Hollywood’s theory that machines with evil minds will drive armies of killer robots is just silly. The real problem relates to the possibility that artificial intelligence(AI) may become extremely good at achieving something other than what we really want. In 1960 a well-known mathematician NorbertWiener, who founded the field of cybernetics, put it this way: “If we use, to achieve our purposes, a mechanical agency with whose operation we can not effectively interfere, we had better be quite sure that the purpose which we really desire.”

好莱坞的理论认为有着邪恶头脑的机器会成为杀手机器人大军，这太愚蠢了。这一可能性的真正问题在于，AI（人工智能）可能会变得非常擅长于实现某些东西，不仅是我们真正想要的。1960年，著名数学家诺伯特维纳创立了控制论领域, 提到：“如果我们为了达到我们的目的而使用一种我们无法有效干预其运作的机械装置，我们最好确定我们真正想要的目的。”

A machine with a specific purpose has another quality, one that we usually associate with living things: a wish to preserve its own existence. For the machine, this quality is not in-born, nor is it something introduced by humans; it is a logical consequence of the simple fact that the machine can not achieve its original purpose if it is dead. So if we send out a robot with the single instruction of fetching coffee, it will have a strong desire to secure success by disabling its own off switch or even killing anyone who might interfere with its task. If we are not careful, then, we could face a kind of global chess match against very determined, super intelligent machines whose objectives conflict with our own, with the real world as the chess board.

有特定目的的机器还有另一种特性，我们通常把它与生物联系在一起：希望保留自己的存在。对于机器来说，这种特性不是天生的，也不是由人类引入的；如果机器死了，就无法达到其原始目的，这就是这一简单事实的逻辑化结果。因此，如果我们给机器人发送一条取咖啡的简单指令，它就会有强烈的愿望，禁止关闭自己的开关，甚至杀死任何可能干扰其任务的人，来确保成功。如果我们不小心，那么，我们可能会面临一场全球象棋比赛，棋盘就是现实世界，对手是异常坚定，其目标与我们的目标冲突的超级智能机器。

The possibility of entering into and losing such a match should concentrating the minds of computer scientists. Some researchers argue that we can seal the machines inside a kind of firewall, using them to answer difficult questions but never allowing them to affect the real world. Unfortunately, that plan seems unlikely to work: we have yet to invent a firewall that is secure against ordinary humans, let alone super intelligent machines.

参加并输掉这样一场比赛的可能性应该会引起计算机科学家的注意。一些研究人员认为，我们可以将这些机器密封在一种防火墙内，用它们解决困难的问题，但决不允许它们影响现实世界。不幸的是，这一计划似乎不太可能实现：我们还没有发明一种防火墙来保护普通人，更不用说超级智能机器了。

Solving the safety problem well enough to move forward in AI seems to be possible but not easy. There are probably decades in which to plan for the arrival of super intelligent machines. But the problem should not be dismissed out of hand, as it has been by some AI researchers. Some argue that humans and machines can coexist as long as they work in teams—yet that is not possible unless machines share the goals of humans. Others say we can just “switch them off” as if super intelligent machines are too stupid to think of that possibility. Still others think that super intelligent AI will never happen. On September11, 1933, famous physicist Ernest Rutherford stated, with confidence, “Anyone who expects a source of power in the transformation of these atoms is talking moonshine.” However, on September 12, 1933, physicist Leo Szilard invented the neutron-induced nuclear chain reaction.

很好地解决安全问题以推动AI的发展似乎是可能的，但并不容易。几十年内为超级智能机器的到来做好计划是可能的，但这个问题不应该像一些AI研究人员所做的那样，随意被忽视。有些人认为，人和机器可以共存，只要他们在团队中工作，但这是不可能的，除非机器与人类的目标相同。也有人说我们可以“关掉它们”，好像超级智能机器很蠢，不会想到这种可能性。还有人认为超级智能AI永远不会发生。1933年9月11日，著名物理学家欧内斯特·卢瑟福满怀信心地说，“任何期望这些原子转化过程成为能量来源的人都在胡说八道。”然而，1933年9月12日，物理学家利奥·西拉德发明了中子诱导链式核反应。

2017高考英语阅读理解试题（含答案）

　在阅读理解题上得分的多少很大程度上决定着高考英语的总成绩。而且,阅读量有逐渐扩大且阅读速度进一步提高的趋势。为了帮助大家训练英语阅读能力，我整理了一些高考英语阅读理解题，欢迎阅读!

