點擊查看》》2021年6月英語四級長篇閱讀練習(xí)匯總

Section B

Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived.

You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.

Robot Management

A. Robots have been the stuff of science fiction for so long that it is surprisingly hard to see them as the stuff of management fact. A Czech playwright, Karel Capek, gave them their name in 1920 (from the Slavonic word for" work" ). An American writer, Isaac Asimov, confronted them with their most memorable dilemmas.

Hollywood turned them into superheroes and supervillains. When some film critics drew up lists of Hollywood's 50 greatest good guys and 50 greatest baddies, the only character to appear on both lists was a robot, the Terminator.

B. It is time for management thinkers to catch up with science-fiction writers. Robots have been doing auxiliary jobs on production lines since the 1960s. The world already has more than lm industrial robots. There is now an acceleration in the rates at which they are becoming both cleverer and cheaper: an explosive combination.

Robots are learning to interact with the world around them. Their ability to see things is getting ever closer to that of humans, as is their capacity to ingest information and act on it. Tomorrow's robots will increasingly take on delicate, complex tasks. And instead of being imprisoned in cages to stop them colliding with people, they will be free to wander.

C. America's armed forces have blazed a trail here. They now have no fewer than 12,000 robots serving in their ranks. Peter Singer, of the Brookings Institution, a think-tank (智囊團(tuán)), says mankind's 5,000-year monopoly on the fighting of war is breaking down. Recent additions to the battlefield include tiny" insects" that perform reconnaissance (偵查) missions and giant" dogs" to terrify enemies. The Pentagon is also working on the EATR, a robot that fuels itself by eating whatever biomass (生物量) it finds around it.

D. But the civilian world cannot be far behind. Who better to clean sewers or suck up nuclear waste than these remarkable machines? The Japanese have made surprisingly little use of robots to clear up after the recent earthquake, given their world leadership in this area. They say that they had the wrong sort of robots in the wrong places. But they have issued a global call for robotic assistance and are likely to put more robots to work shortly.

E. As robots advance into the service industries they are starting to look less like machines and more like living creatures. The Paro (made by AIST, a Japanese research agency) is shaped like a baby seal and responds to attention. Honda's robot, ASIMO, is humanoid and can walk, talk and respond to commands.

F.Until now executives have largely ignored robots, regarding them as an engineering rather than a management problem. This cannot go on: robots are becoming too powerful and ubiquitous (無處不在的). Companies may need to rethink their strategies as they gain access to these new sorts of workers. Do they really need to outsource production to China, for example, when they have clever machines that work ceaselessly without pay? They certainly need to rethink their human-resources policies--starting by questioning whether they should have departments devoted to purely human resources.

G.The first issue is how to manage the robots themselves. Asimov laid down the basic rule in 1942: no robot should harm a human. This rule has been reinforced by recent technological improvements: robots are now much more sensitive to their surroundings and can be instructed to avoid hitting people. But the Pentagon's plans make all this a bit more complicated: many of its robots will be, in essence, killing machines.

H. A second question is how to manage the homo side of homo-robo relations. Workers have always worried that new technologies will take away their livelihoods, ever since the original Luddites' fears about mechanised looms. That worry takes on a particularly intense form when the machines come with a human face: Capek's play that gave robots their name depicted a world in which they initially brought lots of benefits but eventually led to mass unemployment and discontent. Now, the arrival of increasingly humanoid automatons in workplaces, in an era of high unemployment, is bound to provoke a reaction.

I.So, companies will need to work hard to persuade workers that robots are productivity-enhancers, not just job- eating aliens. They need to show employees that the robot sitting alongside them can be more of a helpmate than a threat. Audi has been particularly successful in introducing industrial robots because the carmaker asked workers to identify areas where robots could improve performance and then gave those workers jobs overseeing the robots. Employers also need to explain that robots can help preserve manufacturing jobs in the rich world: one reason why Germany has lost fewer such jobs than Britain is that it has five times as many robots for every 10,000 workers.

