Focus 4 Unit 7. Listening and Reading Test.

Listening

You will hear four different recordings. For questions 1–4, choose the correct answer, A, B or C.

1. The speaker is

Listening

You will hear four different recordings. For questions 1–4, choose the correct answer, A, B or C.

2. Which sentence best describes the situation?

Listening

You will hear four different recordings. For questions 1–4, choose the correct answer, A, B or C.

3. The speaker says that Michael’s mother should

Listening

You will hear four different recordings. For questions 1–4, choose the correct answer, A, B or C.

4. Before her illness, Sally

Reading

Read the text and answer the questions. For questions 1–6, choose the correct answer, A, B, C or D.

EUGENE GOOTSMAN PASSES A TEST

Eugene Goostman is a thirteen-year-old boy from Odessa in Ukraine. He has got a pet guinea pig and his father is a doctor. In 2014, he passed a test that some people say had never been passed before. Is Eugene a genius? In fact, he doesn’t really exist at all.

Eugene is a chatterbot. That is, a computer programme which can listen and reply to questions. You may have one on your smartphone. You can ask it to do simple tasks like find out what the weather is like in Portugal or how many dollars there are to the euro. You can also try to have a conversation with your chatterbot, although their answers don’t always make sense. However, Eugene is more advanced than these very basic versions. He actually managed to fool some people into thinking he was human in a test thought up over 60 years ago.

The test he passed is called the Turing Test, named after the computer expert, Alan Turing, who became famous for his work on the Enigma code machine during the Second World War. This was a German machine which was brought to England in 1939 from Poland. By breaking the code, Turing was able to find out German war plans in advance. In 1950, Turing wrote a paper which predicted that, one day, robots would have the intelligence to carry out a human-like conversation. Two years later, in 1952, he finalised the rules of a test which would show whether or not this intelligence existed. The main rule was that, if any computer persuaded 30 percent of the people reading or listening to the answers that it was human, it would pass the test. Turing passed away in 1954 but the challenge lived on.

Interestingly, Turing based his test on a party game, called Imitation, which he enjoyed taking part in. In this game, a set of questions were given to a man and a woman. They typed their answers, not necessarily truthfully, and the other party guests had to try to guess who had written which set of answers. The theory was that there would always be some clues that would give them away. Turing died without knowing whether any robot would ever manage to pass his test but, in 2014, on the sixtieth anniversary of his death, Eugene Goostman managed to do it.

Not everyone is impressed by Eugene’s accomplishment. Some say that Eugene wasn’t the first chatterbot to pass the test. This is technically true but the previous tests were either too short or they were judged by an audience rather than experts. These factors meant that the results weren’t conclusive. Eugene’s test involved many more questions but there were still criticisms. The main one involves Eugene’s ‘human’ profile. His designers deliberately made him a thirteen-year-old with poor English so that judges would be more likely to ignore his strange or irrelevant answers than they would if he was a native speaker adult. Finally, even if he was the first chatterbot to really pass the test, many people argue that Eugene doesn’t actually possess real intelligence. All it can do is imitate intelligence. In other words, it is unable to think or learn like a real human being.

Chatterbots may not be ready to take over the world yet but they can have uses. They can perform basic tasks on a smartphone while we are unable to press buttons on our phones ourselves, such as while driving. They can also be used to create believable characters in video games which can follow orders and report on what is happening. However, robots with real intelligence are still a long way off. You won’t be able to get one to do your homework for a few more years, I’m afraid!

1. Why can it be difficult to talk to smartphone chatterbots?

Reading

Read the text and answer the questions. For questions 1–6, choose the correct answer, A, B, C or D.

EUGENE GOOTSMAN PASSES A TEST

Eugene Goostman is a thirteen-year-old boy from Odessa in Ukraine. He has got a pet guinea pig and his father is a doctor. In 2014, he passed a test that some people say had never been passed before. Is Eugene a genius? In fact, he doesn’t really exist at all.

Eugene is a chatterbot. That is, a computer programme which can listen and reply to questions. You may have one on your smartphone. You can ask it to do simple tasks like find out what the weather is like in Portugal or how many dollars there are to the euro. You can also try to have a conversation with your chatterbot, although their answers don’t always make sense. However, Eugene is more advanced than these very basic versions. He actually managed to fool some people into thinking he was human in a test thought up over 60 years ago.

