1 . Despite being there for your safety, many people still ignore the red man at traffic lights and cross early, running the risk of a deadly accident. Now Smart, a car maker, has come up with a smart idea for an experiment to see if safety could be improved at traffic lights by encouraging pedestrians to wait for the green man with a “Dancing Traffic Light”.
The Dancing Traffic Light was designed to draw the attention of people who were standing waiting to cross the road in Portugal. It shows a dancing red figure, as opposed to the static (静态的) figure that is normally shown. The figure is a low-resolution (低分辨率的) representation of someone who is in a room nearby, dancing.
Those who want to dance can go into the room and then select music of their choice. When the traffic light turns red, the music plays and the individual can then start to dance. A video is fed of the person dancing in real lime to the traffic light and the dancing red figure can keep pedestrians amused while they wait.
Apart from providing entertainment for pedestrians as they wait to cross the road, there is also the “gaming” side to the Dancing Traffic Light as anyone can be the dancing figure and so he or she can contribute to the project.
This isn’t the first time that entertainment has been used for positive social outcomes. The Volkswagen Fun Theory campaign involved a Piano Staircase which encouraged people to walk up the stairs instead of using an elevator and the Bottle Bank Arcade that was made to encourage people to recycle.
Smart said that 81 % more people stopped at die red light to watch it dance while they waited for the green light to appear.
1. Why did Smart design the Dancing Traffic Light?| A．To help reduce traffic accidents. | B．To make traffic lights more interesting. |
| C．To provide entertainment for pedestrians. | D．To draw the attention of pedestrians. |
| A．A real person dances beside the traffic light. | B．A pedestrian performs a dance while waiting. |
| C．An individual dances to various music in a room. | D．A figure dances in real time to red traffic lights. |
| A．The needs for more such campaigns. | B．The use of entertainment in some social activities. |
| C．The influence of the Dancing Traffic Light. | D．The good results of safety products. |
| A．Road Safety—An Essential Task | B．A Campaign—A Solution from the Air |
| C．A Dancing Traffic Light—A Guardian of Life | D．Smart—A Pioneer in Traffic Light Research |
2 . Driverless cars are the best-known example of how artificial intelligence is influencing daily life in China, according to a new report on social attitudes toward AI technology that was released at Fudan University on May 17.
Based on the responses of 625 questionnaires made by Fudan University’s National Center for Cultural Innovation Research and the communication and data science laboratory, the report states that nearly 90 percent of the respondents are familiar with driverless cars, with over 67, percent having access to both positive and negative information on cars. About 62 percent of the respondents said they were willing to ride in driverless cars. Meanwhile, around 47 percent were supportive of unmanned vehicle road tests in the country. However, more than 30 percent of the respondents expressed their concerns about the safety of driverless cars.
If personal injuries or property loss are suffered in the event of an accident, 80.5 percent of the respondents said that the designers of the AI products should bear legal responsibility while 55.5 percent said that vehicle users should also shoulder the blame.
Smart cars with partial or fully autonomous functions are expected to account for 50 percent of new vehicles sold in China by 2020. According to the blueprint released by the National Development and Reform Commission in January, the country is aiming to become a global power in smart-car development and production by 2035.
“One cannot ignore the risks and ethics issues brought up by artificial intelligence technology,” said Sun Shaojing, director of the Communication and Data Science Laboratory of the National Center for Cultural Innovation Research at Fudan University, “Policies should be strengthened to ensure a balanced development of ethics and science, especially for some fast-growing applications like driverless cars.”
1. What do we know about the responses of 625 questionnaires?| A．More than half of the people surveyed were willing to ride in driverless cars. |
| B．Nearly 90% knew both positive and negative information on cars. |
| C．Unmanned vehicle road tests were hardly supported in the country. |
| D．Few people were concerned about the safety of driverless cars. |
| A．The designers of the AI products. |
| B．Both AI products designers and vehicle users. |
| C．Policy makers who regulate the use of driverless cars. |
| D．It hasn’t been decided yet. |
| A．High-tech. | B．Advanced. |
| C．Self-directed. | D．Useful. |
| A．We should mainly focus on the benefit that driverless cars bring to us. |
| B．Effective policies and rules are needed with appliances fast growing. |
| C．Risks and ethics issues brought up by AI cannot be avoided. |
| D．Driverless cars play a significant role in AI technology. |
