E
Since the 1970s, scientists have been searching for ways to link the brain with computers. Brain-computer interface (BCI) technology could help people with disabilities send commands to machines.
Recently, two researchers, Jose Millan and Michele Tavella from the Federal Polytechnic School in Lausanne, Switzerland, demonstrated(展示)a small robotic wheelchair directed by a person's thoughts.
In the laboratory, Tavella operated the wheelchair just by thinking about moving his left or right hand. He could even talk as he watched the vehicle and guided it with his thoughts.
“Our brain has billions of nerve cells. These send signals through the spinal cord (脊髓) to the muscles to give us the ability to move. But spinal cord injuries or other conditions can prevent these weak electrical signals from reaching the muscles.” Tavella says. “Our system allows disabled people to communicate with external world and also to control devices.”
The researchers designed a special cap for the user. This head cover picks up the signals from the scalp(头皮)and sends them to a computer. The computer interprets the signals and commands the motorized wheelchair. The wheelchair also has two cameras that identify objects in its path. They help the computer react to commands from the brain.
Prof. Millan, the team leader, says scientists keep improving the computer software that interprets brain signals and turns them into simple commands. “The practical possibilities that BCI technology offers to disabled people can be grouped in two categories: communication, and controlling devices. One example is this wheelchair.”
He says his team has set two goals. One is testing with real patients, so as to prove that this is a technology they can benefit from. And the other is to guarantee that they can use the technology over long periods of time.
36. BCI is a technology that can ________.
A.help to update computer systems B.link the human brain with computers
C.help the disabled to recover D.control a person's thoughts
37 . How did Tavella operate the wheelchair in the laboratory?
A.By controlling his muscles. B.By talking to the machine.
C.By moving his hand. D.By using his mind.
38. Which of the following shows the path of the signals described in Paragraph 5?
A.scalp → computer → cap →wheelchair
B.compute → cap → scalp →wheelchair
C.scalp → cap → computer →wheelchair
D.cap → computer → scalp →wheelchair
39. The team will test with real patients to ________.
A.make profits from them B.prove the technology useful to them
C.make them live longer D.learn about their physical condition
40. Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
A.Switzerland, the BCI Research Center
B.New Findings About How the Human Brain Works
C.BCI Could Mean More Freedom for the Disabled
D.Robotic Vehicles Could Help to Cure Brain Injuries
第二卷 (共4大题，满分55分)
III. 语法填空(共10小题;每小题1.5分，满分15分)
阅读下面短文,按照句子结构的语法性和上下文连贯的要求,在空格处填入一个适当的词或使用括号中词语的正确形式填空。
The Internet is the biggest source of information in the world, consisting of millions of pages of data. In 1969, DARPA, 41 US defence organization, developed a way for all their computers to “talk” to each other through the telephone. They created a network of computers and only the US army could use 42 in the following 15 years. Then in 1984, the US National Science Foundation started the NSF network, also known 43 the Inter-network or ”Internet”. It then became possible for universities to use the system as well. The World Wide Web, 44 (invent) in 1991 by an English scientist, Tim Berners-Lee, is a computer network that makes the information from millions of websites 45 (access) to computer users. At the moment, about
80 % of web traffic is 46 English, but by 2020, Chinese could take the lead. Obviously, it was Berners-Lee 47 made it possible for everyone to use the Internet, not just the universities and the army. He designed the first “web browser”, 48 allowed computer users to access documents from other computers. With the web and the Internet 49 (grow), the number of Internet users rose rapidly from 600,000 to 40 million within 5 years.
So far, the Internet 50 (create) thousands of millionaires all over the world, but Berners-Lee is not one of them.
