1 . The next generation of artificial intelligence (AI) may be sitting right beneath you, at least if furniture maker Ikea has any say in the matter. The Swedish furniture company’s “future-living” research lab in Copenhagen is conducting a survey to understand what people want when it comes to smart furniture.
AI is now walking into more aspects of people’s daily lives. Self-driving cars are just around the corner, and AI robots can play and beat the best players of strategy games. As smart home technologies have become more ubiquitous, products ranging from smart electrical outlets（插座）to smart smoke alarms are flooding the market. Therefore, it’s not surprising that Ikea would be moving in the same direction.
Exactly why people would want their sofa or bed frame to speak to then, track their daily movements or offer help is not yet clear. Though Ikea’s the new survey doesn’t directly answer that question, it does provide a hint of what people would feel comfortable with. Most participants wanted a more human like form of virtual（虚拟的）assistants, as opposed to one that is more robotic. In terms of the ideal gender（性别）of the assistants, the most popular choice was neither male nor female. Few wanted a religious form of AI.
Just as with human friends, most wanted AI friends that were like them, affirming their own worldview. They wanted an AI assistant that was reasonably intelligent-that could collect data to predict what a person wanted before he or she asked, and that could prevent someone from making mistakes.
This is not the first time that Ikea has set foot in the field or futuristic technologies. In addition to wireless charging tables and chainless bikes that never rust（生锈）, the furniture giant has also pictured smart kitchens that can cook the best meal. To decide on how intelligent you want your next sofa or bookshelf to be, you can take Ikea’s survey online.
1. What does the underlined word “ubiquitous” in Paragraph 2 mean?| A．Beautiful. | B．Common. |
| C．Normal. | D．Environment. |
| A．The differences between robot-like and human-like assistants. |
| B．What form of AI assistants people want. |
| C．What kind of friends people want. |
| D．The popular robots on the market. |
| A．help them became smarter |
| B．communicate with them without troubles |
| C．have its own worldview |
| D．deal with their problems in advance |
| A．Smart sofas that can speak to you. |
| B．Smart beds than can track your daily movements. |
| C．Wireless charging cars. |
| D．Rustless bikes without chains. |
2 . Self-driving cars are so popular that the University of Michigan has even established a town called Mcity to allow car manufacturers to safely test their autonomous cars.
While Mcity can be used to simulate（模拟）many real-life road conditions，it can't help test gestures drivers use to communicate their intention（意图）to other drivers，pedestrians or cyclists. To find a solution，US car manufacturer Ford，with researchers from Virginia Tech，at the beginning considered using text as a way to communicate the car's intention，but decided it would probably not work universally. The option of using symbols was also rejected，because research shows that a majority of people do not have a good understanding of what they mean.
Finally, the researchers settled on light signals. A white light warned that there were no humans in the car. A slow blinking one indicated that the car was coming to a stop, while a rapidly flashing light cautioned passersby that the car was about to speed up.
Then came the big challenge—testing the signals on real roads. "We needed to try out this new lighting to communicate the intention of the vehicle, but if you've got a driver behind the seat, you still have natural communication between humans," said Andy Shaudt, who led the research team. "So we needed to make it look like a driverless car."
The team designed a car seat costume（戏装）that the driver would wear to cover his or her face and upper body. Of course，the drivers could see very clearly. The researchers then equipped the car with cameras to capture human reactions to a light bar，which flashed one of the three signals when appropriate. Six drivers，all keeping their hands low on the wheel so as not to be noticed，took turns to test driving the car through the busy streets.
The overall reaction to the flashing lights was very encouraging. Who knew costumes could be useful for more than Halloween？
1. What did the team first consider using as a way to communicate the car's intention?| A．Light. | B．Language. |
| C．Symbols. | D．Sound. |
| A．symbols | B．drivers |
| C．researchers | D．flashes |
| A．The car was coming to a stop. |
| B．There was no driver in the car. |
| C．The car was about to speed up. |
| D．The car was about to slow down. |
| A．amuse the driver | B．attract the pedestrians |
| C．warn the cyclists | D．confuse the people |