The test he passed is called the Turing Test, named after the computer expert, Alan Turing, who became famous for his work on the Enigma code machine during the Second World War. This was a German machine which was brought to England in 1939 from Poland. By breaking the code, Turing was able to find out German war plans in advance. In 1950, Turing wrote a paper which predicted that, one day, robots would have the intelligence to carry out a human-like conversation. Two years later, in 1952, he finalised the rules of a test which would show whether or not this intelligence existed. The main rule was that, if any computer persuaded 30 percent of the people reading or listening to the answers that it was human, it would pass the test. Turing passed away in 1954 but the challenge lived on.

Interestingly, Turing based his test on a party game, called Imitation, which he enjoyed taking part in. In this game, a set of questions were given to a man and a woman. They typed their answers, not necessarily truthfully, and the other party guests had to try to guess who had written which set of answers. The theory was that there would always be some clues that would give them away. Turing died without knowing whether any robot would ever manage to pass his test but, in 2014, on the sixtieth anniversary of his death, Eugene Goostman managed to do it.

Not everyone is impressed by Eugene’s accomplishment. Some say that Eugene wasn’t the first chatterbot to pass the test. This is technically true but the previous tests were either too short or they were judged by an audience rather than experts. These factors meant that the results weren’t conclusive. Eugene’s test involved many more questions but there were still criticisms. The main one involves Eugene’s ‘human’ profile. His designers deliberately made him a thirteen-year-old with poor English so that judges would be more likely to ignore his strange or irrelevant answers than they would if he was a native speaker adult. Finally, even if he was the first chatterbot to really pass the test, many people argue that Eugene doesn’t actually possess real intelligence. All it can do is imitate intelligence. In other words, it is unable to think or learn like a real human being.

Chatterbots may not be ready to take over the world yet but they can have uses. They can perform basic tasks on a smartphone while we are unable to press buttons on our phones ourselves, such as while driving. They can also be used to create believable characters in video games which can follow orders and report on what is happening. However, robots with real intelligence are still a long way off. You won’t be able to get one to do your homework for a few more years, I’m afraid!

2. What could Eugene do that other smartphone apps couldn’t?

Reading

Read the text and answer the questions. For questions 1–6, choose the correct answer, A, B, C or D.

EUGENE GOOTSMAN PASSES A TEST

Eugene Goostman is a thirteen-year-old boy from Odessa in Ukraine. He has got a pet guinea pig and his father is a doctor. In 2014, he passed a test that some people say had never been passed before. Is Eugene a genius? In fact, he doesn’t really exist at all.

Eugene is a chatterbot. That is, a computer programme which can listen and reply to questions. You may have one on your smartphone. You can ask it to do simple tasks like find out what the weather is like in Portugal or how many dollars there are to the euro. You can also try to have a conversation with your chatterbot, although their answers don’t always make sense. However, Eugene is more advanced than these very basic versions. He actually managed to fool some people into thinking he was human in a test thought up over 60 years ago.

The test he passed is called the Turing Test, named after the computer expert, Alan Turing, who became famous for his work on the Enigma code machine during the Second World War. This was a German machine which was brought to England in 1939 from Poland. By breaking the code, Turing was able to find out German war plans in advance. In 1950, Turing wrote a paper which predicted that, one day, robots would have the intelligence to carry out a human-like conversation. Two years later, in 1952, he finalised the rules of a test which would show whether or not this intelligence existed. The main rule was that, if any computer persuaded 30 percent of the people reading or listening to the answers that it was human, it would pass the test. Turing passed away in 1954 but the challenge lived on.

Interestingly, Turing based his test on a party game, called Imitation, which he enjoyed taking part in. In this game, a set of questions were given to a man and a woman. They typed their answers, not necessarily truthfully, and the other party guests had to try to guess who had written which set of answers. The theory was that there would always be some clues that would give them away. Turing died without knowing whether any robot would ever manage to pass his test but, in 2014, on the sixtieth anniversary of his death, Eugene Goostman managed to do it.

Not everyone is impressed by Eugene’s accomplishment. Some say that Eugene wasn’t the first chatterbot to pass the test. This is technically true but the previous tests were either too short or they were judged by an audience rather than experts. These factors meant that the results weren’t conclusive. Eugene’s test involved many more questions but there were still criticisms. The main one involves Eugene’s ‘human’ profile. His designers deliberately made him a thirteen-year-old with poor English so that judges would be more likely to ignore his strange or irrelevant answers than they would if he was a native speaker adult. Finally, even if he was the first chatterbot to really pass the test, many people argue that Eugene doesn’t actually possess real intelligence. All it can do is imitate intelligence. In other words, it is unable to think or learn like a real human being.

