单选题Information technology that helps doctors and patients make decisions has been around for a long time. Crude online tools like WebMD get millions of visitors a day. But Watson is a different beast. According to IBM, it can digest information and make recommendations much more quickly, and more intelligently, than perhaps any machine before it—processing up to 60 million pages of text per second, even when that text is in the form of plain old prose, or what scientists call "natural language." That"s no small thing, because something like 80 percent of all information is "unstructured." In medicine, it consists of physician notes dictated into medical records, long-winded sentences published in academic journals, and raw numbers stored online by public-health departments. At least in theory, Watson can make sense of it all. It can sit in on patient examinations, silently listening. And over time, it can learn and get better at figuring out medical problems and ways of treating them the more it interacts with real cases. Watson even has the ability to convey doubt. When it makes diagnoses and recommends treatments, it usually issues a series of possibilities, each with its own level of confidence attached. Medicine has never before had a tool quite like this. And at an unofficial coming-out party in Las Vegas last year, during the annual meeting of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, more than 1,000 professionals packed a large hotel conference hall, and an overflow room nearby, to hear a presentation by Marty Kohn, an emergency-room physician and a clinical leader of the IBM team training Watson for health care. Standing before a video screen that dwarfed his large frame, Kohn described in his husky voice how Watson could be a game changer—not just in highly specialized fields like oncology but also in primary care, given that all doctors can make mistakes that lead to costly, sometimes dangerous, treatment errors. Drawing on his own clinical experience and on academic studies, Kohn explained that about one-third of these errors appear to be products of misdiagnosis, one cause of which is "anchoring bias": human beings" tendency to rely too heavily on a single piece of information. This happens all the time in doctors" offices, clinics, and emergency rooms. A physician hears about two or three symptoms, seizes on a diagnosis consistent with those, and subconsciously discounts evidence that points to something else. Or a physician hits upon the right diagnosis, but fails to realize that it"s incomplete, and ends up treating just one condition when the patient is, in fact, suffering from several. Tools like Watson are less prone to those failings. As such, Kohn believes, they may eventually become as ubiquitous in doctors" offices as the stethoscope. "Watson fills in for some human limitations," Kohn told me in an interview. "Studies show that humans are good at taking a relatively limited list of possibilities and using that list, but are far less adept at using huge volumes of information. That"s where Watson shines; taking a huge list of information and winnowing it down."

单选题It can be inferred from the article that the majorty of tropical forests______.

单选题Hardly ______ when a loud explosion was heard.

单选题In the days immediately following hurricane Andrew's deadly visit to South Florida, Allstate Insurance hastily dispatched more than 2,000 extra claim adjusters to the devastated area to assist the 200 stationed there. Many of the reserves arrived in convoys of motor homes. Others flew in from as far away as Alaska and California. Since the storm had knocked out telephone lines, Allstate rushed to set up its own communications system. Allstate expects to pay out 1.2 billion to cover more than 121,000 damage claims as a result of Andrew. All told, U.S. property and casualty insurers have been hit with more than $8 billion in Andrew-related claims, making the hurricane the most costly single calamity to strike the industry since the San Francisco earthquake and fire in 1906(cost 6 billion, after inflation). With claims continuing to pour in, Andrew threatens to take a painful toll on the already battered property — casualty insurance industry and its 100 million policy-holders. The final bill, analysts predict, is likely to top 10 billion. While most well-capitalized insurers are expected to weather the storm, less anchored firms are in danger of being blown away, leaving U.S. consumers stuck with the tab. Says Sean Mooney, senior researcher at the Insurance Information Institute: "It will take years before the industry digs itself out from the wreckage left by Andrew. Some(companies)will be buried by it." Hurricane Andrew is the latest in a string of mishaps to plague the American insurance industry this year. In April an overflowing Chicago River flooded the city's downtown district, costing insurers $300 million in claims. A month later, Los Angeles was rocked by the worst civilian riot in the U.S. since the Civil War. The insurance toll: $1 billion. Then came a series of major hailstorms in Texas, Florida and Kansas. They cost insurers a combined $700 million. And two weeks after Andrew, another lethal hurricane, Iniki, smashed into Hawaii, causing $1.4 billion in damages. In all, property and casualty insurers have paid out a record 13 billion in claims so far this year, far surpassing the previous high of $7.6 billion in 1989, the year of Hurricane Hugo and California's Bay Area earthquake. Just as in that year, when those catastrophes were followed by substantial increases in insurance premiums, insurers are already lobbying for rate relief.

单选题Without a sensible sex education all kinds of strange and fantastic ideas will ______ .

