Vocabulary

Choose one variant (a, b, c or d) which could be used in place of the word or phrase underlined without changing the meaning of the sentence

1. The techniques are very simple but accurate.

a) steps c) methods

b) technologies d) stages

2. Your thesis meets the necessary requirements.

a) levels c) measurements

b) standards d) topics

3. You badly need your supervisor’s assistance.

a) attendance c) application

b) help d) hope

4. When are you going to complete your work?

a) make c) continue

b) start d) finish

5. The warehouse was transformed into a laboratory.

a) changed c) expanded

b) extended d) enlarged

6. Einstein’s theories prevailed throughout the 20^th century.

a) demonstrated c) dominated

b) proved d) prevented

7. Marie and Pierre Curie were able to isolate a new radioactive element.

a) create c) invent

b) separate d) find out

8. Efforts are being made to preserve clean air in big cities.

a) purify c) utilize

b) protect d) process

9. A microscope magnifies invisible objects so we can see them.

a) expands c) minimizes

b) reduces d) enlarges

10. The best way to solve a problem is to find the source.

a) result c) consequence

b) effect d) origin

Reading Comprehension

Read the passage and choose the best answer (a, b, c or d) to each question

Text 1

One of the shared assumptions in computer research is that talking to computers is a very good idea. Such a good idea that speech is regarded as the natural interface between human and computer.

Each company with enough money to spare and enough egotism to believe that it can shape everyone’s future now has a ‘natural language’ research group. Films and TV series set in the future use computers with voice interfaces to show how far technology has advanced from our own primitive day and age. The unwritten assumption is that talking to your computer will in the end be as natural as shouting at your relatives.

The roots of this shared delusion lie in the genuine naturalness of spoken communication between humans. Meaning is transferred from person to person so effortlessly that it must be the best way of transferring information from a human to another object.

This view is totally misguided. Computers do not experience life as people do – it is shared human experience which enables people to understand each other precisely in a conversation where a transcript would make very little sense. Unfinished sentences, in-jokes, catchphrases, hesitation markers like ‘er’ and ‘you know’, and words whose meaning is only clear in the context of that one conversation are no bar to human understanding, but baffled early attempts at computer speech recognition. It is true that recent advances in linguistic research and artificial intelligence address this problem, but they address it only in part. The problem essentially remains.

1. The fact that talking to computers is a good thing…

a) is generally accepted among scientists;

b) is not shared by many people;

c) is considered rather doubtful;

d) is seen as something strange.