1 . No one knows what the future will look like. New technology and climate change might make the world more different than we can possibly imagine. So we had better keep an open mind and hope for the best.

We have no idea what the job market will look like in 2050. It is generally agreed that machine learning and robotics will change almost every line of work – from producing yoghurt to teaching yoga. However, there are conflicting views about the nature of the change and its urgency. Some believe that within a mere decade or two, billions of people will become economically redundant (多余的). Others maintain that even in the long run automation will keep creating new jobs and greater prosperity for all.

So are we on an edge of a terrifying sudden change, or are such forecasts yet another example of ill-founded Luddite hysteria(勒德分子的歇斯底里)? It is hard to say. Fears that automation will create massive unemployment go back to the nineteenth century, and so far they have never materialized. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, for every job lost to a machine at least one new job was created, and the average standard of living has increased dramatically.

Yet there are good reasons to think that this time it is different, and that machine learning will be a real game changer. Humans have two types of abilities – physical and cognitive(认知的). In the past, machines competed with humans mainly in raw physical abilities, while humans still had a great advantage over machines in cognition. Hence as manual jobs in agriculture and industry were automated, new service jobs emerged that required the kind of cognitive skills only humans possessed: learning, analysing, communicating and above all understanding human emotions. However, AI is now beginning to outperform humans in more and more of these skills, including in the understanding of human emotions.

We don’t know of any third field of activity — beyond the physical and the cognitive — where humans will always maintain a secure advantage. It is crucial to realize that the AI revolution is not just about computers getting faster and smarter. It is fuelled by breakthroughs in the life sciences and the social sciences as well. The better we understand the biochemical mechanisms that support human emotions, desires and choices, the better computers can become in analyzing human behavior, predicting human decisions, and replacing human drivers, bankers and lawyers.

In the last few decades, research in neuroscience and behavioural economics allowed scientists to gain a much better understanding of how humans make decisions. It turned out that our choices of everything from food to mates result not from some mysterious free will, but rather from billions of neurons calculating probabilities within a split second. Boasting ‘human intuition’(直觉) is actually pattern recognition.

1. The second paragraph tells us about ________.

A．predictions about the role of machine learning in future job market

B．the speed at which robotics will take the place of human beings

C．the urgency of creating new jobs with the help of automation

D．the nature of applying new technology to every line of work

2. The underlined expression “ill-founded” in Paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to ________.

A．unidentified	B．badly-managed
C．unproven	D．ill-intended

3. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Lack of job security might force people to pick up machine learning.

B．There is possibility that AI can perform a consulting role as a psychologist.

C．The use of automation will make humans more needed than ever before.

D．A real game changer lies in making computers become faster and smarter.

4. What can be concluded from the passage?

A．AI revolution is similar to the industrial revolution in causing unemployment.

B．It’s crucial that humans maintain an advantage in the third field of activity.

C．The process of human decision is controlled by free will rather than neurons.

D．The nature of preference at first sight is the result of recognizing patterns.