虚拟助教

Professor Ashok Goel of Georgia Tech （佐治亚理工学院） developed an artificially intelligent teaching robot, knowledge-based artificial intelligence, to help handle the enormous number of students' questions in the online class. This online course is a core requirement of Georgia Tech's online Master of Science（理科硕士） in Computer Science program. Professor Goel already had eight teaching assistants, but that wasn't enough to deal with the overwhelming number of daily questions from students.

Many students drop out of online courses because of the lack of teaching support.When students feel isolated or confused and reach out with questions that go unanswered,their motivation to continue begins to taper off. Professor Goel decided to do something to remedy this situation and his solution was to create a virtual assistant named Jill Watson,which is based on the IBM Watson Platform.

Goel and his team developed several versions of Jill Watson before releasing her to the online forums. At first, the virtual assistant wasn't too great. But Goel and his team sourced （获得） the online discussion forum to find all the 40,000 questions that had ever been answered since the class was launched. Then they began to feed Jill with the questions and answers. After some adjustments and sufficient time, Jill was able to answer the students' questions correctly 97% of the time. So advanced and realistic was the virtual assistant that the students didn't know she was a computer.

The students, who were studying artificial intelligence, were interacting with the virtual assistant and couldn't tell it apart from a real human being. Not until April 26 did Goel inform them about Jill's true identity. To his great delight, the students were actually positive about the experience.

Next year, Professor Goel's virtual assistant will be supposed to take over answering 40% of all the questions posed by students on the online forum. The name Jill Watson will, of course, change to something else next semester. Professor Goel has a much rosier outlook on the future of artificial intelligence than, say, Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking,Bill Gates or Steve Wozniak.

Activity A Reading for understanding

Ⅰ. Text-centered chunks

knowledge-based 基于知识的

drop out of 退出

taper off 逐渐减少

interact with 和……互动

tell...apart from 将……与……区分

to one's delight 让某人高兴的是

be positive about 对……积极

be supposed to do 应该做……

take over 接管

have a rosy outlook on 对……有乐观的看法

Ⅱ. Text-centered sentences

一、非谓语1. When students feel isolated or confused and reach out with questions that go unanswered, their motivation to continue begins to taper off. 当学生们感到被孤立或者困惑且提出的问题没有得到答案时，他们继续学习的动力就会开始逐渐减弱。

【点石成金】go unanswered中的go作系动词，后接形容词，意为“变成；变为；变得（尤指朝坏的方面）”。

【运用迁移】当听到明天要去公园野炊时，孩子们欣喜若狂。

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2. Next year, Professor Goel's virtual assistant will be supposed to take over answering 40% of all the questions posed by students on the online forum. 明年，Goel教授的虚拟助教将会负责回答学生在在线论坛上提出的所有问题的40%。

【点石成金】posed by students中的posed为非谓语动词的过去分词，意为“由学生提出的”。

【运用迁移】出生于一个美丽的村庄，他喜欢欣赏自然风光。

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二、部分倒装句

Not until April 26 did Goel inform them about Jill's true identity. 直到4月26日，Goel才告诉他们Jill的真实身份。

【点石成金】“not until...+谓语+主语”为部分倒装结构，强调了时间，意为“直到……，……才……”。

【运用迁移】直到刚刚我才意识到我被骗了。

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Activity B Reading for writing

随着线上教学的普及，越来越多的虚拟助教走入学生们的日常学习中。校刊正在征集学生对虚拟助教的看法。 请你根据以下要求投稿。 内容要点：

1. 虚拟助教的应用情况；

2. 你对虚拟助教的看法和建议。

注意：

1. 词数80左右；

2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；

3. 至少需要使用一个非谓语或部分倒装句；

4. 注意段落内的逻辑关系。

My view on virtual assistants

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写作导引

本次的写作任务是写一篇文章给校刊投稿，要求学生描述虚拟助教的应用情况、对虚拟助教的看法以及建议等，并且至少需要使用一个非谓语或部分倒装句。这些写作要求和所给语篇的主题语境是紧密相关的。 我们可以通过整合同主题阅读材料的内容和语言，梳理写作思路和积累素材。

一、语篇解码

（一）内容分析

What is the text mainly about?

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（二）宏观结构

Fill in the blanks according to the text.

二、素材积累

本次的写作任务是基于“虚拟助教”的主题开展的写作，我们可以通过模仿并运用文章中的语言表达，如词块和句型，积累写作的语言素材。

（一）介绍现象的核心表达

1. with the advancement of the society 随着社会的发展

2. as the society develops in leaps and bounds 随着社会的迅速发展

3. an increasing number of people find it+adj.+to do sth 越来越多人发现做某事怎么样

4. it has become a trend for sb to do sth 某人做某事成为一种趋势

5. it is evident that... 很明显的是……

（二）表达观点的核心表达

1. hold a totally opposite argument 持完全相反的观点

2. hold various attitudes towards this issue 对这个问题持有不同的态度

3. views on...vary from person to person 对……的观点因人而异

4. be in favor of/be positive about 支持……观点

5. Some hold the point of view that it is of great importance/significance for sb to do sth. 有些人认为，对某人而言做某事是很重要的。

6. As far as I am concerned, it is not a matter of “should or should not” but of“how”. 在我看来，这不是“应该或不应该”的问题，而是“如何做”的问题。

（三）提出建议的核心表达

1. had better do sth 最好做某事

2. It is highly recommended that sb should do sth./Doing sth is strongly recommended. 强烈建议某人做某事。

3. ..., which is beneficial ……是有益的

4. ...leaves much room for improvement ……有待提高

5. The way the ten-minute after-class time is spent leaves much to be desired. 课后十分钟的利用情况有待提高。

6. You are supposed to be willing to make contributions to our homeland. 你应该乐于为祖国做出贡献。

三、写作支架

本次的写作任务是写一篇融合说明和议论的文章，根据写作要求，其语篇结构可定为“现象+观点+建议”。 文章的框架如下：

With the advancement of..., it has become a trend that...（现象）

I am positive about... because of the following reasons. First, ... Second, ... Third, ...(观点) I believe that it will be better if we do sth in order to/so as to... (建议)

四、语篇过手

根据以上提供的主题、主题表达和语篇结构，我们可以写出文章的第一、二段。第一段描述虚拟助教的应用情况，第二段表达个人的观点并提出建议。 总词数控制在80左右。

同时，学习运用前文阅读材料中出现的非谓语或部分倒装。尤其要注意表达的内在逻辑关系，需要注意使用恰当的连词。