VOA标准英语2011--Computer Bests Humans on TV Game Show

In a three-day competition on the popular U.S. television quiz show Jeopardy¹, an IBM super computer named Watson faced off against two human contestants² and won. The computer proved adept³ at trivia, on which the show is based.
Watson was not stumped⁴ by the show's unique answer-and-question format⁵ in which players get clues in the form of answers and must answer with a question. Watson got its clues via electronic text.
The super computer bested veteran Jeopardy champs Ken⁶ Jennings and Brad Rutter in all categories: the arts, popular culture, science, geography, wordplay and more. The computer won by sorting through 80 trillion instructions a second.
With that victory behind it, Watson now heads to the hospital.
Its designer, IBM, has signed agreements with Columbia University Medical Center and the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Eliot Siegel, vice⁷ chairmain of Radiology at Maryland's medical school, says the advances in artificial intelligence embodied⁸ in the Watson computer show great promise for medicine.
"With its ability to understand concepts and natural language processing and its ability to form multiple hypotheses and respond very rapidly, holds the promise to be able to explore information in the electronic medical record and also for help with diagnostic and therapeutic⁹ planning and just general decision making in medicine."
Siegel adds that Watson's skills could help doctors and nurses sort through facts and knowledge buried in huge volumes of medical literature published worldwide.
"And having a system that's able to automatically ingest that information, be able to organize and make that available as a diagnostic aid is really, in my opinion going to significantly enhance not only my ability to make diagnosis¹⁰, but also enhance the safety and effectiveness of patient care."
But first, Watson will have to tweak its software. Initially¹¹ it will be trained to organize, synthesize and summarize the vast amounts of medical information that will be fed to it.
"We need to be able to have the Dr. Watson program, unlike the Jeopardy-playing Watson program, be able to form hypotheses and be able to discount information as it's presented with larger amounts of information and be able to find patterns in that. And that's a more complex task than the task for Jeopardy."
Siegel expects Dr. Watson to begin assisting doctors in that capacity in two to five years.

1 jeopardy   

n.危险；危难

参考例句：

• His foolish behaviour may put his whole future in jeopardy.他愚蠢的行为可能毁了他一生的前程。
• It is precisely at this juncture that the boss finds himself in double jeopardy.恰恰在这个关键时刻，上司发现自己处于进退两难的境地。

2 contestants   

n.竞争者，参赛者( contestant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The competition attracted over 500 contestants representing 8 different countries. 这次比赛吸引了代表8个不同国家的500多名参赛者。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency. 两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 adept   

adj.老练的，精通的

参考例句：

• When it comes to photography,I'm not an adept.要说照相，我不是内行。
• He was highly adept at avoiding trouble.他十分善于避开麻烦。

4 stumped   

僵直地行走，跺步行走( stump的过去式和过去分词 )； 把（某人）难住； 使为难； （选举前）在某一地区作政治性巡回演说

参考例句：

• Jack huffed himself up and stumped out of the room. 杰克气喘吁吁地干完活，然后很艰难地走出房间。
• He was stumped by the questions and remained tongue-tied for a good while. 他被问得张口结舌，半天说不出话来。

5 format   

n.设计，版式；[计算机]格式，DOS命令:格式化(磁盘)，用于空盘或使用过的磁盘建立新空盘来存储数据；v.使格式化，设计，安排

参考例句：

• Please format this floppy disc.请将这张软盘格式化。
• The format of the figure is very tasteful.该图表的格式很雅致。

6 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

7 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

8 embodied   

v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含

参考例句：

• a politician who embodied the hopes of black youth 代表黑人青年希望的政治家
• The heroic deeds of him embodied the glorious tradition of the troops. 他的英雄事迹体现了军队的光荣传统。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 therapeutic   

adj.治疗的，起治疗作用的；对身心健康有益的

参考例句：

• Therapeutic measures were selected to fit the patient.选择治疗措施以适应病人的需要。
• When I was sad,music had a therapeutic effect.我悲伤的时候，音乐有治疗效力。

10 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

11 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。