How Much Can We Afford to Forget?
In 2018, Science magazine asked some young scientists what schools should teach students. Most said students should spend less time memorizing facts and have more space for creative activities. As the Internet grows more powerful, students can access (获得) knowledge easily. Why should they be required to carry so much of it around in their heads?
Civilizations（文明）develop through forgetting life skills that were once necessary. In the Agricultural（农业的）Age, a farmer could afford to forget hunting skills. When societies industrialized, the knowledge of farming could be safe to forget. Nowadays, smart machines give us access to most human knowledge. It seems that we no longer need to remember most things. Does it matter?
Researchers have recognized several problems that may happen. For one, human beings have biases（偏见），and smart machines are likely to increase our biases. Many people believe smart machines are necessarily correct and objective, but machines are trained through a repeated testing and scoring process. In the process, human beings still decide on the correct answers.
Another problem relates to the ease of accessing information. When there were no computers, efforts were required to get knowledge from other people, or go to the library. We know what knowledge lies in other brains or books, and what lies in our heads. But today, the Internet gives us the information we need quickly. This can lead to the mistaken belief-the knowledge we found was part of what we knew all along.
In a new civilization rich in machine intelligence, we have easy access to smart memory networks where information is stored. But dependency on a network suggests possibilities of being harmed easily. The collapse of any of the networks of relations our well-being（健康）depends upon, such as food and energy, would produce terrible results. Without food we get hungry; without energy we feel cold.And it is through widespread loss of memory that civilizations are at risk of falling into a dark age.
We forget old ways to free up time and space for new skills. As long as the older forms of knowledge are stored somewhere in our networks, and can be found when we need them, perhaps they’re not really forgotten. Still, as time goes on, we gradually but unquestionably become strangers to future people.
30．·Why are smart machines likely to increase our biases?
A．Because they go off course in testing and scoring.
B．Because we control the training process on them.
C．Because we offer them too much information.
D．Because they overuse the provided answers.
31．The ease of accessing information from the Internet ·
A．frees us from making efforts to learn new skills
B．. prevents civilizations from being lost at a high speed
C．misleads us into thinking we already knew the knowledge
D．separates the facts we have from those in the smart machines
32．The word "collapse" in Paragraph 5 probably means‘‘—，，·
A．a sudden failure B．the basic rule
C．a disappointing start D．the gradual development
33．What is the writer's main purpose in writing this passage?
A．To question about the standards of information storage.
B．To discuss our problems of communication with machines.
C．To stress the importance of improving our memorizing ability.
D．To remind us of the risk of depending on machines to remember.
答案
30．B
31．C
32．A
33．D
【解析】
随着互联网越来越强大，我们很容易就可以获得所需要的知识，我们是不是就不需要再记忆很多东西了呢？作者对此是持否定态度的，并仔细分析不靠自己的记忆，而去依赖机器会导致很多问题的发生，提醒我们依赖智能机器记忆是有风险的。
30．细节理解题。根据短文第三段For one, human beings have biases（偏见），and smart machines are likely to increase our biases. Many people believe smart machines are necessarily correct and objective, but machines are trained through a repeated testing and scoring process．In the process, human beings still decide on the correct answers可知，智能机器是通过重复测试和评分过程的训练，在这个过程中，人类仍然决定着正确的答案。故B选项符合文意。
31．细节理解题。根据短文第四段中But today, the Internet gives us the information we need quickly. This can lead to the mistaken belief-the knowledge we found was part of what we knew all along.可知，互联网给我们提供了方便，可以让我们快速得到所需要的信息，但这可能会导致错误的信念，我们发现的知识是我们一直都知道的一部分。由此可知应选C。
32．词义猜测题。根据上下文语境But dependency on a network suggests possibilities of being harmed easily. The collapse of any of the networks of relations our well-being（健康）depends upon, such as food and energy, would produce terrible results.可知，对网络的依赖很容易受到伤害，后面举例说明网络的…会导致可怕的后果。结合选项：A是“突然的失败”；B是“基本规则”；C是“令人失望的开始”；D是“逐渐的发展”。根据文意可知应选A。
33．推理判断题。根据短文第二段的最后It seems that we no longer need to remember most things. Does it matter?以及第三段Researchers have recognized several problems that may happen.、第四段Another problem relates to the ease of accessing information、第五段But dependency on a network suggests possibilities of being harmed easily等可知，短文作者先提出问题“我们还需要再记忆很多东西吗？”，然后分析了这个问题，发现如果不靠自己的记忆，而去依赖机器会导致很多问题的发生，由此可知推知作者写这篇文章的目的是提醒我们依赖机器记忆是有风险的。故应选D。
B
D
