Secondary School Level : 2nd Y L&Ph
Date : 01/03/2017 Second Term Exam Duration : 2 hours
Part oe : Reading (15pts) :
A scientist said robots will be more intelligent than humans by 2029. The scientist's name is Ray Kurzweil. He
works for Google as Director of Engineering. He is one of the world's leading experts on artificial intelligence (A.I.).
Mr Kurzweil believes computers will be able to learn from experiences, just like humans. He also thinks they will be
able to tell jokes and stories, and even flirt. Kurzweil's 2029 prediction is a lot sooner than many people thought. The
scientist said that in 1999, many A.I. experts said it would be hundreds of years before a computer was more
intelligent than a human. He said that it would not be long before computer intelligence is one billion times more
powerful than the human brain.
Mr Kurzweil joked that many years ago, people thought he was a little crazy for predicting computers would be
as intelligent as humans. His thinking has stayed the same but everyone else has changed the way they think. He said:
"My views are not radical any more. I've actually stayed consistent. It's the rest of the world that's changing its view."
He highlighted examples of high-tech things we use, see or read about every day. These things make us believe that
computers have intelligence. He said people think differently now: "Because the public has seen things like Siri [the
iPhone's voice-recognition technology] where you talk to a computer; they've seen the Google self-driving cars."
www.Breakingnewsenglish.com
I-Comprehension (07pts) :
1-The text is : a-a newspaper acticle b- an extract from a book c- a web article
2-Are the following statements True or False according to the text ?
1. TRUE / FALSE: Read the headline. Guess if a-h below are true (T) or false (F).
a.
Mr Kurzweil is an expert on jokes around the world.
b.
Many people thought robots would be smarter than humans in 1999.
c.
Mr Kurzweil said our everyday things show us computer intelligence.
d.
Siri is the name of Google's self-driving cars.
3- In which paragraph is it mentioned : poeple’s reaction about Mr Kurzweil’s prediction
4- Answer the following questions according to the text.
a- What will computers able to do ?
b- How many times more will computers become powerfull than the brain ?
c- How did poeple react to Mr Kurzweil idea about intelligent computers ?
5-What/who do the underlined words in the text refer to ? they (§1) , he (§2)
II- Text exploration (08pts) :
1-Match words with their synonyms.
Words
Synonyms
1-more intelligent
a-strong
2-prediction
b-mad
3-powerful
c-smarter
4-crazy
d-forecast
2-Complete the following table as shown in the example.
Nouns
Ex : science
fiction
intelligence
reality
Adjectives
scientific
…………
…………..
………
3-Rewrite sentence ‘b’ so that it means the same as sentence ‘a’
1-a- Mr Kurzweil published The Age of Intelligent Machines in 1990.
b-The Age of Intelligent Machines…………………………………..
2-a-Sci-fi senaiors have been used by many writers.
b-Many famous …………………………………………….
4-Fill in the gaps with only Four words from the list given :
end - scientists - machines - robots - natural - artificial
Professor Stephen Hawking, one of the world's most renowned…. (01)…. has warned that…. (02)…. and
machines with…. (03)…. intelligence could one day mean the end of us all. Professor Hawking recently told the BBC
in an interview that: "The development of full artificial intelligence (AI) could spell the…. (04)… of the human race."
5-Classify the following words according to the pronunciation of their final « S »
Robots – humans – stories - experiences
Part two : writing (05pts) : Choose one topic
Topic 01 : Use the following notes to write the biograpgy of Mr Raymond Kurzweil
Famous American author, computer scientist, inventor and futurist
Born : February12, 1948 (age69), Queens, New York City, U.S.
Occupation : Author, entrepreneur, futurist and inventor
Awards : Grace Murray Hopper Award (1978), National Medal of Technology (1999), received twenty-
one honorary doctorates, and honors from three U.S. presidents.
Mr Kurzweil, described as a "restless genius" by The Wall Street Journal and "the ultimate thinking
machine"by Forbes.
Books : The Age of Intelligent Machines, The 10% Solution for a Healthy Life. The Age of Spiritual
Machines
Topic 02 : Write a short newspaper article speculating about how things would have been different if the internet had
not been invented
Good Luck
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