Chatterbots may not be ready to take over the world yet but they can have uses. They can perform basic tasks on a smartphone while we are unable to press buttons on our phones ourselves, such as while driving. They can also be used to create believable characters in video games which can follow orders and report on what is happening. However, robots with real intelligence are still a long way off. You won’t be able to get one to do your homework for a few more years, I’m afraid!

3. After breaking the Enigma code, what did Turing believe about the robots of the future?

Reading

Read the text and answer the questions. For questions 1–6, choose the correct answer, A, B, C or D.

EUGENE GOOTSMAN PASSES A TEST

Eugene Goostman is a thirteen-year-old boy from Odessa in Ukraine. He has got a pet guinea pig and his father is a doctor. In 2014, he passed a test that some people say had never been passed before. Is Eugene a genius? In fact, he doesn’t really exist at all.

Eugene is a chatterbot. That is, a computer programme which can listen and reply to questions. You may have one on your smartphone. You can ask it to do simple tasks like find out what the weather is like in Portugal or how many dollars there are to the euro. You can also try to have a conversation with your chatterbot, although their answers don’t always make sense. However, Eugene is more advanced than these very basic versions. He actually managed to fool some people into thinking he was human in a test thought up over 60 years ago.

The test he passed is called the Turing Test, named after the computer expert, Alan Turing, who became famous for his work on the Enigma code machine during the Second World War. This was a German machine which was brought to England in 1939 from Poland. By breaking the code, Turing was able to find out German war plans in advance. In 1950, Turing wrote a paper which predicted that, one day, robots would have the intelligence to carry out a human-like conversation. Two years later, in 1952, he finalised the rules of a test which would show whether or not this intelligence existed. The main rule was that, if any computer persuaded 30 percent of the people reading or listening to the answers that it was human, it would pass the test. Turing passed away in 1954 but the challenge lived on.

Interestingly, Turing based his test on a party game, called Imitation, which he enjoyed taking part in. In this game, a set of questions were given to a man and a woman. They typed their answers, not necessarily truthfully, and the other party guests had to try to guess who had written which set of answers. The theory was that there would always be some clues that would give them away. Turing died without knowing whether any robot would ever manage to pass his test but, in 2014, on the sixtieth anniversary of his death, Eugene Goostman managed to do it.

Not everyone is impressed by Eugene’s accomplishment. Some say that Eugene wasn’t the first chatterbot to pass the test. This is technically true but the previous tests were either too short or they were judged by an audience rather than experts. These factors meant that the results weren’t conclusive. Eugene’s test involved many more questions but there were still criticisms. The main one involves Eugene’s ‘human’ profile. His designers deliberately made him a thirteen-year-old with poor English so that judges would be more likely to ignore his strange or irrelevant answers than they would if he was a native speaker adult. Finally, even if he was the first chatterbot to really pass the test, many people argue that Eugene doesn’t actually possess real intelligence. All it can do is imitate intelligence. In other words, it is unable to think or learn like a real human being.

Chatterbots may not be ready to take over the world yet but they can have uses. They can perform basic tasks on a smartphone while we are unable to press buttons on our phones ourselves, such as while driving. They can also be used to create believable characters in video games which can follow orders and report on what is happening. However, robots with real intelligence are still a long way off. You won’t be able to get one to do your homework for a few more years, I’m afraid!

4. What was believed about the game Imitation?

Reading

Read the text and answer the questions. For questions 1–6, choose the correct answer, A, B, C or D.

EUGENE GOOTSMAN PASSES A TEST

Eugene Goostman is a thirteen-year-old boy from Odessa in Ukraine. He has got a pet guinea pig and his father is a doctor. In 2014, he passed a test that some people say had never been passed before. Is Eugene a genius? In fact, he doesn’t really exist at all.

Eugene is a chatterbot. That is, a computer programme which can listen and reply to questions. You may have one on your smartphone. You can ask it to do simple tasks like find out what the weather is like in Portugal or how many dollars there are to the euro. You can also try to have a conversation with your chatterbot, although their answers don’t always make sense. However, Eugene is more advanced than these very basic versions. He actually managed to fool some people into thinking he was human in a test thought up over 60 years ago.

The test he passed is called the Turing Test, named after the computer expert, Alan Turing, who became famous for his work on the Enigma code machine during the Second World War. This was a German machine which was brought to England in 1939 from Poland. By breaking the code, Turing was able to find out German war plans in advance. In 1950, Turing wrote a paper which predicted that, one day, robots would have the intelligence to carry out a human-like conversation. Two years later, in 1952, he finalised the rules of a test which would show whether or not this intelligence existed. The main rule was that, if any computer persuaded 30 percent of the people reading or listening to the answers that it was human, it would pass the test. Turing passed away in 1954 but the challenge lived on.

