If you are a tourist interested in seeing a baseball game while in New York, you can find out which of its teams are in town simply by sending a message to AskForCents.com. In a few minutes, the answer comes back, apparently supplied by a machine, but actually composed by a human. Using humans to process information in a machine-like way is not new: it was pioneered by the Mechanical Turk, a famed 18th-century chess-playing machine that was operated by a hidden chessmaster. But while computers have since surpassed the human brain at chess, many tasks still baffle even the most powerful electronic brain.
For instance, computers can find you a baseball schedule, but they cannot tell you directly if the Yankees are in town. Nor can they tell you whether sitting in the bleachers is a good idea on a first date. AskForCents can, because its answers come from people. "Whatever question you can come up with, there’s a person that can provide the answer—you don’t have the inflexibility of an algorithm-driven system," says Jesse Heitler, who developed AskForCents. Mr. Heitler was able to do this thanks to a new software tool developed by Amazon, the online retailer, that allows computing tasks to be farmed out to people over the internet. Aptly enough, Amazon’s system is called Mechanical Turk.
Amazon’s Turk is part toolkit for software developers, and part online bazaar: anyone with intemet access can register as a Turk user and start performing the Human Intelligence Tasks (HITs) listed on the Turk website (mturk.com). Companies can become "requesters by setting up a separate account, tied to a bank account that will pay out fees, and then posting their HITs. Most HITs pay between one cent and $5. So far, people from more than 100 countries have performed HITs, though only those with American bank accounts can receive money for their work; others are paid in Amazon gift certificates.
Mr. Heitler says he had previously tried to build a similar tool, but concluded that the in-frastucture would be difficult to operate profitably. Amazon already has an extensive software infrastructure designed for linking buyers with sellers, however, and the Turk simply extends that existing model. Last November Amazon unveiled a prototype of the system, which it calls "artificial artificial intelligence". The premise is that humans are vastly superior to computers at tasks such as pattern recognition, says Peter Cohen, director of the project at Amazon, so why not let software take advantage of human strengths
Mr. Cohen credits Amazon’s boss, Jeff Bezos, with the concept for the Turk. Other people have had similar ideas. Eric Bonabeau of Icosystem, an American firm that builds software tools modeled on natural systems, has built what he calls the "Hunch Engine" to combine human intelligence with computer analysis. The French postal service, for example, has used it to help its workers choose the best delivery routes, and pharmaceutical researchers are using it to determine molecular structures by combining their gut instincts with known results stored in a database. And a firm called Seriosity hopes to tap the collective brainpower of the legions of obsessive players of multiplayer online games such as "World of War-craft ", by getting them to perform small real-world tasks (such as sorting photographs) while playing, and paying them in the game’s own currency.
Amazon is successful with Turk is probably because

A:Turk has very strong software infrastructure developing potentials. B:its previous model has laid a solid foundation for an extension. C:its system is based on artificial artificial intelligentce. D:Turk is profitably adaptive to almost any software infrastructure.

Text 3

Amazon is successful with Turk is probably because

A:Turk has very strong software infrastructure developing potentials. B:its previous model has laid a solid foundation for an extension. C:its system is based on artificial artificial intelligentce. D:Turk is profitably adaptive to almost any software infrastructure.

