Question

【題目】

How Much Can We Afford to Forget?

In 2018, Science magazine asked some young scientists what schools should teach students. Most said students should spend less time memorizing facts and have more space for creative activities. As the Internet grows more powerful, students can access (獲得) knowledge easily. Why should they be required to carry so much of it around in their heads?

Civilizations（文明）develop through forgetting life skills that were once necessary. In the Agricultural（農(nóng)業(yè)的）Age, a farmer could afford to forget hunting skills. When societies industrialized, the knowledge of farming could be safe to forget. Nowadays, smart machines give us access to most human knowledge. It seems that we no longer need to remember most things. Does it matter?

Researchers have recognized several problems that may happen. For one, human beings have biases（偏見），and smart machines are likely to increase our biases. Many people believe smart machines are necessarily correct and objective, but machines are trained through a repeated testing and scoring process. In the process, human beings still decide on the correct answers.

Another problem relates to the ease of accessing information. When there were no computers, efforts were required to get knowledge from other people, or go to the library. We know what knowledge lies in other brains or books, and what lies in our heads. But today, the Internet gives us the information we need quickly. This can lead to the mistaken belief-the knowledge we found was part of what we knew all along.

In a new civilization rich in machine intelligence, we have easy access to smart memory networks where information is stored. But dependency on a network suggests possibilities of being harmed easily. The collapse of any of the networks of relations our well-being（健康）depends upon, such as food and energy, would produce terrible results. Without food we get hungry; without energy we feel cold.And it is through widespread loss of memory that civilizations are at risk of falling into a dark age.

We forget old ways to free up time and space for new skills. As long as the older forms of knowledge are stored somewhere in our networks, and can be found when we need them, perhaps they’re not really forgotten. Still, as time goes on, we gradually but unquestionably become strangers to future people.

【1】·Why are smart machines likely to increase our biases?

A. Because they go off course in testing and scoring.

B. Because we control the training process on them.

C. Because we offer them too much information.

D. Because they overuse the provided answers.

【2】The ease of accessing information from the Internet ·

A. frees us from making efforts to learn new skills

B. . prevents civilizations from being lost at a high speed

C. misleads us into thinking we already knew the knowledge

D. separates the facts we have from those in the smart machines

【3】The word "collapse" in Paragraph 5 probably means‘‘—，，·

A. a sudden failureB. the basic rule

C. a disappointing startD. the gradual development

【4】What is the writer's main purpose in writing this passage?

A. To question about the standards of information storage.

B. To discuss our problems of communication with machines.

C. To stress the importance of improving our memorizing ability.

D. To remind us of the risk of depending on machines to remember.

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】B

【2】C

【3】A

【4】D

【解析】

隨著互聯(lián)網(wǎng)越來越強大，我們很容易就可以獲得所需要的知識，我們是不是就不需要再記憶很多東西了呢？作者對此是持否定態(tài)度的，并仔細(xì)分析不靠自己的記憶，而去依賴機器會導(dǎo)致很多問題的發(fā)生，提醒我們依賴智能機器記憶是有風(fēng)險的。

【1】細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)短文第三段For one, human beings have biases（偏見），and smart machines are likely to increase our biases. Many people believe smart machines are necessarily correct and objective, but machines are trained through a repeated testing and scoring process．In the process, human beings still decide on the correct answers可知，智能機器是通過重復(fù)測試和評分過程的訓(xùn)練，在這個過程中，人類仍然決定著正確的答案。故B選項符合文意。

【2】細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)短文第四段中But today, the Internet gives us the information we need quickly. This can lead to the mistaken belief-the knowledge we found was part of what we knew all along.可知，互聯(lián)網(wǎng)給我們提供了方便，可以讓我們快速得到所需要的信息，但這可能會導(dǎo)致錯誤的信念，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)的知識是我們一直都知道的一部分。由此可知應(yīng)選C。

【3】詞義猜測題。根據(jù)上下文語境But dependency on a network suggests possibilities of being harmed easily. The collapse of any of the networks of relations our well-being（健康）depends upon, such as food and energy, would produce terrible results.可知，對網(wǎng)絡(luò)的依賴很容易受到傷害，后面舉例說明網(wǎng)絡(luò)的…會導(dǎo)致可怕的后果。結(jié)合選項：A是“突然的失敗”；B是“基本規(guī)則”；C是“令人失望的開始”；D是“逐漸的發(fā)展”。根據(jù)文意可知應(yīng)選A。

【4】推理判斷題。根據(jù)短文第二段的最后It seems that we no longer need to remember most things. Does it matter?以及第三段Researchers have recognized several problems that may happen.、第四段Another problem relates to the ease of accessing information、第五段But dependency on a network suggests possibilities of being harmed easily等可知，短文作者先提出問題“我們還需要再記憶很多東西嗎？”，然后分析了這個問題，發(fā)現(xiàn)如果不靠自己的記憶，而去依賴機器會導(dǎo)致很多問題的發(fā)生，由此可知推知作者寫這篇文章的目的是提醒我們依賴機器記憶是有風(fēng)險的。故應(yīng)選D。