2015职称英语新增文章理工A
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Affectionate Androids 理工A 补短文 Computers are now powerful enough to allow the age of humanoid robots to dawn1. And it won’t be long before we will see realistic cyber companions, complete with skin, dexterity, and intelligence.They will be programmed to tend to your every need. Will we ever want to marry robots? Artificial intelligence researcher David Levy has published a book claiming human-robot relationships will become popular in the next few decades. And if you want to go ahead and tie the knot with your special electronic friend，Levy said that such marriages will be socially acceptable by around 2050. Will humans really be able to form deep emotional attachments to machines? It will, in fact, be relatively easy to form these strong attachments because the human mind loves to anthropomorphize: to give human attributes to other creatures—even objects. For example, researchers in San Diego recently put a small humanoid robot in with a toddler playgroup for several months. The bot knew each child because it was programmed with face and voice recognition，and it giggled when tickled.The children ended up treating it as a fellow toddler. When it lay down because its batteries were flat，the kids even covered it with a blanket. In a few decades, when humanoid robots with plastic skin look and feel very real, will people want to form relationships with them? What if the bots could hold a conversation? And be programmed to bethe perfect companions—soul mates, even? Maybe your generation could resist, but eventually there will be a generation of people who grow up with humanoid robots as a normal part of life. And like those toddlers inthe experiment, they will be very accepting of them.
The next question, then, is whether there is anything wrong with having an emotional relationship with a machine. Even today there are people who form deep attachments to their pets and use them as substitutes for friends or even children. Few consider that unethical.
But a sophisticated robot will probably be even more attractive. For those who always seem to end up marrying the wrong man or woman, a robotic Mr. or Ms. Right could be mighty tempting. As the father of artificial intelligence, Marvin Minsky, put it when asked about the ethics of lonely older people forming close relationships with robots: “If a robot had all the virtues of a person and was smarter and more understanding, why would the elderly bother talking to other grumpy old people?” A robot could be programmed to be as dumb or smart, as independent or subservient, as an owner desired. And that’s the big disadvantage. Having the perfect robot partner will damage the ability to form equally deep human-human relationships. People will always seem imperfect incomparison. When you’re behaving badly, a good friend will tell you. However, few owners will program their robots to point out their flaws.
People in relationships have to learn to adapt toeach other: to enjoy their common interests and to deal with their differences.It makes us richer, stronger, and wiser. A robot companion will be perfect at the start. However, there will be nothing to move the relationship to grow to greater heights.
An Essential Scientific Process阅读 理工C All life on the earth depends upon green plants. Using sunlight, the plants produce their own food. Then animals feed upon the plants. They take in the nutrients the plants have made and stored. But that’s not all. Sunlight also helps a plant produce oxygen. Some of the oxygen is used by the plant, but a plant usually produces more oxygen than it uses. The excess oxygen is necessary for animals and other organisms to live.
The process of changing light into food and oxygen is called photosynthesis. Besides light energy from the sun, plants also use water and carbon dioxide. The water gets to the plant through its roots. The carbon dioxide enters the leaves through tiny openings called stomata. The carbon dioxide travels to chloroplasts, special cells in the bodies of green plants. This is where photosynthesis takes place. Chloroplasts contain the chlorophylls that give plants their green color. The chlorophylls are the molecules that trap light energy. The trapped light energy changes water and carbon dioxide to produce oxygen and a simple sugar called glucose.
Carbon dioxide and oxygen move into and out of the stomata. Water vapor also moves out of the stomata. More than 90 percent of water a plant takes in through its roots escapes through the stomata. During the daytime, the stomata of most plants are open. This allows carbon dioxide to enter the leaves for photosynthesis. As night falls, carbon dioxide is not needed. The stomata of most plants close. Water loss stops.