If you are a tourist interested in seeing a baseball game while in New York, you can Find out which of its teams are in town simply by sending a message to AskForCents. com. In a few minutes, the answer comes back, apparently supplied by a machine, but actually composed by a human. Using humans to process information in a machine-like way is not new- it was pioneered by the Mechanical Turk, a famed 18th-century chess-playing machine that was operated by a hidden chessmaster. But while computers have since surpassed the human brain at chess, many tasks still baffle even the most powerful electronic brain.
For instance, computers can find you a baseball schedule, but they cannot tell you directly if the Yankees are in town. Nor can they tell you whether sitting in the bleachers is a good idea on a first date. AskForCents can, because its answers come from people. "Whatever question you can come up with, there’s a person that can provide the answer-- you don’t have the inflexibility of an algorithm-driven system," says Jesse Heitler, who developed AskForCents. Mr. Heitler was able to do this thanks to a new software tool developed by Amazon, the online retailer, that allows computing tasks to be farmed out to people over the internet. Aptly enough, Amazon’s system is called Mechanical Turk.
Amazon’s Turk is part toolkit for software developers, and part online bazaar: anyone with internet access can register as a Turk user and start performing the Human Intelligence Tasks (HITs) listed on the Turk website (mturk.com ). Companies can become "requesters" by setting up a separate account, tied to a bank account that will pay out fees, and then posting their HITs. Most HITs pay between one cent and $ 5. So far, people from more than 100 countries have performed HITs, though only those with American bank accounts can receive money for their work; others are paid in Amazon gift certificates.
Mr. Heitler says he had previously tried to build a similar tool, but concluded that the infrastructure would be difficult to operate profitably. Amazon already has an extensive software infrastructure designed for linking buyers with sellers, however, and the Turk simply extends that existing model. Last November Amazon unveiled a prototype of the system, which it calls "artificial artificial intelligence". The premise is that humans are vastly superior to computers at tasks such as pattern recognition, says Peter Cohen, director of the project at Amazon, so why not let software take advantage of human strengths
Mr. Cohen credits Amazon’s boss, Jeff Bezos, with the concept for the Turk. Other people have had similar ideas. Eric Bonabeau of Icosystem, an American firm that builds software tools modeled on natural systems, has built what he calls the "Hunch Engine" to combine human intelligence with computer analysis. The French postal service, for example, has used it to help its workers choose the best delivery routes, and pharmaceutical researchers are using it to determine molecular structures by combining their gut instincts with known results stored in a database. And a firm called Seriosity hopes to tap the collective brainpower of the legions of obsessive players of multiplayer online games such as "World of Warcraft", by getting them to perform small real-world tasks (such as sorting photographs) while playing, and paying them in the game’s own currency.

Amazon is successful with Turk is probably because（）

A:Turk has very strong software infrastructure developing potentials B:its previous model has laid a solid foundation for an extension C:its system is based on artificial artificial intelligentce D:Turk is profitably adaptive to almost any software infrastructure

D
Forty-thousand of the world’s young children die every day. Many of these deaths can be prevented. In fact, experts say, techniques now exist to save the lives of half of these children. The techniques are medically effective(有效的), simple to use and low cost. The biggest task has been to inform parents ’about these life-saving techniques.
Diarrhea(腹泻) is the main cause of death among children in developing countries. Diarrhea results when the body tries to clear itself of harmful bacteria (细菌). The body does this by getting out liquids, sometimes uncontrollably. If too much water, sugar and salt are lost in this way, the body cannot work normally. The child may die.
The United Nations International Children’s Fund, UNICF, introduces a technique. It uses a simple mixture of sugar and salt in water. The mixture does not stop diarrhea. But if used often as needed, it keeps fluid (体液) levels normal until the body has fought off the harmful bacteria.
In Egypt, for example, the treatment was used in a children’s health care program in the province of Alexandria. It reduced by one-half the number of deaths caused by diarrhea. The technique has now been used throughout tile country.

Which of the following situations will cause the death of a child.'（）

A:The child clears its body of bacteria. B:The body loses liquids without any control. C:The child has diarrhea in a developing country. D:The body controls its fluid levels.

? ?下面有3篇短文，每篇短文后有5道题，每道题后面有4个选项。
{{B}}第一篇{{/B}}

The risk of dying from cancer in developed countries is ______.