　第二部分：阅读理解(共两节，满分35分)

　第一节(共10小题;每小题2.5分，满分25分)

　阅读下面短文，从每题所给的`四个选项A、B、C和D中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

　Mr. Peter Johnson, aged twenty-three, battled for half an hour to escape from his trapped car yesterday when it landed upside down in three feet of water. Mr. Johnson took the only escape route --- through the boot(行李箱).

　Mr. Johnson's car had finished up in a ditch (沟渠) at Romney Marsin, Kent after skidding on ice and hitting a bank. "Fortunately, the water began to come in only slowly," Mr. Johnson said. "I couldn't force the doors because they were jammed against the walls of the ditch and dared not open the windows because I knew water would come flooding in."

　Mr. Johnson, a sweet salesman of Sitting Home, Kent, first tried to attract the attention of other motorists by sounding the horn and hammering on the roof and boot. Then he began his struggle to escape.

　Later he said, "It was really a half penny that saved my life. It was the only coin I had in my pocket and I used it to unscrew the back seat to get into the boot. I hammered desperately with a hammer trying to make someone hear, but no help came."

　It took ten minutes to unscrew the seat, and a further five minutes to clear the sweet samples from the boot. Then Mr. Johnson found a wrench and began to work on the boot lock. Fifteen minutes passed by. "It was the only chance I had. Finally it gave, but as soon as I moved the boot lid, the water and mud poured in. I forced the lid down into the mud and scrambled clear as the car filled up."

　His hands and arms cut and bruised (擦伤), Mr. Johnson got to Beckett Farm nearby, where he was looked after by the farmer's wife, Mrs. Lucy Bates. Trembling in a blanket, he said, "That thirty minutes seemed like hours." Only the tips of the car wheels were visible, police said last night. The vehicle had sunk into two feet of mud at the bottom of the ditch.

　21. What is the best title for this newspaper article?

　A. The Story of Mr. Johnson, a Sweet Salesman

　B. Car Boot Can Serve as the Best Escape Route

　C. Driver Escapes through Car Boot

　D. The Driver Survived a Terrible Car Accident

　22. The underlined sentence in Paragraph 5 ?Finally it gave? means that _______.

　A. luckily the door was torn away in the end

　B. at last the wrench went broken

　C. the lock came open after all his efforts

　D. the chance was lost at the last minute

　23. It can be inferred from the passage that _______.

　A. the ditch was along a quiet country road

　B. the accident happened on a clear warm day

　C. the police helped Mr. Johnson get out of the ditch

　D. Mr. Johnson had a tender wife and was well attended

　B

　It?s easy to think of the selfless reasons to listen. People want you to listen to them. By listening, you can help someone with a problem, or help them come up with new ideas. But listening also has selfish benefits that make it worth the investment.

　The biggest selfish benefit is that you learn more with your mouth closed. You?ll learn more about other people, and often, about yourself, if you stop talking. Those ideas are useful if you want to improve yourself.

　Listening also helps you think. When you?re truly listening, not just waiting for your turn to speak, you can chew over your ideas more. You can mull on points of the conversation longer. In the end, you?ll appear a lot wiser if you explain a fully-digested point of view, than if you just speak out the first response that comes to mind. Building the listening habit also makes better friends than trying to be an impressive conversationalist. People like the guy who listens more than the guy with the best jokes. Be interested, rather than interesting.

　If the person you?re talking with doesn?t feel too chatty, bait (启发) them with a comment. Throw something at them which will make it easy for them to talk. A better strategy to listen is to master the short anecdote. This is a 2-3 sentence comment on something that the other person has said. If they are telling a long explanation of their work as an accountant, you could comment on someone you know that does accounting or something you know about accounting.

