单选题{{B}}Text 3{{/B}} If you are a tourist interested in seeing a baseball game while in New York, you can find out which of its teams are in town simply by sending a message to AskForCents.com. In a few minutes, the answer comes back, apparently supplied by a machine, but actually composed by a human. Using humans to process information in a machine-like way is not new: it was pioneered by the Mechanical Turk, a famed 18th-century chess-playing machine that was operated by a hidden chessmaster. But while computers have since surpassed the human brain at chess, many tasks still baffle even the most powerful electronic brain. For instance, computers can find you a baseball schedule, but they cannot tell you directly if the Yankees are in town. Nor can they tell you whether sitting in the bleachers is a good idea on a first date. AskForCents can, because its answers come from people. "Whatever question you can come up with, there's a person that can provide the answer—you don't have the inflexibility of an algorithm-driven system," says Jesse Heitler, who developed AskForCents. Mr. Heitler was able to do this thanks to a new software tool developed by Amazon, the online retailer, that allows computing tasks to be farmed out to people over the internet. Aptly enough, Amazon's system is called Mechanical Turk. Amazon's Turk is part toolkit for software developers, and part online bazaar: anyone with intemet access can register as a Turk user and start performing the Human Intelligence Tasks (HITs) listed on the Turk website (mturk.com). Companies can become "requesters by setting up a separate account, tied to a bank account that will pay out fees, and then posting their HITs. Most HITs pay between one cent and $5. So far, people from more than 100 countries have performed HITs, though only those with American bank accounts can receive money for their work; others are paid in Amazon gift certificates. Mr. Heitler says he had previously tried to build a similar tool, but concluded that the in-frastucture would be difficult to operate profitably. Amazon already has an extensive software infrastructure designed for linking buyers with sellers, however, and the Turk simply extends that existing model. Last November Amazon unveiled a prototype of the system, which it calls "artificial artificial intelligence". The premise is that humans are vastly superior to computers at tasks such as pattern recognition, says Peter Cohen, director of the project at Amazon, so why not let software take advantage of human strengths? Mr. Cohen credits Amazon's boss, Jeff Bezos, with the concept for the Turk. Other people have had similar ideas. Eric Bonabeau of Icosystem, an American firm that builds software tools modeled on natural systems, has built what he calls the "Hunch Engine" to combine human intelligence with computer analysis. The French postal service, for example, has used it to help its workers choose the best delivery routes, and pharmaceutical researchers are using it to determine molecular structures by combining their gut instincts with known results stored in a database. And a firm called Seriosity hopes to tap the collective brainpower of the legions of obsessive players of multiplayer online games such as "World of War-craft ", by getting them to perform small real-world tasks (such as sorting photographs) while playing, and paying them in the game's own currency.

单选题Though widely-accepted on the Internet, "Duang" is a character which does not even exist in the Chinese dictionary. However, it ______ like wildfire online in China since it appeared.

单选题A creek B. flood C. bonus D. pledge

单选题 Science writer Tom Standage draws apt parallels between the telegraph and the gem of late 20th-century technology, the Internet. Both systems grew out of the cutting edge science of their time. The telegraph's land lines, underwater cables, and clicking gadgets reflected the 19th century's research in electromagnetism. The Internet's computers and high-speed connections reflect 20th-century computer science, information theory, and materials technology. But, while gizmos make a global network possible, it takes human cooperation to make it happen. Standage's insight in this regard adds depth to his technological history. It underscores the relevance to our own time of the struggles of Samuel Morse in America, William Cooke in England, and other telegraph pioneers. They made the technology work efficiently, sold it to a skeptical public, and overcame national and international bureaucratic obstacles. The solutions they found smooth the Internet's way today. Consider a couple of technical parallels. Telegrams were sent from one station to the next, where they were received and retransmitted until they reached their destination. Stations along the way were owned by different entities, including national governments. Internet data is sent from one server computer to another that receives and retransmits it until it reaches its destination. Again the computers have a variety of owners. Then there is the social impact. The Internet is changing the way we do business and communicate. It makes possible virtual communities for individuals scattered around the planet who share mutual interests. Yet important as this may turn out to be, it is affecting a world that was already well connected by radio, television, and other telecommunications. The Associated Press, Reuters, and other news services would have spread the Start report quickly without the Internet. In this respect, the global telegraph network was truly revolutionary. The unprecedented availability of global news in real time gave birth to the Associated Press and Reuters news services. It gave a global perspective to newspapers that had focused on local affairs. A provincialism that geographical isolation had forced on people for millennia was gone forever. Some prophets naively hailed this as a force for world peace. They predicted that tensions over cultural and ethnic differences would relax as people interacted in real time. Visionaries say the same about the Internet. While communications can smooth this process, they don't automatically make it happen. As the experience of the past century and a half has shown, peace takes the will to make it work and sustained effort by all parties.

单选题The debtor shall be kept liable until the debtor fully ______ his debts to the creditor. A．pays to B．pays for C．pays up D．pays on

单选题Why do you want to find a new job ______ you've got such a good one already?A. thatB. whereC. whichD. when

单选题______ is a device that converts images to digital format. A．Copier B．Printer C．Scanner D．Display

单选题My money ______, Could you please lend me some? A. has run out of B. has run out C. was run out of D. has been run out

单选题It is in this small village ______ the hero was born, who saved his country when he grew up.

单选题lifts passage most probably is ______.

单选题Caller: Hello! I want to make a person-to-person call to Toronto, Canad

单选题The officer said to the soldier, "No matter what criteria are used in making the decision, a decision must be made."

单选题Part of the public policy task, as outlined in the text, is to

单选题It was in the winter of 1951 ______ a heavy fog moved into London. A. that B. then C. when D. /

单选题A controversial decision on whether choice cuts of steak and cartons of milk produced from cloned animals are suitable for the dinner table is now long overdue. Hundreds of pigs, cows and other animals created with the help of cloning are living (1) farms across the United States and (2) the forthcoming ruling will directly (3) American consumers, British holidaymakers may also (4) themselves at the forefront of a food revolution that many commentators expect will (5) arrive here. (6) the birth of Dolly the sheep-the first mammal cloned from an adult cell--there were extreme predictions of herds of genetically (7) bulls and pastures (8) with cloned dairy cows. That double (9) of the past decade has not yet been realized (10) clones have become a familiar sight at agricultural fairs in America, where producers of (11) pigs and cattle have been among the first to (12) cloning, which offers a way to keep (13) traits without inbreeding problems caused by traditional methods. Clones of rare and elite animals, including sheep, goats, and rabbits, (14) a way to improve animal healthy, (15) the nutritional value of meat and milk, and breed animals immune (16) diseases or better suited for developing countries. The safety of cloned (17) has been under examination by various bodies. Three years ago the US National Academy of Science concluded that (18) available data indicated that cloning met animal welfare and food safety considerations, more information was needed. (19) scientific evidence suggests that there is little (20) for alarm, at least on food-safety grounds.

单选题The initial consonants are identical in alliteration. (南开大学2004研)

单选题Women once demanded men with social skills, but they"re now focusing on "his values, if he"s interested in family".