Unit 16: Technology

Chọn từ trong bảng để hoàn thiện các câu trả lời IELTS Speaking Part 1 dưới đây

Do you use any gadgets on a daily basis? 
Yes, 1 …………… I do. 2 …………… I don't consider myself a geek, I quite enjoy using all the new items like laptops and smartphones. 3 …………… , we're living in the computer age and, 4 ……………, it's impossible to ignore cutting-edge technology.

Do you use the Internet for your studies?
Yes, I’d be lost without it. I do lots of video conferencing to practise speaking. 5 ……………, social media like Facebook is a good way to meet up with other students. I 6 ……………  download podcasts that teach English vocabulary and grammar.

Do you own a computer? If so, how often do you use it and for what purposes? 
Yes, I have a personal computer and a laptop. I use my laptop 7 …………… for education. It is very light and fits in my bag easily, 8 …………… I take it with me to school. 9 ……………, my PC has a large screen and convenient keyboard, so I use it for word processing and browsing websites. It is an old, 10 …………… still well-oiled machine.

II.       Đọc bài viết sau và trả lời các câu hỏi

The Return of Artificial Intelligence
It is becoming acceptable again to talk of computers performing
human tasks such as problem-solving and pattern-recognition.

Paragraph A
After years in the wilderness, the term 'artificial intelligence' (AI) seems poised to make a comeback. AI was big in the 1980s but vanished in the 1990s. It re-entered public consciousness with the release of Al, a movie about a robot boy. This has ignited a public debate about AI, but the term is also being used once more within the computer industry. Researchers, executives and marketing people are now using the expression without irony or inverted commas. And it is not always hype. The term is being applied, with some justification, to products that depend on technology that was originally developed by AI researchers. Admittedly, the rehabilitation of the term has a long way to go, and some firms still prefer to avoid using it. But the fact that others are starting to use it again suggests that AI has moved on from being seen as an over-ambitious and under-achieving field of research.
Paragraph B
The field was launched, and the term 'artificial intelligence' coined, at a conference in 1956 by a group of researchers that included Marvin Minsky, John McCarthy, Herbert Simon and Alan Newell, all of whom went on to become leading figures in the field. The expression provided an attractive but informative name for a research programme that encompassed such previously disparate fields as operations research, cybernetics, logic and computer science. The goal they shared was an attempt to capture or mimic human abilities using machines. That said, different groups of researchers attacked different problems, from speech recognition to chess playing, in different ways; AI unified the field in name only. But it was a term that captured the public imagination.
Paragraph C
Most researchers agree that AI peaked around 1985. A public reared on science-fiction movies and excited by the growing power of computers had high expectations. For years, AI researchers had implied that a breakthrough was just around the corner. Marvin Minsky said in 1967 that within a generation the problem of creating 'artificial intelligence' would be substantially solved. Prototypes of medical-diagnosis programs and speech recognition software appeared to be making progress. It proved to be a false dawn. Thinking computers and household robots failed to materialise, and a backlash ensued. 'There was undue optimism in the early 1980s', says David Leaky, a researcher at Indiana University. Then when people realised these were hard problems, there was retrenchment. By the late 1980s, the term AI was being avoided by many researchers, who opted instead to align themselves with specific sub-disciplines such as neural networks, agent technology, case-based reasoning, and so on.
Paragraph D
Ironically, in some ways AI was a victim of its own success. Whenever an apparently mundane problem was solved, such as building a system that could land an aircraft unattended, the problem was deemed not to have been AI in the first place. 'If it works, it can't be AI', as Dr. Leaky characterises it. The effect of repeatedly moving the goalposts in this way was that AI came to refer to 'blue-sky' research that was still years away from commercialisation. Researchers joked that AI stood for 'almost implemented'. Meanwhile, the technologies that made it onto the market, such as speech recognition, language translation and decision-support software, were no longer regarded as AI. Yet all three once fell well within the umbrella of AI research.
Paragraph E
But the tide may now be turning, according to Dr. Leaky. HNC Software of San Diego, backed by a government agency, reckon that their new approach to artificial intelligence is the most powerful and promising approach ever discovered. HNC claim that their system, based on a cluster of 30 processors, could be used to spot camouflaged vehicles on a battlefield or extract a voice signal from a noisy background - tasks humans can do well, but computers cannot. 'Whether or not their technology lives up to the claims made for it, the fact that HNC are emphasising the use of AI is itself an interesting development', says Dr. Leaky.
Paragraph F
Another factor that may boost the prospects for AI in the near future is that investors are now looking for firms using clever technology, rather than just a clever business model, to differentiate themselves. In particular, the problem of information overload, exacerbated by the growth of e-mail and the explosion in the number of web pages, means there are plenty of opportunities for new technologies to help filter and categorise information - classic AI problems. That may mean that more artificial intelligence companies will start to emerge to meet this challenge.
Paragraph G
The 1969 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, featured an intelligent computer called HAL 9000. As well as understanding and speaking English, HAL could play chess and even learned to lipread. HAL thus encapsulated the optimism of the 1960s that intelligent computers would be widespread by 2001. But 2001 has been and gone, and there is still no sign of a HAL-like computer. Individual systems can play chess or transcribe speech, but a general theory of machine intelligence still remains elusive. It may be, however, that the comparison with HAL no longer seems quite so important, and AI can now be judged by what it can do, rather than by how well it matches up to a 30-year-old science-fiction film. 'People are beginning to realise that there are impressive things that these systems can do' says Dr. Leake hopefully.