　24. The following are talked about EXCEPT ______.

　A. the ways of being a good listener

　B. the benefits of building the listening habit

　C. the ways of being a good speaker

　D. the strategies to inspire others to speak

　25. According to the passage, which kind of person is most probably popular with people?

　A. The one who is good at telling jokes.

　B. The one who has no speaking ability.

　C. The one who is good at public speaking.

　D. The one who is good at listening to others.

　26. The underlined phrase ?mull on? in the third paragraph means ______.

　A. think over B. agree with C. disagree with D. put forward

　C

　New York?s long awaited bike share program, which arranged the distribution of 10,000 bicycles along some of the city?s busiest street, will be sponsored by Citi financial group, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced on Monday.

　Citi Bike will be the largest public bike share system in the US, with bikes placed in 600 stations in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The program will be operated by Alta bicycle share, which runs similar projects in Washington D.C. and Boston.

　?The idea behind bike share is simple: give people one more way to get around the town,? Bloomberg said in a restaurant. ?The new Citi Bikes will be an affordable transportation network that will help New Yorkers get where they?re going faster. When the walk seems a little far, New Yorkers can choose to skip the hike, and take a bike.?

　The program was announced in September 2011, and the department of transport has spent the last eight months planning locations for the stations. Full details on the locations have not been released yet, but they will include Times Square, Penn Station and close to Central Park.

　Annual membership of the program will cost $95, which entitles (授权) users to free journeys up to 45 minutes. For those unwilling to commit to a year?s cycling, seven-day subscriptions are available for $25 or 24-hour access for $9.95, with the first 30 minutes of any journey free. The official website for the program ? citibikenyc.com ? says the pricing strategy is likely to ensure that riders keep their trips short. Although short journeys are free, anyone wanting to take a bike for the day will face very high charges. People who do not sign up to an annual membership ? tourists, for example, would pay $49 for a three-hour ride, plus the $9.95 24-hour access fee, making a total of $59.

　The department of transport said the bikes and stations, which will begin to be fixed from ?late July?, will be the same as in London, Montreal and Minneapolis; however, in one sense Bloomberg will be hoping the New York program differs from that of London. While the London program has ended up losing money since it launched in 2010, the mayor said New York City would ?split system profits with the operator?, creating a potential new income program.

　27. According to the passage, the main purpose of setting up New York?s bike share system is to ________.

　A. make profits from the bike users

　B. discourage people from going hiking

　C. reduce people?s expenses on transportation

　D. help people travel around the city more easily

　28. According to the passage, which of the following locations is NOT available for the Citi Bike service?

　A. Central Park B. Time Square

　C. Brooklyn Botanic Garden D. Penn Station

　29. What can be learned from Paragraph 5?

　A. It is wise of people to use the bikes for short trips.

　B. Anyone can use the bike free of charge for 45 minutes.

　C. Most people are unwilling to pay for the annual membership.

　D. Tourists are charged more for the use of bikes than local people.

　30. In what sense does Bloomberg hope the New York program differs from that of London?

　A. Better accepted. B. Better operated.

　C. More profitable. D. More widespread.

　第二节共5个小题;每小题2分，满分10分

　根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

　Life can be so busy these days. It?s time that you all should admit that you need help in organizing your life. Here are some tips that will help you.

　Write everything down and don?t rely on your memory. 31 If you want to remember things, put them in writing, or in a digital notebook. Keeping your to-do lists and other information written somewhere allows you to look back at them anytime, even when you?ve hit your head and forgotten your own name.

　32 Try this experiment: before buying one thing, throw out something old or something you don?t use any more. Or, if you?re a really terrible pack rat, just throw out one old thing a day until you can?t find any more items to throw.

　Recycle and donate. Is your closet full of unopened bags and clothes that still have their tags on them? Is your bookshelf full of unread books? Chances are that if you haven?t read, worn, or used them, then you're probably not going to use them at all. 33

　Create daily, weekly and monthly timetables for cleaning. Organize your cleaning timetables. 34 Distribute tasks evenly, for example, dish washing could be done daily while vacuuming could be done weekly and cleaning windows done monthly.

　Whichever of these tasks you decide to do, remember that you can?t completely organize your life in one go. 35 Just decide to organize now, and then take baby steps. Soon enough, you will be making a habit of it.

参考答案

　27-30 DCAC 31-35 GBDEC

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