VOA慢速英语2011--A Victory For Computers as Watson Wins ‘

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report. An IBM super computer named Watson has won the latest battle of man versus¹ machine.
这里是美国之音慢速英语科技报道。一台名为“沃森”（Watson）的IBM超级计算机在最近的一次人机对战中获胜。
Watson won the first ever "Jeopardy²!" quiz show competition starring a computer as a player. The show was broadcast on American television February sixteenth. The super computer defeated former "Jeopardy!" champions Ken³ Jennings and Brad Rutter during the three-day competition. The two men had been the show's most successful players until then.
沃森以计算机选手身份，有史以来首次赢得了“危险边缘”（Jeopardy）智力竞赛节目。该节目2月16日在美国电视台播出。这台超级计算机在为期三天的比赛中，击败了“危险边缘”节目前冠军肯·詹宁斯（Ken Jennings）和布拉德·鲁特（Brad Rutter）。这两人此前一直是该节目最成功的参赛选手。
The IBM computer proved to be more knowledgeable⁴ in every category, including the arts, popular culture and science. The human contestants⁵ spoke⁶ about their loss after the show.
IBM电脑被证明在各个科目中超越人类，包括艺术、流行文化和科学。节目后，人类选手谈到了他们的失败。
KEN JENNINGS/BRAD RUTTER: "I think that we both got a taste of what it might have been like to play against us."
詹宁斯/鲁特：“我认为我们都尝到了此前和我们对战的选手的滋味。”
Roger Norton is dean⁷ of the School of Computer Science and Mathematics at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. The school held a Watson watch party on the final day of the "Jeopardy!" competition. They compared it to a Super Bowl for the information technology industry. Roger Norton says everyone was amazed by Watson's performance.
罗杰·诺顿（Roger Norton）是位于纽约波基普西的马里斯特学院计算机科学和数学系的系主任。该校在“危险边缘”节目最后一天比赛日举办了一个沃森观摩会。他们把这比作是信息技术产业的超级杯。诺顿表示，每个人都对沃森的表现感到惊讶。
ROGER NORTON: "It was very impressive in a number of ways. One is its ability to understand natural language."
诺顿：“沃森在很多方面都令人印象深刻，其中一点就是它能理解自然语言。”
In "Jeopardy!" players are given information in the form of an answer. They must give an answer in the form of a question. Roger Norton says the very nature of the game makes Watson's performance even more extraordinary.
在“危险边缘”节目中，选手获得一个答案形式的信息，他们必须回答出符合这个答案的问题。诺顿表示，比赛的性质让沃森的表现更加不同凡响。
注：“危险边缘”节目形式是这样，主持人说：384000公里。选手则必须回答“月球到地球的距离是多少？”。和咱们通常看到的智力节目恰恰相反。
ROGER NORTON: "The ambiguity⁸ that's in those answers is very, very difficult for humans to understand, never mind a computer to understand. And then to be able to take that, try to understand it, then go off and search its vast amount of data that it has and do the appropriate analytics and come up with not only an answer but also a confidence level associated with that answer – very, very impressive."
诺顿：“这些答案的多义性人类理解都非常非常困难，更别说让计算机来理解。计算机在获得答案形式的信息后，首先尝试理解，然后搜索其庞大的数据，做出适当分析，并给出与（答案形式的）问题高度契合的（问题形势的）答案--让人印象非常深刻。
Watson was given the answer clues by electronic texts. It then searched through some fifteen trillion bytes⁹ of information stored in its database¹⁰. That is equal to about two hundred million pages of text. The machine is able to perform up to eighty trillion operations per second.
沃森以电子文本方式获得答案线索。然后搜索储存在数据库中的近15万亿字节信息，这大约相当于2亿页内容。该计算机可以每秒执行高达80万亿次操作。
And its ability to understand language is more advanced than any other computer ever developed. This opens the door to a whole new world of computer applications. From business and investment, to medicine and healthcare, the possibilities are endless.
而沃森的语言理解能力比此前开发的任何计算机都更先进。这将打开计算机应用另一全新世界的大门。从商业到投资，到医学和卫生保健，各类应用的可能性无止境。
Watson is now going to medical school. It is part of an agreement among IBM, Columbia University Medical Center in New York City and the University of Maryland's School of Medicine. The researchers will help IBM identify the best way that Watson can be used to help the healthcare industry.
沃森即将前往医学院。这是IBM、哥伦比亚大学医学中心以及马里兰州大学医学院的协议的一部分。研究人员将帮助IBM寻求沃森应用于医保行业的最佳方式。

1 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

2 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。

3 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.

4 knowledgeable   

adj.知识渊博的；有见识的

参考例句：

• He's quite knowledgeable about the theatre.他对戏剧很有心得。
• He made some knowledgeable remarks at the meeting.他在会上的发言颇有见地。

5 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》

6 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

7 Dean   

n.(大学)院长，系主任，教务长

参考例句：

• The students much like the new dean.学生们很喜欢这位新系主任。
• Who is the dean of the Foreign Languages Department?外语系主任是谁？

8 ambiguity   

n.模棱两可；意义不明确

参考例句：

• The telegram was misunderstood because of its ambiguity.由于电文意义不明确而造成了误解。
• Her answer was above all ambiguity.她的回答毫不含糊。

9 bytes   

字节( byte的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• In order to address 1024 bytes, 10 address lines are needed. 为了对1024个字节寻址，需要10条地址线。
• Binary data that requires two or more bytes for full representation. 需要两个或多个字节来完整表示的二进制数据。

10 database   

n.数据库 （=databank）

参考例句：

• I discovered some new information in the database.我在资料库里发现了一些新信息。
• We planned to build an online database.我们计划建一个联机数据库。