J.These two principles--don't let robots hurt or frighten people--are relatively simple. Robot scientists are tackling more complicated problems as robots become more sophisticated. They are keen to avoid hierarchies (層級) among rescue-robots (because the loss of the leader would render the rest redundant). So they are using game theory to make sure the robots can communicate with each other in egalitarian (平等) ways. They are keen to avoid duplication between robots and their human handlers. So they are producing more complicated mathematical formulae in order that robots can constantly adjust themselves to human intentions.

This suggests that the world could be on the verge of a great management revolution: making robots behave like humans rather than the 20th century's preferred option, making humans behave like robots.

46. Tomorrow's robots will be free to move around rather than being locked up in cages so as not to hurt people.

47. It is not easy for people to regard robots as management stuff, for the later are mostly seen in science fictions.

48. Robots appear more like living creatures as they enter into the service industry.

49. According to the Pentagon's plans, many of its robots will essentially become killing machines.

50. The Japanese didn't use a lot of robots to clear up after the recent earthquake, considering their world leadership in the robot field.

51. Companies should show their workers that robots can be more of a helper rather than a threat to them.

52. The fact that more and more human-like robots are used in workplaces will surely arouse reaction in a time of high unemployment.

53. Robots, who are considered as an engineering instead of a management problem, have been largely neglected by executives.

54. Scientists are trying to enable robots to constantly adjust themselves to people's intenlions.

55. The example that Germany has lost fewer manufacturing jobs than Britain shows that robots can help preserve manufacturing jobs in the rich world.

【參考譯文】

管理機器人

A.[47]很久以來。機器人都被認(rèn)為是科幻小說里的東西，因此人們很難將它們視為管理的對象。捷克劇作家KarelCapek于1920年將它們命名為“機器人”(來源于斯拉夫語中的“工作”一詞)。在美國作家Isaac Asimov的筆下，機器人面對了令它們最為難忘的抉擇。好萊塢把機器人變成了超級英雄和超級惡魔。

在由電影評論家總結(jié)出的好萊塢50個最好角色和50個最壞角色的名單上，唯一一個同時登上兩份榜單的角色就是一個機器人——終結(jié)者。

B.現(xiàn)在到了管理思想家跟上科幻小說作家步伐的時候了。自20世紀(jì)60年代起機器人就在生產(chǎn)線上做一些輔助工作了。世界上已有超過100萬的工業(yè)機器人?，F(xiàn)在機器人變得更聰明、更廉價的速度在不斷加快，這兩者簡直是一種爆炸性的結(jié)合。機器人正在學(xué)著與周圍的世界互動。它們看東西的能力正在變得越來越接近人類，它們獲取信息及做出相應(yīng)反應(yīng)的能力也在接近人類。未來，機器人將能夠從事越來越多精細(xì)而復(fù)雜的工作。[46]機器人將不會再被關(guān)起來以防止它們與人們發(fā)生沖突，而是可以自由移 動。

C.美國軍隊已經(jīng)在這方面開拓了一條道路。他們現(xiàn)在有不少于l2000個機器人正在服役。智囊團(tuán)布魯金斯學(xué)會的PeterSinger說，5000年來只有人類參與戰(zhàn)爭的局面正在被打破。近來被增派到戰(zhàn)場的機器人包括執(zhí)行偵察任務(wù)的小“昆蟲”和恫嚇敵人的大“狗”。五角大樓還在研發(fā)一種強動力自動戰(zhàn)術(shù)機器人，它們可以通過吞食其周邊的生物量來補給自己的能量。

D.但機器人在民用方面也沒有落后太遠(yuǎn)。有誰能比這些神奇的設(shè)備更適于清潔下水道或清理核廢料呢?[50]日本人在近期的一次震后清理中所用的機器人數(shù)量驚人地少，即使他們在這一領(lǐng)域處于世界領(lǐng)先地位。他們說他們在錯誤的地點選擇了錯誤的機器人類別。但是他們已經(jīng)率先在全球范圍內(nèi)呼吁尋求機器人的援助.而且似乎馬上就會投入更多的機器人進(jìn)行作業(yè)。

