Robot conducts human orchestra

山东新泰新汶一中 孙启禄

题材科技体裁说明文文章词数 难度 建议用时300 ★★★★ 6 分钟

难词探意

1.symphony/'sɪmfəni/ n.交响乐

2.humanoid /'hjuːmənɔɪd/ adj.有人类特点的

3.involvement /ɪn'vɒlvmənt/ n.参与

4.artificial /,ɑːtɪ'fɪʃl/ adj.人工的

5.cooperate /kəʊ'ɒpəreɪt/ v.合作；协作

The conductor on the podium (指挥台)has no baton (指挥棒), no tailcoat and no musical score, but Android Alter 3 is kicking up a storm as it guides asymphonyorchestra's players through their paces.

The robot has ahumanoidface, hands and lower arms, which gesture with what could pass for passion as it bounces up and down and rotates during the live performance of Keiichiro Shibuya's opera Scary Beauty in the Emirate of Sharjah.

Video from the recent performance in the Emirate of Sharjah showed the machine turning to face orchestra members and waving its arms.Alter 3 even sang at times.

Shibuya said theinvolvementof robots in the everyday lives of humans is continually increasing.But, he said he thinks people will need to decide in the future howartificialintelligence can best improve the human experience.

Shibuya added that he believes humans and robots can learn to work together to create beautiful art.“This work is a metaphor(暗喻) of the relations between humans and technology,” he said.Shibuya noted that sometimes the music-leading robot can “get crazy”, making it difficult for the musiciansto keep up.But other times, the humans and machinescooperatevery well.

Shibuya said the robots and AI that exist today are “far from complete”.He is interested in studying how such incomplete technology can be combined with art.

“I think this is a very exciting idea...We came to see what it looks like and how much is possible,” said Anna Kovacevic.Another audience member, who gave his name only as Billum, said after the show, “You know, a human conductor is so much better.” Although he said he is interested in AI and looks forward to big developments, he noted of the project: “The human touch is lost.”

Reading Check

1.What does the underlined “it” in paragraph 1 refer to?

A.The podium.B.The conductor.

C.The baton.D.The tailcoat.

2.What does Shibuya think of Alter 3?

A.It is not perfect at present.

B.It teams up with humans well.

C.It often makes humans crazy.

D.It is better than human conductors.

3.What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A.The performance drew mixed reactions.

B.Billum took no interest in the performance.

C.The audience thought Alter 3 would have a bright future.

D.The audience were fascinated by the performance.

Language Study

Sentence for writing

Shibuya noted that sometimes the music-leading robot can “get crazy”, making it difficult for the musicians to keep up.

【信息提取】本句是一个复合句。 Shibuya noted是主句，that引导的是宾语从句，making...to keep up是动词-ing形式构成的动词短语作结果状语，其中it是形式宾语，difficult是宾语补足语，动词不定式的复合结构是真正的宾语。

【句式仿写】中国修建了更多的高速铁路，这使人们的出行更加方便。