TASK 4. (7 points)
You are going to read two texts about robots. For questions 4.1.-4.7., choose the answer
that best matches the text and circle the appropriate letter (A, B, C or D).
Text 1
DO ROBOTS HAVE FEELINGS?
Last month, Gecko Systems announced that it had been running trials of its “fully
autonomous personal companion home-care robot, designed to help elderly or disabled people
to live independently.” Robots already perform many functions, from making cars to defusing
bombs - or, more menacingly, firing missiles. Children and adults play with toy robots, while
vacuum-cleaning robots are sucking up dirt in a growing number of homes. Will we soon get
used to having humanoid robots around the home? Noel Sharkey, professor of artificial
intelligence and robotics, has predicted that busy parents will start employing robots
as babysitters. What will it do to a child, he asks, to spend a lot of time with a machine that
cannot express genuine empathy, understanding or compassion? [ 1 ]
A more ominous question is familiar from novels and movies: will we have to defend our
civilisation against intelligent machines of our own creation? Some consider the development
of superhuman artificial intelligence inevitable, and expect it to happen no later than 2070.
[ 2 They refer to this moment as ‘the singularity,’ and see it as a world-changing event.
Eliezer Yudkowsky, one of the founders of the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence,
believes that singularity will lead to an ‘intelligence explosion’ as super-intelligent machines
design even more intelligent machines, with each generation repeating this process.
The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence has set up a special panel
to study what it calls ‘the potential for loss of human control over computer-based
intelligences.’ If that happens, the crucial question for the future of civilisation is: will the
super-intelligent computers be friendly? Is it time to start thinking about what steps to take to
prevent our own creations from becoming hostile to us? [ 3 At present, robots are mere
items of property. But what if they become sufficiently complex to have feelings? If machines
can and do become conscious, will we take their feelings into account? The history of our
relations with the only nonhuman sentient beings - animals - gives no ground for confidence
that we would recognise sentient robots as beings with moral standing and interests
that deserve consideration.
The hard question is how we would be able to tell that a robot really was conscious,
and not just designed to mimic consciousness. [ 4 Would the designers write the code
to provide only the appearance of consciousness? If so, we would have no reason to believe
that the robot was conscious. But if the robot was designed to have human-like capacities that
might incidentally give rise to consciousness, we would have a good reason to think that
it really was conscious. At that point, the movement for robot rights would begin.
abridged from www.guardian.co.uk
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4.1. Look at the squares marked 1-4 in the text and decide where the following sentence
fits best in the passage.
For the moment, however, a more realistic concern is not that robots will harm us, but that we
will harm them.
A. In the space marked [ 1 .
B. In the space marked [ 2 .
C. In the space marked [ 3 .
D. In the space marked [ 4 .
4.2. In the opening paragraph, the author
A. questions Noel Sharkey’s research findings.
B. presents robots as having numerous practical applications.
C. suggests that robots are ideal companions for interaction with people.
D. gives his personal opinion on using robots as babysitters and caretakers.
4.3. In paragraphs 3 and 4, the author suggests that
A. robots should be granted rights so as to prevent a robot rights movement.
B. there is no chance that robots will ever be something more than items of property.
C. there are important ethical concerns about human-robot relations to deliberate on.
D. human relations with robots will develop in a different way to those with animals.
4.4. Based on the whole text, which sentence best describes the attitude of the author
towards advances in robotics?
A. He praises scientists who have made robotic intelligence possible.
B. He takes a firm stand against treating robots as humans.
C. He is cautious and wonders what the future will bring.
D. He advocates strict control over artificial intelligence.
Text 2
CUTIE UNCONVINCED
Robots are, of course, manufactured on Earth, but their shipment through space is much
simpler if it can be done in parts to be put together at their place of use. It also, incidentally,
eliminates the possibility of completely assembled robots wandering off while still on Earth and
thus breaching the strict laws against robots on Earth. So, it placed upon men such as Powell and
Donovan the necessity of assembling one complete robot after another - always a grievous and
complicated task. Powell and Donovan were never so aware of that fact as upon that particular
day when, in the space station assembly room, they undertook to create a robot under the watchful
eyes of QT-1 or Cutie as they used to call it to make the robot symbol sound more human.
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The robot being assembled, a simple MC model, lay upon the table, almost complete. Three
hours’ work left only the head undone, and Powell paused to swab his forehead and glanced
uncertainly at Cutie. The glance was not a reassuring one. For three hours, Cutie had sat,
speechless and motionless, and his face, inexpressive at all times, was now absolutely unreadable.
Powell groaned. “Let’s get the brain in now, Mike!”
Donovan uncapped the tightly sealed container and from the oil bath within he withdrew
a second cube. Opening this in turn, he removed a globe from its sponge-rubber casing.
He handled it gingerly, for it was the most complicated mechanism ever created by man. Inside
the thin platinum plated ‘skin’ of the globe was a positronic brain, in whose delicately unstable
structure were enforced calculated neuronic paths, which imbued each robot with what amounted
to a pre-natal education. It fitted snugly into the cavity in the skull of the robot on the table.
Blue metal closed over it and was welded tightly by the tiny atomic flare. Photoelectric eyes were
attached carefully, screwed tightly into place and covered by thin, transparent sheets of steel-hard
plastic. The robot awaited only the vitalizing flash of high-voltage electricity, and Powell paused
with his hand on the switch.
“Now watch this, Cutie. Watch this carefully.” The switch rammed home and there was
a crackling hum. The two Earthmen bent anxiously over their creation. There was vague motion
only at the outset - a twitching of the joints. The head lifted, elbows propped it up,
and the MC model swung clumsily off the table. It wobbled shakily. Abortive grating sounds
were all it could do in the direction of speech. Finally, its voice, uncertain and hesitant, took form.
“I would like to start work. Where must I go?” Donovan sprang to the door. “Down these stairs,”
he said. “You will be told what to do.”
The MC model was gone and the two Earthmen were alone with the still unmoving Cutie.
“Well,” said Powell, grinning, “now do you believe that we made you?” Cutie’s answer was curt
and final. “No!” he said. Powell’s grin froze and then relaxed slowly. Donovan’s mouth dropped
open and remained so.
adapted from I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
4.5. Which of the following is stated in the opening paragraph?
A. Despite strict laws, the two engineers decided to assemble a robot on Earth.
B. Powell and Donovan’s work on the robot was suddenly interrupted.
C. There is a likelihood that robots might rebel if assembled on Earth.
D. Powell and Donovan were being observed by a robot.
4.6. Which statement does NOT match the writer’s description in paragraph 2?
A. Donovan inserted neuronic paths into the brain to equip it with basic knowledge.
B. Inserting the brain was a process which needed human intervention.
C. The brain was a device stored in a few layers of protective material.
D. Pre-programming the brain had been done prior to assembling the robot.
4.7. Which sentence best describes what happened when the work on the MC model
had been finished?
A. Once it stood up, the MC model managed to walk out of the room on its own.
B. The MC model made futile efforts to initiate its vocal function.
C. The expression on Cutie’s face changed dramatically.
D. Cutie ignored Powell’s tactless remark.
TRANSFER YOUR ANSWERS TO THE ANSWER SHEET!
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Odpowiedź na podstawie oficjalnego klucza CKE (plik 'jezyk-angielski-2013-maj-matura-dwujezyczna-odpowiedzi' - Kryteria oceniania odpowiedzi, maj 2013). Task 4 (dwa teksty o robotach): 4.1 = C, 4.2 = B, 4.3 = C, 4.4 = C, 4.5 = D, 4.6 = A, 4.7 = A.
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