【正文】 1. Can the Computer Learn from Experience計算機會總結(jié)經(jīng)驗嗎1 Computers have been taught to play not only checkers, but also championship chess, which is a fairly accurate yardstick for measuring the puter’s progress in the ability to learn from experience.2 Because the game requires logical reasoning, chess would seem to be perfectly suited to the puter .all a programmer has to do is give the puter a program evaluating the consequences of every possible response to every possible move, and the puter will win every time. In theory this is a sensible approach。 in practice it is impossible. Today, a powerful puter can analyze 40 000 moves a second. That is an impressive speed. But there are an astronomical number of possible moves in chess—literally trillions. Even if such a program were written (and in theory it could be ,given enough people and enough time), there is no puter capable of holding that much data.3 Therefore, if the puter is to pete at championship levels, it must be programmed to function with less than plete data. It must be able to learn from experience, to modify its own programm, to deal with a relatively unstructured situation—in a word, to “think” for itself . In fact, this can be done. Chessplaying puters have yet to defeat world champion chess players, but several have beaten human players of only slightly lower ranks. The puters have had programs to carry them through the early, mechanical stages of their chess games. But they have gone on from there to reason and learn, and sometimes to win the game.4 There are other proofs that puters can be programmed to learn, but this example is sufficient to demonstrate the point. Granted , winning a game of chess is not an earthshaking event even when a puter does it . But there are many serious human problems which ban be fruitfully approached as games. The Defense Department uses puters to play war games and work out strategies for dealing with international tensions. Other problems—international and interpersonal relations , ecology and economics , and the everincreasing threat of world famine—can perhaps be solved by the joint efforts of human beings and truly intelligent puters .Notes1. check:a game played on a checkerboard by two players ,each using 12 pieces2. ecology:the relationship between organisms and their environment 生態(tài)關(guān)系，生態(tài)學(xué)Reading prehension1 The purpose of creating chessplaying puters is __________A to win the world chess championB to pave the way for further intelligent putersC to work out strategies for international warsD to find an accurate yardstick for measuring puter progress2 Today , a chessplaying puter can be programmed to ________ A give trillions of reponses in a second to each possible move and win the gameB function with plete data and beat the best playersC learn from chessplaying in the early stage and go on to win the gameD evaluate every possible move but may fail to give the right response each time3 For a puter to “think” , it is necessary to ________ A mange to process as much data as possible in a second B program it so that it can learn from its experiences C prepare it for chessplaying first D enable it to deal with unstructured situations4 The author’s attitude towards the Defense Department is____ A critical B unconcerned C positive D negative 5 In the author’s opinion,______ A winning a chess game is an unimportant event B serious human problems shouldn’t be regarded as playing a game C ecological problems are more urgent to be solved D there is hope for more intelligent puters1 b 2 c 3 b 4 c 5 d2 　　　　　　　　　　　　　You Call This a Good Economy　　　　　　　　　　　　　　這能稱之為上佳經(jīng)驗1 You have to have lived in the 1950s and 1960s to have experienced a good economy. In the period between 1950 and 1970 it was the rule—rather than the exception—that an ordinary family, without higher education, could sustain itself decently on the ine of a single breadwinner（養(yǎng)家糊口的人）. In 1955, when I was 19 and living in Brooklyn, N. Y., my father, who had a sixthgrade education, maintained our family of five on a wage of $82 a week as a bookbinder. My mother taught us fairness and passion。 my father, discipline and enterprise.2 The U. S. economy in those years was good. Then where did this good economy go? It was inflated away. The price of gold, which I take as proxy for the prices of all goods, was $35 an ounce in those years. It is at roughly ten times that price today.3 There is another answer, though: inflation caused the entire work forc