce resuits as good as those of a (17) , says Philip Koehn of the University of Edinburgh, UK. His service, Caitra, (18) several possible phrases if it is uncertain which one is correct. This lets a monoglot user fix confusing phrases that would (19) be impossible without reading the (20)
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】语义逻辑题,兼考查搭配。上文说,国际间的交流存在着语言障碍。接着由But引出下文“随着在线翻译服务的发展,这一差距正……”。四个选项中,B最能体现转折关系,符合题意,narrow the gap“缩小差距”。A意为“使变形,改造,改善”;C意为“扩大,扩充,变大”;D意为“扩大,扩展,张开”。均不符合题意。