问答题
{{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}} {{/U}}{{U}}Since
the dawn of human ingenuity, people have devised ever more cunning tools to cope
with work that is dangerous, boring, burdensome, or just plain nasty. {{/U}}That
compulsion has resulted in robotics—the science of conferring various human
capabilities on machines. And if scientists have yet to create the mechanical
version of science fiction, they have begun to come close.
{{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}{{U}}As a result, the modern world is
increasingly populated by intelligent gizmos whose presence we barely notice but
whose universal existence has removed much human labor.{{/U}} Our factories hum to
the rhythm of robot assembly arms. Our banking is done at automated teller
terminals that thank us with mechanical politeness for the transaction. Our
subway trains are controlled by tireless robot-drivers. {{U}} {{U}}
3 {{/U}} {{/U}}{{U}}And thanks to the continual miniaturization of
electronics and micro-mechanics, there are already robot systems that can
perform some kinds of brain and bone surgery with submillimeter accuracy—far
greater precision than highly skilled physicians can achieve with their hands
alone.{{/U}} But if robots are to reach the next stage of
laborsaving utility, they will have to operate with less human supervision and
be able to make at least a few decisions for themselves—goals that pose a real
challenge. "While we know how to tell a robot to handle a specific error," says
Dave Lavery, manager of a robotics program at NASA, we can't yet give a robot
enough common sense to reliably interact with a dynamic world.
Indeed the quest for true artificial intelligence has produced very mixed
results. {{U}} {{U}} 4 {{/U}} {{/U}}{{U}}De spite a spell of
initial optimism in the 1960s and 1970s when it appeared that transistor
circuits and microprocessors might be able to copy the action of the human brain
by the year 2010, re searchers lately have begun to extend that forecast by
decades if not centuries.{{/U}} What they found, in attempting
to-model thought, is that the human brain's roughly one hundred billion nerve
cells are much more talented—and human perception far more complicated than
previously imagined. They have built robots that can recognize the error of a
machine panel by a fraction of millimeter in a controlled factory environment.
{{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}}{{U}}But the human mind can glimpse a
rapidly changing scene and immediately disregard the 98 percent that is
irrelevant, instantaneously focusing on the monkey at the side of a winding
forest road or the single suspicious face in a big crowd. {{/U}}The most advanced
computer systems on Earth can't approach that kind of ability, and
neuroscientists still don't quite know how we do it.
【答案解析】[解析] 这是一个复合句，句子的主干为：…people have devised ever…tools to cope with work…。前面是since引导的一个时间状语，定语从句that is dangerous，boring，burdensome，or just plain nasty修饰work。dawn(黎明，拂晓)在此处用的是引申义，意为“早期”。本句基本可以用顺译法翻译。定语从句翻译成前置定语。
【答案解析】[解析] 这是一个复合句，句子的主干是：…the modern world is…gizmos…。在gizmos后面有whose引导的两个定语从句。populate原意是“居住，移民”，此处引申为“出现”。主句是一个被动结构，而且使用了比喻——“世界被越来越多的智能小发明居住”，当然要进行意译“出现了越来越多的精巧小玩意”。另外 whose引导的两个定语从句要翻译成两个独立的句子。
【答案解析】[解析] 这是一个复合句，句子的主干为：...researchers have begun to extend that fore cast..., 前面是由Despite引导的介词短语Despite a spell of initial optimism…作为全句的状语，后面跟着一个由when引导的定语从句用来修饰1960s and 1970s。a spell一段时间。注意to extend that forecast by decades if not centuries的字面意思是“把那个预言如果不推迟几个世纪也要推迟几个年代”，可以把 forecast引申为“那个预言的时限”。
【答案解析】[解析] 本句是一个复合句，句子的主干为…the human mind can glimpse…a scene and…disregard…。其中that is irrelevant是一个定语从句修饰the 98 percent。现在分词 focusing on the monkey…or the single suspicious face…作状语表示伴随情况。本句基本可以按顺译法翻译，the 98 percent指人在一瞥之间看到的绝大部分事物，在此可以引申为“获得的信息”。作伴随情况的现在分词短语，要翻译成一个独立的句子，置于主句后面。