A:double that in developing countries B:much higher than that in developing countries C:the same as that in developing countries D:much lower than that in developing countries

More Rural Research is Needed Agricultural research funding is vital if the world is to feed itself better than it does now. Dr. Tony Fischer, crop scientist, said demand was growing at 2.5% per year but with modern technologies and the development of new ones, the world should be able to stay ahead. "The global decline in investment in international agricultural research must be reversed if significant progress is to be made towards reducing malnutrition（营养不良）and poverty." he said. Research is needed to solve food production, land degradation（贫瘠化）and environmental problems. Secure local food supplies led to economic growth which is turn, slowed population growth. Dr. Fischer painted a picture of the world’s ability to feed itself in the first 25 years, when the world’s population is expected to rise from 5 X to X billion people. He said that things will probably hold or improve but there’ll still be a lot of hungry people. The biggest concentration of poor and hungry people would be in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia in 2020, similar to the currenti pattern. If there is any change, a slighe improvement will be seen in southern Asia, but not in sub-Saharan Africa. The major improvement will be in East Asia, South America and South-East Asia. The debeloping world was investing about 0.5%, or $8 billion a year, of its agricultural gross domestic product(GDP)on research and developed world was spending 2.5% of its GDP. Dr. Fischer said more was needed from all countries. He said crop research could produce technologies that spread across many countries, such as wheat production research having spin-offs（有用的副产品）for Mexico, China or India. "Technologies still need to be refined for the local conditions but a lot of the strategic research can have global application, so that money can be used very efficiently." Dr.Fischer said. Yields of rice, wheat ad maize（玉米）have grown impressively in the past 30 years, especially in developing countries. For example, maize production rose from 2 to 8 tonnes per hectare between 1950 and 1995. But technologies driving this growth such as high-yield varieties, fertilizers, and irrigation, were becoming exhausted. "If you want to save the land for non-agricultural activities, for forests and wildlife, you’re going to have to increase yield." Dr. Fischer said. It can be infered from the last paragraph that_____.

A:there is a demand for saving land for non-agricultural activities. B:crop production is growing faster in developing countries. C:maize production reached its peak in the 1990s. D:technologies improving maize production have been well developed.

Global Cancer Rates to Rise by 50% by 2020
The number of new cancer cases worldwide is expected to increase by 50% by the year 2020. But a new report suggests that as many as a third of new cancers could be avoided by adopting healthier lifestyles and through public health action.
The World Cancer Report, released by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, shows that cancer has now emerged as a major public health threat in developing countries as well as rich ones.
Overall, cancer was responsible for 12% of all deaths in 2000. But in many countries more than a quarter of all deaths are caused by cancer.
The report shows that 10 million new cancers were diagnosed globally in 2000, and that number is expected to rise to 15 million by 2020. Researchers say most of that increase will mainly be due to steadily aging populations in both developed and developing countries and current trends in smoking and other unhealthy habits.
"Cancer has emerged as a major public health problem in developing countries for the first time, matching its effect in industrialized (工业化的) countries," said researcher Paul Kleihues, MD, director of IARC, in a news release. "Once considered a ’Western’ disease, the Report highlights that more than 50 percent of the world’s cancer burden, in terms of both numbers of cases and deaths, already occurs in developing countries."
The risk of being diagnosed with cancer in developed countries is double that in less-developed ones. However, the risk of dying from cancer is much higher in developing countries, where 80% of cancer patients already have late-stage incurable tumors (肿瘤) at the time of diagnosis.
Researchers say cancer rates have traditionally been higher in developed countries due to greater exposure to tobacco, occupational carcinogens (致癌物), and an unhealthy Western diet and lifestyle. As less-developed countries become industrialized and more prosperous, they tend to adopt the high-fat diet and Iow physical activity levels typically seen in the West, which increase cancer rates.

The risk of dying from cancer in developed countries is（）

A:double that in developing countries.   B:much higher than that in developing countries.  C:the same as that in developing countries.  D:much lower than that in developing countries.

{{B}}第三篇{{/B}}

The risk of dying from cancer in developed countries is

A:double that in developing countries. B:much higher than that in developing countries. C:the same as that in developing countries. D:much lower than that in developing countries.