Set on a sloped plot (山坡) above Prague in the city’s Troja district, Villa Sophia has no keys, no light switches and a piano that can play by itself. The house can close the windows when it rains and read aloud materials it has selected from the Internet, based on the owners’ interests.
“The house is like a brain,” said Michaela Pankova, who shares the home with her husband, Karel Panek, and their daughters. “It makes decisions for you based on previous experience.” The home, designed by the Prague-based firm Coll Coll, is intended to go beyond automated to autonomous. “As we say, if we have to control it ourselves, it’s not smart enough,” said Mr. Panek, a computer scientist.
The couple wanted no compromises in quality and efficiency. When they couldn’t find a technology that met their standards, Mr. Panek, the brain behind his home’s brain, designed his own system. While family members go about their daily lives, the system collects data and evaluates that data in real time, then comes up with solutions and implements (实施) them. It can accept deliveries when the family isn’t he, thanks to individual door from afar and valuation of the home’s external context. It can preheat the driveway to clear snow and ice(but only if it predicts its use, saving energy otherwise)and lock the doors.
Put energy home security and convenience aside, the system’s benefit is that in developing beyond a smart home system to a smart home it free the homeowner from the burden of constant control.
Mr. Panek calls himself a technology optimist, and Mrs. Pankova said it took her some time to wram up to the system. “In the beginning I wasn’t into the idea of living in an AI house,” she said. “During the time of the preparation and later the construction, I slowly started to be open to the idea.”
8. What can be inferred about the house from Paragraph 1?
A.It is located at the foot of a hill. | B.It operates automatically. |
C.It frees the family from wind and rain. | D.It is poorly equipped with furniture. |
9. Who did some extra work to improve the control system of the house?
A.Coll Coll. | B.Mrs. Pankova. | C.Mr. Panek. | D.The couple’s kids. |
10. What is the best advantage of the smart home?
A.Picking up deliveries. | B.Saving energy. |
C.Preheating the driveway. | D.Removing the task of constant control. |
11. What do the underlined words “warm up to” probably mean in the last paragraph?
A.Apply to. | B.Adapt to. | C.Turn to. | D.Keep to. |