Questions 1-10
Match the words to the correct definitions.

Questions 11-15

The Reading Passage has seven paragraphs, A-G.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
NB You may use any letter more than once.
11.   how AI might have a military impact 
12.   the fact that AI brings together a range of separate research areas
13.   the reason why AI has become a common topic of conversation again 
14.   how AI could help deal with difficulties related to the amount of information available electronically
15.   where the expression AI was first used
 
Questions 16-21
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?
Write

16.   The researchers who launched the field of AI had worked together on other projects in the past. 
17.   In 1985, AI was at its lowest point. 
18.   Research into agent technology was more costly than research into neural networks. 
19.   Applications of AI have already had a degree of success. 
20.   The problems waiting to be solved by AI have not changed since 1967. 
21.   The film 2001: A Space Odyssey reflected contemporary ideas about the potential of AI computers.
 
Questions 22-24
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
22.   According to researchers, in the late 1980s, there was a feeling that
    A. a general theory of AI would never be developed.
    B. original expectations of AI may not have been justified.
    C. a wide range of applications was close to fruition.
    D. more powerful computers were the key to further progress.
23.   In Dr Leake's opinion, the reputation of AI suffered as a result of
    A. changing perceptions.
    B. premature implementation.
    C. poorly planned projects.
    D. commercial pressures.
24.   The prospects for AI may benefit from
    A. existing AI applications.
    B. new business models.
    C. orders from Internet-only companies.
    D. new investment priorities.

Luyện tập

Đọc bài viết và trả lời các câu hỏi

Social Media Privacy – A Contradiction in Terms?
This article is by Naomi Troni, global CMO of Euro RSCG Worldwide.

