Itistruethattherehavebeengreatadvancesintechnology overthelastfortyyears.For
example/Forinstancetheuse ofmobilephonesande-mailcommunicationare
commonthesedays.However, machines that translate from onelanguagetoanother
arestillintheirearlystages.
Itseemstomethatamachinecouldnever
do as good a job as a human,especiallywhenitcomestointerpretingwhatpeople
are saying.Of course, machines cantranslatestatementssuchas“Whereisthe
bank?”butevensimplestatementsarenotalways straightforwardbecause the
meaning dependsonmorethanjustwords.Forinstance/Forexampletheword“bank”
has a number of differentmeaningsinEnglish.Howdoesatranslatingmachineknow
whichmeaningtotake?
In order to understand what people aresaying, you needtotakeintoaccountthe
relationship between the speakers andtheirsituation.Amachinecannot tellthe
differencebetweentheEnglishexpression“Look out!”meaning“Becareful!”and“Look
out!” meaning “Put your head out of the window”.You need a human being
tointerpretthesituation.
Similarlywithwrittenlanguage,itis difficultforamachineto knowhowtotranslate
accuratelybecause we rarelytranslateeveryword.Onthecontrary,wetrytotake
intoconsideration howtheideawould beexpressedintheotherlanguage.This is hard
todobecauseeverylanguage has its own way of doing and sayingthings.
ForthesereasonsIfeelthatitismost unlikelythatmachineswilltaketheplace of
humansinthefield oftranslatingandinterpreting.Ifmachineseverlearntothink,
perhapsthentheywillbeina positiontotakeonthisrole
Sample 3
Youshouldspendabout 40 minutesonthistask.
Writeaboutthefollowingtopic:
Many newspapers and magazinesfeaturestoriesabouttheprivatelivesof
famouspeople.Weknowwhattheyeat,wheretheybuytheirclothesandwhothey
love.Wealsooftenseepicturesoftheminprivatesituations.
Isitappropriateforamagazineornewspaperto givethiskindofprivate
informationaboutpeople?
Givereasonsforyouranswer.Writeatleast 250 words.modelanswer:
Generally, peopleread newspaperstofind outaboutworldcurrentaffairsandtheyread
magazinesto beentertained.Therefore, one would expect to findarticlesthat
featuretheprivatelivesoffamouspeopleinmagazinesratherthan newspapers.
However, nowadays, moreandmorenewspapersincludestorieslikethesewhichare
neitherinformativenor useful.