Part 1
Translation from English into Chinese 2 hours
Read the following two passages.
Translate them into Chinese.
Write your answers on the answer sheets.
You may use additional paper for your draft but you must copy your answers onto the answer sheets.
Passage 1
Artificial Speech
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. You will simply talk to it. The device will be permanently connected to the Internet and will beep relevant information up to you as it comes in.
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 techno-freaks.
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.
Within ten years we will have computers that respond to goal-directed conversations, but for a computer to have a conversation that takes into account human social behaviour is probably 50 years off. We're not going to be chatting to the big screen in the living room just yet.
There are those in the IT community who believe that current techniques will eventually hit a brick wall. Personally, I believe that incremental developments in performance are more likely. But it's true that by about 2040 or so, computer architectures will need to become highly parallel if performance is to keep increasing. Perhaps that will inspire some radically new approaches to speech understanding that will supplant the methods we're developing now.
Passage 2
The Atlantic Alliance Needs Tending
The U. S. and Europe. These days, they bicker almost like a couple whose long marriage is in danger of unravelling. The litany of misunderstandings and mutual resentment seems to be growing. From the death penalty to steel tariffs, from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to military spending, there is an abyss between American and European positions on innumerable issues.
Each side feels the other isn't shouldering enough of the burdens facing both. The Europeans see an unbending posture, from the Bush Administration's protecting inefficient U. S. steel companies to its threats to take out Iraq's Saddam Hussein - alone, if necessary. U. S. policymakers, for their part, are losing patience with Europeans' inability to get serious about defence spending. The war in Afghanistan has brought home the reality that much of Europe has fallen behind in military technology. And Washington is annoyed at Europe's feckless attempts at economic reforms. As a result, Europe couldn't play the role of economic locomotive to help pull the U. S. out of its downturn in 2001. This year, Europe is set to grow less than the U. S. once again.
Relationships in trouble can be fixed, and this one had better be. In a world increasingly fraught with danger, European leaders must commit themselves to bigger military budgets or risk being marginalised by the U. S. military machine. The $ 45.1 billion hike in military spending the Bush Administration is pushing for next year is $12.1 billion more than the entire defence budget of France. The U. S. could help by opening up more of its vast military market to European partners. And Washington should realise that in many global challenges a smart multilateral approach can be much more effective than unilateralism.
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