A
Never in the course of human interaction have so many shared so much about themselves with so many others – and with so little apparent concern for their privacy. Was it really just a generation ago that people kept all but their most basic information under virtual lock and key? Today, we happily share our date and place of birth, name of our first pet, mother’s maiden name, favourite movie or book, favourite colour, first school teacher – and myriad other snippets of information required by online services as part of their security procedures.
B
The basic premise behind this information-sharing is nothing new. Consumers have long handed over a little personal information in exchange for services such as banking and finance, utilities and healthcare. The big difference now is that the information is digitized and accessible online – and we’re handing it out to virtually anyone who asks, regardless of how briefly the business has been in existence. Of even greater concern to many is the amount and variety of information being gathered about us without our explicit permission. Whereas retailers and others used to tweeze out information gleaned through loyalty cards, prize draws and catalogue mailing lists, now these old standbys have been massively augmented by customers researching and purchasing online, leaving in their wake a digital trail of cookie crumbs detailing their needs, tastes and desires.
C
And then there’s social media. If this isn’t the Holy Grail* for marketers, it’s difficult to imagine what would be. In this thoroughly 21st century communications channel, old notions of privacy simply do not apply; sharing personal information, experiences and opinions is the whole point of the service. And, wonder of wonders, consumers don’t only provide it willingly – they provide it for free! Sure, some people take the precaution of limiting access to their Facebook or Google+ pages, but even these people typically are eager to share their thoughts via comment sections on news sites, reviews on retail sites and in branded clubs and forums.
D
With all the time we spend online and all the forums we frequent, it’s no wonder most of us have grown accustomed to doling out little snippets of personal information with barely a second thought. It helps that we rarely are asked to hand over a whole stack of personal information in one massive data transfer; that would be too much trouble and might provoke too much anxiety. Rather, we routinely hand it out a bit at a time.
E
Anybody over the age of 30 likely will remember that in the early days of mainstream Internet, 10 to 15 years ago, consumers were wary about handing over private information. A 2001 UCLA report, for instance, found high levels of consumer concern over online privacy in general and credit card security in particular.
F
Since then hundreds of millions of people have come online and become regular users of commerce sites and social media. Early concerns about online privacy have been sidelined by the desire for more speed, more convenience, more choice and more great deals. Familiarity has bred complacency and even foolhardiness; we’ve all heard about people uploading pretty much everything, including the most intimate words and images.
G
Now, after a decade of consumers feeling increasingly free-and-easy with their personal information online, we are seeing signs of a new wariness setting in. In a Euro RSCG global survey conducted among 7,213 adults in 19 countries, we found that 55% of respondents are worried that ‘technology is robbing us of our privacy’; the figure was above 60% in a number of countries, including the United States and China. Similarly, 61 % overall agreed ‘People share too much about their personal thoughts and experiences online; we need to go back to being more private.’
H
And it’s not just snooping companies and hackers that consumers fear. Nearly half the sample (47%) – and a majority of millennials – worry that friends or family will share inappropriate personal information about them online. Around one-third overall already regret posting personal information about themselves.
 
* Holy Grail – a desired ambition or goal (in Christian tradition, the cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper with his followers)

Questions 1-10
Match the words to the correct definitions.

Questions 11-15
The Reading Passage has eight sections, A-H. Choose the correct heading for sections B, D, D, F and G from the list of headings below.
i           A reverse in trends
ii          Blogging
iii         Digital technology: a threat to privacy
iv         Privacy versus ease
v          Online social networks and consumer information
vi         Little by little
vii        Phone hacking and privacy
viii       Attitudes at the turn of the century
Example: Paragraph E         viii................................

11.    Paragraph B         .....................................
12.    Paragraph C         .....................................
13.    Paragraph D         .....................................
14.    Paragraph F          .....................................
15.    Paragraph G         .....................................

Questions 16-20
Do the following statements agree with the information in the Reading Passage?
Write

16.   In the past, people shared their personal details freely.
17.   Nowadays, individuals give their personal information to online services because it makes them feel safe.
18.   Traditionally, financial organizations have asked their clients to provide a limited amount of information.
19.   The difference between the past and the present is that private information is available digitally to a much larger number of people.
20.   New businesses are not allowed to request personal information.
 
Questions 21-24
Complete each sentence with the correct ending A-F from the list below.
21.   It is worrying that
22.   Even people who protect their personal information on social networks
23.   Online services ask for a small amount of information
24.   Nearly 50% of people who responded to a survey about personal information

Keys

I.
1.      surely
2.      although
3.      all in all
4.      frankly speaking
5.      on top of that
6.      also
7.      mainly
8.      so
9.      meanwhile
10.   but
II. 
1.      i
2.      e
3.      g
4.      a
5.      h
6.      c
7.      b
8.      j
9.      f
10.   d
11.   E
12.   B
13.   A
14.   F
15.   B
16.   NOT GIVEN
17.   FALSE
18.   NOT GIVEN
19.   TRUE
20.   FALSE
21.   TRUE
22.   B
23.   A
24.   D
Luyện tập

1.      i
2.      e
3.      g
4.      j
5.      c
6.      a
7.      h
8.      d
9.      f
10.   b
11.   iii
12.   v
13.  vi
14.  iv
15.  i
16.  F
17.  F
18.  T
19.  T
20.  NG
21.  E
22.  D
23.  C
24.  B