Interestingly, Turing based his test on a party game, called Imitation, which he enjoyed taking part in. In this game, a set of questions were given to a man and a woman. They typed their answers, not necessarily truthfully, and the other party guests had to try to guess who had written which set of answers. The theory was that there would always be some clues that would give them away. Turing died without knowing whether any robot would ever manage to pass his test but, in 2014, on the sixtieth anniversary of his death, Eugene Goostman managed to do it.

Not everyone is impressed by Eugene’s accomplishment. Some say that Eugene wasn’t the first chatterbot to pass the test. This is technically true but the previous tests were either too short or they were judged by an audience rather than experts. These factors meant that the results weren’t conclusive. Eugene’s test involved many more questions but there were still criticisms. The main one involves Eugene’s ‘human’ profile. His designers deliberately made him a thirteen-year-old with poor English so that judges would be more likely to ignore his strange or irrelevant answers than they would if he was a native speaker adult. Finally, even if he was the first chatterbot to really pass the test, many people argue that Eugene doesn’t actually possess real intelligence. All it can do is imitate intelligence. In other words, it is unable to think or learn like a real human being.

Chatterbots may not be ready to take over the world yet but they can have uses. They can perform basic tasks on a smartphone while we are unable to press buttons on our phones ourselves, such as while driving. They can also be used to create believable characters in video games which can follow orders and report on what is happening. However, robots with real intelligence are still a long way off. You won’t be able to get one to do your homework for a few more years, I’m afraid!

5. Why was Eugene’s test more reliable than previous tests passed by other chatterbots?

Reading

Read the text and answer the questions. For questions 1–6, choose the correct answer, A, B, C or D.

EUGENE GOOTSMAN PASSES A TEST

Eugene Goostman is a thirteen-year-old boy from Odessa in Ukraine. He has got a pet guinea pig and his father is a doctor. In 2014, he passed a test that some people say had never been passed before. Is Eugene a genius? In fact, he doesn’t really exist at all.

Eugene is a chatterbot. That is, a computer programme which can listen and reply to questions. You may have one on your smartphone. You can ask it to do simple tasks like find out what the weather is like in Portugal or how many dollars there are to the euro. You can also try to have a conversation with your chatterbot, although their answers don’t always make sense. However, Eugene is more advanced than these very basic versions. He actually managed to fool some people into thinking he was human in a test thought up over 60 years ago.

The test he passed is called the Turing Test, named after the computer expert, Alan Turing, who became famous for his work on the Enigma code machine during the Second World War. This was a German machine which was brought to England in 1939 from Poland. By breaking the code, Turing was able to find out German war plans in advance. In 1950, Turing wrote a paper which predicted that, one day, robots would have the intelligence to carry out a human-like conversation. Two years later, in 1952, he finalised the rules of a test which would show whether or not this intelligence existed. The main rule was that, if any computer persuaded 30 percent of the people reading or listening to the answers that it was human, it would pass the test. Turing passed away in 1954 but the challenge lived on.

Interestingly, Turing based his test on a party game, called Imitation, which he enjoyed taking part in. In this game, a set of questions were given to a man and a woman. They typed their answers, not necessarily truthfully, and the other party guests had to try to guess who had written which set of answers. The theory was that there would always be some clues that would give them away. Turing died without knowing whether any robot would ever manage to pass his test but, in 2014, on the sixtieth anniversary of his death, Eugene Goostman managed to do it.

Not everyone is impressed by Eugene’s accomplishment. Some say that Eugene wasn’t the first chatterbot to pass the test. This is technically true but the previous tests were either too short or they were judged by an audience rather than experts. These factors meant that the results weren’t conclusive. Eugene’s test involved many more questions but there were still criticisms. The main one involves Eugene’s ‘human’ profile. His designers deliberately made him a thirteen-year-old with poor English so that judges would be more likely to ignore his strange or irrelevant answers than they would if he was a native speaker adult. Finally, even if he was the first chatterbot to really pass the test, many people argue that Eugene doesn’t actually possess real intelligence. All it can do is imitate intelligence. In other words, it is unable to think or learn like a real human being.

Chatterbots may not be ready to take over the world yet but they can have uses. They can perform basic tasks on a smartphone while we are unable to press buttons on our phones ourselves, such as while driving. They can also be used to create believable characters in video games which can follow orders and report on what is happening. However, robots with real intelligence are still a long way off. You won’t be able to get one to do your homework for a few more years, I’m afraid!

6. What are the main uses for chatterbots at the moment?