E.[48]當(dāng)機器人進(jìn)入到服務(wù)產(chǎn)業(yè)時，它們開始變得不像機器，而更像生物了。日本產(chǎn)業(yè)技術(shù)研究院是一所研發(fā)機構(gòu)，它們制作的機器人Paro形似一只小海豹，并能對命令做出回應(yīng)。本田公司研制的機器人ASIM0具有很多人類的特征，它能夠走路、說話以及回應(yīng)命令。

F.[53]時至今日，管理人員一直在很大程度上忽視了機器人，把它們當(dāng)做工程問題而不是管理問題。這種現(xiàn)象不能再繼續(xù)下去了：機器人正變得功能強大且無處不在。隨著企業(yè)可以使用機器人這種新型員工，它們可能需要重新考慮自身的人力資源戰(zhàn)略了。例如，在擁有不計報酬、可以持續(xù)工作的智能機器的情況下，它們是否真的需要把產(chǎn)品外包給中國加工?它們必然要重新考慮它們的人力資源政策——就從質(zhì)疑是否應(yīng)該有一個純粹管理人力資源的部門開始。

G.第一個問題是如何管理機器人本身。Asimov在1942年確立了基本原則：機器人不能傷害人類。這一原則已經(jīng)通過近年來的技術(shù)改良得以加強：現(xiàn)在的機器人對于它們周圍的事物更加敏感，還可以遵照指示避免襲擊人類。[49]但是五角大樓的計劃使得這一切變堡更為復(fù)雜：從本質(zhì)上來說，它們所制造的機器人有很多將成為殺人機器。

H.第二個問題是如何處理人與機器人的關(guān)系中人類這一方的問題。從最初的科技反對者恐懼機械織布機開始，勞動者們總是擔(dān)心新技術(shù)會搶走他們的飯碗。當(dāng)機器以人類的面孔出現(xiàn)時，那種擔(dān)憂變得尤為強烈：capek那部給機器人取名字的戲劇中描繪了這樣一個世界：起初，機器人帶來了很多好處，最終，它們卻導(dǎo)致了大量的失業(yè)和不滿。[52]在現(xiàn)在這樣一個高失業(yè)率的時代，工作場所越來越多地使用類人機器人必然會激起反對。

I.所以，企業(yè)必須努力使工人相信機器人有助于提高產(chǎn)量，而不只是吞噬職位的外來者。[51]它們需要展現(xiàn)給員工們看：坐在他們身邊的機器人更多的是他們的幫手，而不是威脅。奧迪在引進(jìn)工業(yè)機器人方面一直做得特別成功，因為這家汽車制造商讓員工去發(fā)現(xiàn)那些機器人可以改進(jìn)工作的領(lǐng)域，然后將監(jiān)管那些機器人的崗位提供給員工。[55]企業(yè)還需要闡明，機器人有助于保留富有國家的生產(chǎn)崗位：德國之所以沒有象英國一樣喪失如此之多的生產(chǎn)崗位，原因之一就是，在德國，每一萬名工人所對應(yīng)的機器人數(shù)量是英國的5倍。

J.這兩條原則，即不要讓機器人傷害或嚇到人類，是相對簡單的。隨著機器人變得日益復(fù)雜，機器人科學(xué)家們正著手處理更復(fù)雜的問題。他們盡量不在救援機器人中分出三六九等(因為一旦沒有帶頭的機器人，其他的機器人就顯得多余了)。所以他們利用游戲理論來確保機器人能以平等的方式互相交流。他們盡力避免機器人與它們的人類操作者的作用重疊。[54]因此他們正在計算更多復(fù)雜的數(shù)學(xué)公式以使機器人能夠依照人類的意愿不斷地進(jìn)行自我調(diào)節(jié)。這表明世界即將發(fā)生一次重大的管理變革：讓機器人的行為更像人類，而不是像20世紀(jì)所傾向的那樣，使人類的行為日益向機器人靠攏。

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