Professor Ashok Goel of Georgia Tech （佐治亞理工學(xué)院） developed an artificially intelligent teaching robot, knowledge-based artificial intelligence, to help handle the enormous number of students' questions in the online class. This online course is a core requirement of Georgia Tech's online Master of Science（理科碩士） in Computer Science program. Professor Goel already had eight teaching assistants, but that wasn't enough to deal with the overwhelming number of daily questions from students.

Many students drop out of online courses because of the lack of teaching support.When students feel isolated or confused and reach out with questions that go unanswered,their motivation to continue begins to taper off. Professor Goel decided to do something to remedy this situation and his solution was to create a virtual assistant named Jill Watson,which is based on the IBM Watson Platform.

Goel and his team developed several versions of Jill Watson before releasing her to the online forums. At first, the virtual assistant wasn't too great. But Goel and his team sourced （獲得） the online discussion forum to find all the 40,000 questions that had ever been answered since the class was launched. Then they began to feed Jill with the questions and answers. After some adjustments and sufficient time, Jill was able to answer the students' questions correctly 97% of the time. So advanced and realistic was the virtual assistant that the students didn't know she was a computer.

The students, who were studying artificial intelligence, were interacting with the virtual assistant and couldn't tell it apart from a real human being. Not until April 26 did Goel inform them about Jill's true identity. To his great delight, the students were actually positive about the experience.

Next year, Professor Goel's virtual assistant will be supposed to take over answering 40% of all the questions posed by students on the online forum. The name Jill Watson will, of course, change to something else next semester. Professor Goel has a much rosier outlook on the future of artificial intelligence than, say, Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking,Bill Gates or Steve Wozniak.

Activity A Reading for understanding

Ⅰ. Text-centered chunks

knowledge-based 基于知識(shí)的

drop out of 退出

taper off 逐漸減少

interact with 和……互動(dòng)

tell...apart from 將……與……區(qū)分

to one's delight 讓某人高興的是

be positive about 對(duì)……積極

be supposed to do 應(yīng)該做……

take over 接管

have a rosy outlook on 對(duì)……有樂觀的看法

Ⅱ. Text-centered sentences

一、非謂語1. When students feel isolated or confused and reach out with questions that go unanswered, their motivation to continue begins to taper off. 當(dāng)學(xué)生們感到被孤立或者困惑且提出的問題沒有得到答案時(shí)，他們繼續(xù)學(xué)習(xí)的動(dòng)力就會(huì)開始逐漸減弱。

【點(diǎn)石成金】go unanswered中的go作系動(dòng)詞，后接形容詞，意為“變成；變?yōu)?；變得（尤指朝壞的方面）”?/p>

【運(yùn)用遷移】當(dāng)聽到明天要去公園野炊時(shí)，孩子們欣喜若狂。

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2. Next year, Professor Goel's virtual assistant will be supposed to take over answering 40% of all the questions posed by students on the online forum. 明年，Goel教授的虛擬助教將會(huì)負(fù)責(zé)回答學(xué)生在在線論壇上提出的所有問題的40%。

【點(diǎn)石成金】posed by students中的posed為非謂語動(dòng)詞的過去分詞，意為“由學(xué)生提出的”。

【運(yùn)用遷移】出生于一個(gè)美麗的村莊，他喜歡欣賞自然風(fēng)光。

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二、部分倒裝句

Not until April 26 did Goel inform them about Jill's true identity. 直到4月26日，Goel才告訴他們Jill的真實(shí)身份。

【點(diǎn)石成金】“not until...+謂語+主語”為部分倒裝結(jié)構(gòu)，強(qiáng)調(diào)了時(shí)間，意為“直到……，……才……”。

【運(yùn)用遷移】直到剛剛我才意識(shí)到我被騙了。

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Activity B Reading for writing

隨著線上教學(xué)的普及，越來越多的虛擬助教走入學(xué)生們的日常學(xué)習(xí)中。?？谡骷瘜W(xué)生對(duì)虛擬助教的看法。 請(qǐng)你根據(jù)以下要求投稿。 內(nèi)容要點(diǎn)：