单选题Linguists have understood for decades that language and thought are closely related. Humans construct reality using thought and express these thoughts through the use of language. Edward Sapir and his student Benjamin Whorl are credited with developing the most relevant explanation outlining the relationship between thought and language, the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. The hypothesis consists of two parts, linguistic relativity and linguistic determinism. Supporters of linguistic relativity assume that culture is shaped by language. Terwilliger defines linguistic determinism as the process by which "the functions of one's mind are determined by the nature of the language which one speaks." In simpler terms, the thoughts that we construct are based upon the language that we speak and the words that we use. In its strongest sense, linguistic determinism can be interpreted as meaning that language determines thought. In its weakest sense, language partially influences thought. Whorl was careful to avoid authoritative statements which would permanently commit him to particular position. Because of the broad nature of his statements, it is difficult to distinguish exactly to what extent Whorf believes that language determines thought. Heated debate among modern linguists demonstrates that disagreement exists about the accuracy and correctness of Whorf's studies and of the actual level of influence of language on thought processes. The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis essentially consists of two distinct statements connecting the relation of thought and language. Whorf believes that humans may be able to think only about objects, processes, and conditions that have language associated with them. The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis also explains the relationship between different languages (French, English, German, Chinese, and so on) and thought. Whorl demonstrated that culture is largely determined by language. Different cultures perceive the world in different ways. Culturally essential objects, conditions and processes usually are defined by a plethora of words, while things that cultures perceive as unimportant are usually assigned one or two words. Whorf developed this theory while studying the Hopi Indian tribe. Whorl was amazed that the Hopi language has no words for past, present, and future. The Hopi have only one word for flying objects. A dragonfly, an airplane, and a pilot are defined using the same word. Whorl questioned whether or not the Hopi view the world differently than western peoples. After further interpretation and analysis he concluded that the Hopi have a sense for the continuum of time despite having no words to specifically describe past, present, and future. It is commonly believed that the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis possesses some truth, but the extent to which it is applicable to all situations is questioned. Linguists generally sup port a "strong" or a "weak" interpretation. Linguists who study the hypothesis tend to cite examples that support their beliefs but are unable or unwilling to refute the opposing arguments. Examples exist that strengthen the arguments of everyone who studies the hypothesis. Nobody has gained significant ground in proving or refuting the hypothesis because the definitions of Sapir and Whorl are very vague and incomplete, leaving room for a significant amount of interpretation.

单选题In ______, the experiment was more difficult than we had imagined.

单选题Communication orally involves more than reading or talking: gesture, posture, movements may all be ______to it.(2002年10月中国科学院考博试题)

单选题And researchers say that like those literary romantics Romeo and Juliet, they may be blind to the consequences of their quests for an idealized mate who serves their every physical and emotional need. Nearly 19 in 20 never-married respondents to a national survey agree that "when you marry you want your spouse to be your soul mate, first and foremost", according to the State of Our Unions: 2001 study released Wednesday by Rutgers University. David Popenoe, a Rutgers sociologist and one of the study"s authors, said that view might spell doom for marriages. "It really provides a very unrealistic view of what marriage really is," Popenoe said. "The standard becomes so high, it"s not easy to bail out if you didn"t find a soul mate." The survey points to a fundamental dilemma in which younger people want more from the institution of marriage while they seemingly are unwilling to make the necessary commitments. The survey also suggests that some respondents expect too much from a spouse, including the kind of emotional support rendered by same-sex friends. The authors of the study also suggest that the generation that was polled may more quickly leave a margin because of infidelity than past generations. Popenoe said the poll, conducted by the Gallup organization, is the first of its kind to concentrate on people in their 20s. A total of 1,003 married and single young adults nationwide were interviewed by telephone between January and March. The margin of error was plus or minus four percentage points. Respondents said they eventually want to get married, realize it"s a lot of work and think there are too many divorces. They believe there is one right person for them out there somewhere and think their own marriages won"t end in divorce. Since the poll is the first of its kind, researchers say it is impossible to say if expectations about marriage are changing or static. But scholars say the search for soul mates has increased over the last generation--and the last century--as marriage has become an institution centering on romance rather than utility. "one hundred years ago, people married for financial reasons, for tying families together, they married for political reasons," said John DeLamater, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin. "And most people had children." Those conditions are no longer the case for young adults like David Asher, a 24-year-old waiter in a Trenton cafe who has been in a relationship for about two years. He wants to wait to make sure he"s ready to exchange vows. "I know a lot of it has to do with financial reasons," he said. "Maybe if you"re going to have children, marriage is the best bet." But the main reason for matrimony: "If you"re in love with someone, it"s sort of like promising to them you are in love." "That"s all well and good," said Heather Helms-Erikson, an assistant professor of human development and family studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. "But passion--partly in endorphin- caused physiological phenomenon--has been known to diminish in time."

