3、2,

Because speech is the most convenient form of communication, in the future we want essentially natural conversations with computers. The primary point of contact will be a simple device that will act as our window on the world. It will have to be small enough to slip into your pocket, so there will be a screen but no keyboard: you will simply talk to it. The device will be permanently connected to the internet and will send relevant information up to you as it comes in. Such devices will evolve naturally in the next five to ten years.

Just how quickly people will adapt to a voice-based internet world is uncertain. Many believe that, initially at least, we will need similar conventions for the voice to those we use at present on screen: click, back, forward, and so on. But soon you will undoubtedly be able to interact by voice with all those IT-based services you currently connect with over the internet by means of a keyboard. This will help the internet serve the entire population, not just technofreaks.

    Changes like this will encompass the whole world. Because English is the language of science, it will probably remain the language in which the technology is most advanced, but most speech-recognition techniques are transferable to other languages provided there is sufficient motivation to undertake the work.

    Of course, in any language there are still huge problems for us to solve. Carefully dictated, clear speech can now be understood by computers with only a 4-5 percent error rate, but even state-of-the-art technology still records 30-40 percent errors with spontaneous speech. Within ten years we will have computers that respond to goal-directed conversation, but for a computer to have a conversation that takes into account human social behavior is probably 50 years off. We’re not going to be chatting to the big screen in the living room just yet.

1. Computers can now understand _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ of carefully dictated, clear speech.

   A. 4-5%          B. 30-40%           C. 91-92%           D. 95-96%

2 The simple device, possibly with a screen but no keyboard, can be put to use _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ .

   A. within fifty years                     B. fifty years later

   C. in the next five to ten years             D. within the next five years

3. Which of the following may be the best title for the passage?

   A. Internet and Human Voice              B. Computers and Artificial Speech

   C. Screen and Speech Recognition          D. Computers and Human Behavior

4. Which of the following is NOT true?

   A. Speech is the most convenient form of communication.

   B. Speech-recognition techniques can be used between different languages.

   C. The tone of the passage is blindly hopeful.

   D. Lots of problems are waiting to be solved for the speech recognition.

5. The word “state-of –the-art” (Para. 4) most probably means _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ .

   A. most advanced      B. most popular     C. most practical     D. most complicated