共用题干 第一篇

Almost Human?

Scientists are racing to build the world"s first thinking robot.This is not science fiction:
some say they will have made it by the year 2020.Carol Packer reports.
Machines that walk,speak and feel are no longer science fiction.Kismet is the name
of an android（机器人）which scientists have built at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology(MIT).Kismet is different from the traditional robot because it can show
human emotions.Its eyes,ears and lips move to show when it feels happy,sad or bored.
Kismet is one of the first of a new generation of androids一robots that look like human
beings一which can imitate human feelings.Cog,another android invented by the MIT,
imitates the action of a mother. However,scientists admit that so far Cog has the mental
ability of a two-year-old.
The optimists（乐观主义者）say that by the year 2020 we will have created humanoids
（机器人）with brains similar to those of an adult human being. These robots will be
designed to look like people to make them more attractive and easier to sell to the public.
What kind of jobs will they do?In the future,robots like Robonaut,a humanoid invented by
NASA,Will be doing dangerous jobs,like repairing space stations.They will also be doing
more and more of the household work for us.In Japan,scientists are designing androids
that will entertain us by dancing and playing the piano.
Some people worry about what the future holds:will robots become monsters（怪物）?
Will people themselves become increasingly like robots?Experts predict that more and more
people will be wearing micro-computers,connected to the Internet,in the future.People
will have micro-chips in various parts of their body,which will connect them to a wide variety
of gadgets（小装置）.Perhaps we should not exaggerate（夸大）the importance of
technology,but one wonders whether,in years to come,we will still be falling in love,
and whether we will still feel pain.Who knows? What is the writer"s attitude to robots in the future?