单选题His employer ______ him as lacking in initiative and drive.

单选题Like most foreigners, I ask a lot of questions, some of which are insultingly silly. But everyone I______has answered those questions with patience and honesty.

单选题The level of information in the passage above is suited to the needs of all of the following people except ______.

单选题One of Nike's founders, Phillip Hampson Knight had been a top athlete when he was at the University of Oregon and he moved on to become a student at Stanford Business School, but retained his interest in sport.

单选题For it is "everybody" , a whole society, A(which), has identified B(being) feminine with C(caring about) how one looks. D(Given) these-stereotypes, it is no wonder that beauty enjoys, at best, a rather mixed reputation.

单选题I had to ______ my desire to laugh while being scolded by my supervisor. A. repress B. depress C. compress D. distress

单选题{{B}}Passage Four{{/B}} Mycorrhizal fungi infect more plants than do any other fungi and are necessary for many plants to thrive, but they have escaped widespread investigation until recently for two reasons. First, the symbiotic association is so well-balanced that the roots of host plants show no damage even when densely infected. Second, the fungi cannot as yet be cultivated in the absence of a living root. Despite these difficulties, there has been important new Work that suggests that this symbiotic association can be harnessed to achieve more economical use of costly superphosphate fertilizer and to permit better exploitation of cheaper, less-soluble rock phosphate. Mycorrhizal benefits are not limited to improved phosphate uptake in host plants. In legumes, mycorrhizal inoculation has increased nitrogen fixation beyond levels achieved by adding phosphate fertilizer alone. Certain symbiotic associations also increase the host plant's resistance to harmful root fungi. Whether this resistance results from exclusion of harmful fungi through competition for sites, from metabolic change involving antibiotic production, or from increased vigor is undetermined.

单选题The greatest celestial observatory of Neolithic times, stonehenge, is (a work) of (such) (Magnitude as it) absorbed the energies of (prehistoric Britons) for three hundred years.A. a workB. suchC. Magnitude as itD. prehistoric Britons

单选题Think of all the criminals who have killed, all the soldiers who have killed; consider the mass murder of Jews in Nazi Germany. Is there something inside human beings that allows us to take part in this sort of violence, or were these people swept along by the situation? Stanley Milgram, a New York psychologist, designed an experiment to find answers to this question, paying adult males four and a half dollars to act the role of "teacher" in a complicated experiment. The "teachers" were to ask questions of a "learner", a middle-aged man in another room. If the learner gave an incorrect answer, the teacher was instructed to turn a knob to send an electric current to the learner's chair. There were thirty positions on the control knob, with the shocks ranging from 15 to 450 volts, the last position marked "Danger: Severe Shock". The teachers were told to increase the severity of the shock with each incorrect response. With the first few shocks, the learner could be heard over the intercom, grunting and moaning. When the dial reached 150, he demanded that the experiment be ended; shortly afterwards, at 180 volts, he began to complain of the pain. At 300 volts, he complained about his heart condition, screamed, and no longer responded to the questions; but the teachers who complanined about their roles in the experiment were told the experiment had to continue. According to the rules, the learner's failure to respond was an "error", so he must be shocked. A group of psychiatrists was asked for predictions. Certainly, they said, most people would not punish the victim beyond 150 volts. Furthermore, they predicted fewer than four percent would persist up to 300 volts; only abnormal individuals--less than one tenth of a percent--would proceed to 450 volts. And, in fact, nearly every "teacher" did protest--each became concerned that he might injure the learner, and many said they could not continue to follow instructions. At 180 volts, one "teacher" said, "He's hollering. He can't stand it; what if anything happens to him? I mean who is going to take responsibility if anything happens to that gentleman?" When the experimenter said he would accept responsibility, the teacher meekly responded, "All right." Some teachers, alarmed by the silence in the next room, called out to the learner to answer so they wouldn't have to continue shocking him. In fact, most of the teachers protested, but the important thing is that they did not disobey their instruction. Sixty-two percent of all the subjects delivered shocks all the way up to 450 volts--the average highest shock was 370 volts. Of course, the learner was not being shocked. Even his screams were tape-recorded. But this experiment and similar variations of it have been repeated several times, and the results are invariably the same: in the presence of authority, in a situation governed by rules. Personality tests given to the subjects who delivered the shocks of 450 volts show that they are not abnormal or sick in any way. They're exactly like the rest of us.