Question

"If popular culture has taught us anything, it is that someday mankind must face and destroy the growing harm caused by robots." Author Daniel Wilson's description of How to Survive a Robot Uprising seems like it is straight out of a robot disaster movie. "The problem with cleverly-designed robots is that we become dependent on them," says Wilson.

The classic movie Westworld describes an amusement park where, after a safety error, the robots spend a killing period of time. Yet in reality, statistics show that as technology improves there is a trend towards increased safety. Similarly, public transport systems using computers and machines are believed to be more reliable than those in human control, and a robot-assisted operation is more precise and results in fewer medical problems.

But where does the idea of robots being cruel and harmful come from? "Robots were pop culture figures before they existed," says Wilson. "They were frightening creatures in novels. When robots really started existing, they already had this image(形象) set up not based on reality. That's exactly what happened—a movie monster became real."

Recent reports talked of a robot "attack" on a worker in Sweden. Even if these references to an attack rather than an error are meant in joke, this only makes the problem worse. "We're so interested in the robot-attack storyline that it can influence the way real robot-safety problems are discussed," says one journalist. But with robots becoming increasingly advanced, is it going to come a time when an error could become an unkind and cruel attack?

"Robots are just a bunch of metal," says one engineer. "If you are scared, then you are scared of the people building them." So what do engineers think we should be afraid of? Nanotechnology is the science which involves developing and making extremely small but very powerful machines. Some engineers suggest that with these new developments come "severe dangers" if they are used inappropriately. Its theory goes that "the small size and rapid potential of nano-built weaponry（武器）will make it difficult to control and hard to keep out of the hands of terrorists. "And this is a view shared by some artificial intelligence experts. "With robots...if it makes an error, you can unplug it and shut it down. But if you have lots of nano-built weapons, which are extremely small, there is no way you can do the same thing."

1.In the first paragraph, Daniel Wilson ________.

A. confirms the existence of robots

B. introduces the development of robots

C. states that robots are potentially dangerous

D. suggests that we should be dependent on robots

2.People have come to think of robots as something bad because ________.

A. designers of the first robots spread this idea

B. reality shows they are the same as in the movies

C. movie audience continue to give this impression

D. they were originally described this way in novels

3.The author believes that the report of the robot attack in Sweden ________.

A. is intended as a joke

B. serves as a serious warning

C. presents the technical problem

D. expresses sympathy for the worker

4.What are experts afraid of when considering nanotechnology?

A. Robots could use it inappropriately.

B. It could make robots harder to control.

C. It could be more dangerous than robots.

D. There'll be more terrorist attacks because of it.

Answer 1