To what degree can a computer achieve intelligence？The answer to this question may lie in a newly-developed US computer program called Smarter Child and the Internet.

If you ran into Smarter Child online, you would be surprised at this kid’s huge memory. It can recite many facts. For example, Smarter Child knows every baseball player in every team this season.

He knows every word in the dictionary and the weather in every major city areas across the US. However, if you ask Smarter Child other questions, you get strange answers. A question about Smarter Child’s age returns, “One year, 11 days, 16 hours, 7 minutes, and 47 seconds!” Asking where he lives gets, “In a clean room in a high-tech building in California.”

Smarter Child uses the vast information on the World Wide Web as his memory bank. To answer questions about spelling, for instance, Smarter Child goes to American Heritage Dictionary online. For the weather, he visits www.intellicast.com.

Some scientists believe that by joining the many systems of the Internet, an artificial(人工的) being with the combined knowledge of, say, Albert Einstein, Richard Nixon and Britney Spears could be born. However, if Smarter Child wants to think and learn on his own like the boy-computer David in the movie A. I. Artificial Intelligence, he must solve two problems.

The first is that computers find it difficult to read web pages because the files（文件） are sorted in different ways. That’s why programmers need to tell Smarter Child where to look for the weather. It would be a much more difficult task to let him find it himself.

Another problem is that while Smarter Child can process（处理）information more exactly and faster than any human, he lacks common sense—a basic grounding of knowledge that is obvious to any young child.

1.From the text we can infer that www.intellicast.com is a website          .

2.It is probably most difficult for Smarter Child to         .

3.Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?

A. Smart Child has his own memory bank big enough for all kinds of information.

B. A.I. Artificial Intelligence is probably the name of a film about a boy-computer.

C. Smart Child can recognize different files and find information needed on his own.

D. We have similar product now which has the knowledge of Einstein, Nixon and Spears.

4.Which of the following is the best title for the passage?

It is difficult to imagine what life will be like without memory．The meanings of thousands of everyday perceptions(感觉、知觉), the bases for the decisions we make, and the roots of our habits and skills are to be found in our past experiences, which are brought into the present by memory．

Memory can be defined as the capacity to keep information available for later use．It includes not only “remembering” things like arithmetic or historical facts, but also involves any change in the way an animal typically behaves．Memory is involved when a rat gives up eating grain because he has sniffed something suspicious in the grain pile．Memory is also involved when a six-year-old child learns to swing a baseball bat．

Memory exists not only in humans and animals but also in some physical objects and machines．Computers, for example, contain devices from storing data for later use．It is interesting to compare the memory-storage capacity of a computer with that of a human being．The instant-access memory of a large computer may hold up to 100,000 “words”—ready for instant use．An average U．S．teenager probably recognizes the meaning of about 100,000 words of English．However, this is but a fraction(部分、片断) of the total amount of information which the teenager has stored．Consider, for example, the number of faces and places that the teenager can recognize on sight．

The use of words is the advanced problem-solving intelligence of human beings．A large part of a person’s memory is in terms of words and combinations of words．

1．According to the passage, memory is considered to be ________．

A．the basis for decision making and problem solving

B．an ability to store experiences of future use

C．an intelligence typically possessed by human beings

D．the data mainly consisting of words and combinations of words

2．The comparison made between the memory capacity of a large computer and that of a human being shows that ________．

A．the computer’s memory has a little bigger capacity than a teenager’s

B．the computer’s memory capacity is much smaller than an adult human being’s

C．the computer’s memory’s capacity is much smaller even than a teenager’s

D．both A and B

3．The whole passage implies that _______．

A．only human beings have problem-solving intelligence

B．a person’s memory is different from a computer’s in every aspect

C．animals are able to solve only very simple problems

D．animals solve problems by instincts rather than intelligence

4．The phrase “in terms of” in the last sentence can best be replaced by ________

　 A．in connection with　　　　　　 　　 B．expressed by

C．consisting　　　　　　　　　　　　 　 D．by means of

5．The topic of the passage is __________．

A．What would life be like without memory?

B．Memory is of vital importance to life．

C．How is a person’s memory different from an animal’s or a computer’s?

D．What is contained in memory?

阅读理解

阅读下面短文，从A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳答案。

　　A person may have an idea about himself that will prevent him from doing good work．

　　He may have the idea that he is not capable (有能力的) of it． It is easy to get such an idea even though there is no justification for it． A child may think he is stupid because he does not understand how to make the most of his mental abilities, or he may accept another person's mistaken opinion of his ability． Older people may be handicapped by the mistaken belief that they are incapable of learning anything new because of their age．

　　A person who believes that he is incapable will not make a real effort, because he feels that it would be useless． He won't go at a job with the confidence (自信) necessary for success, and he won't work hardest, even though he may think he is doing so． He is therefore likely to fail, and the failure will strengthen his belief in his lack of ability．

　　Alfred Adler, a famous psychiatrist (精神病医生), had an experience that illustrates this． When he was a small boy he got off to a poor start in math． His teacher got the idea that he had no ability in math, and told his parents what she thought in order that they would not expect too much of him． In this way, they too developed the idea, “Isn't it too bad that Alfred can't do math?” He accepted their mistaken opinion of his ability, felt that it was useless to try, and was very poor at math, just as they expected．

　　One day he became very angry at the teacher and other students because they laughed when he said he saw how to do a math problem which none of the other students had been able to solve．

　　Adler succeeded in solving the problem． This gave him confidence． He rejected the idea that he couldn’t do math and was determined to show them that he could． His anger and his new found confidence encouraged him to work at math problems with a new spirit． He now worked with interest, determination, and purpose, and he soon became extraordinarily good at math． He not only proved that he could do math, but he learned early in life from his own experience that, if a person goes at a job with determination and purpose, he may astonish himself as well as others by his ability．

　　This experience made him realize that many people have more ability than they think they have． And that lack of success is as often the result of lack of confidence and lack of determination as it is the result of lack of ability．

1．The word “justification” most probably means________．

[　　]

2．What is the main idea of this passage?

[　　]

A．The basic laws in doing math problems．

B．All successes are caused by purpose．

C．Our ideas do not always have any influence on us．

D．Our ideas about ourselves may have a negative influence．

3．What does Alfred Adler's story tell us?

[　　]

A．Math is actually very easy to learn．

B．Anybody can become a mathematician, if he has determination．

C．Many people have more ability than they think they have．

D．Most teachers are wrong when they evaluate their students．

4．Why did he become angry one day?

[　　]

A．Because he was very poor at math．

B．Because they challenged him to do a difficult math problem．

C．Because he couldn’t solve the math problem．

D．Because the teacher and other students laughed at him．