1. 虛擬助教的應(yīng)用情況；

2. 你對(duì)虛擬助教的看法和建議。

注意：

1. 詞數(shù)80左右；

2. 可以適當(dāng)增加細(xì)節(jié)，以使行文連貫；

3. 至少需要使用一個(gè)非謂語或部分倒裝句；

4. 注意段落內(nèi)的邏輯關(guān)系。

My view on virtual assistants

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寫作導(dǎo)引

本次的寫作任務(wù)是寫一篇文章給?？陡?，要求學(xué)生描述虛擬助教的應(yīng)用情況、對(duì)虛擬助教的看法以及建議等，并且至少需要使用一個(gè)非謂語或部分倒裝句。這些寫作要求和所給語篇的主題語境是緊密相關(guān)的。 我們可以通過整合同主題閱讀材料的內(nèi)容和語言，梳理寫作思路和積累素材。

一、語篇解碼

（一）內(nèi)容分析

What is the text mainly about?

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（二）宏觀結(jié)構(gòu)

Fill in the blanks according to the text.

二、素材積累

本次的寫作任務(wù)是基于“虛擬助教”的主題開展的寫作，我們可以通過模仿并運(yùn)用文章中的語言表達(dá)，如詞塊和句型，積累寫作的語言素材。

（一）介紹現(xiàn)象的核心表達(dá)

1. with the advancement of the society 隨著社會(huì)的發(fā)展

2. as the society develops in leaps and bounds 隨著社會(huì)的迅速發(fā)展

3. an increasing number of people find it+adj.+to do sth 越來越多人發(fā)現(xiàn)做某事怎么樣

4. it has become a trend for sb to do sth 某人做某事成為一種趨勢(shì)

5. it is evident that... 很明顯的是……

（二）表達(dá)觀點(diǎn)的核心表達(dá)

1. hold a totally opposite argument 持完全相反的觀點(diǎn)

2. hold various attitudes towards this issue 對(duì)這個(gè)問題持有不同的態(tài)度

3. views on...vary from person to person 對(duì)……的觀點(diǎn)因人而異

4. be in favor of/be positive about 支持……觀點(diǎn)

5. Some hold the point of view that it is of great importance/significance for sb to do sth. 有些人認(rèn)為，對(duì)某人而言做某事是很重要的。

6. As far as I am concerned, it is not a matter of “should or should not” but of“how”. 在我看來，這不是“應(yīng)該或不應(yīng)該”的問題，而是“如何做”的問題。

（三）提出建議的核心表達(dá)

1. had better do sth 最好做某事

2. It is highly recommended that sb should do sth./Doing sth is strongly recommended. 強(qiáng)烈建議某人做某事。

3. ..., which is beneficial ……是有益的

4. ...leaves much room for improvement ……有待提高

5. The way the ten-minute after-class time is spent leaves much to be desired. 課后十分鐘的利用情況有待提高。

6. You are supposed to be willing to make contributions to our homeland. 你應(yīng)該樂于為祖國做出貢獻(xiàn)。

三、寫作支架

本次的寫作任務(wù)是寫一篇融合說明和議論的文章，根據(jù)寫作要求，其語篇結(jié)構(gòu)可定為“現(xiàn)象+觀點(diǎn)+建議”。 文章的框架如下：

With the advancement of..., it has become a trend that...（現(xiàn)象）

I am positive about... because of the following reasons. First, ... Second, ... Third, ...(觀點(diǎn)) I believe that it will be better if we do sth in order to/so as to... (建議)

四、語篇過手

根據(jù)以上提供的主題、主題表達(dá)和語篇結(jié)構(gòu)，我們可以寫出文章的第一、二段。第一段描述虛擬助教的應(yīng)用情況，第二段表達(dá)個(gè)人的觀點(diǎn)并提出建議。 總詞數(shù)控制在80左右。

同時(shí)，學(xué)習(xí)運(yùn)用前文閱讀材料中出現(xiàn)的非謂語或部分倒裝。尤其要注意表達(dá)的內(nèi)在邏輯關(guān)系，需要注意使用恰當(dāng)?shù)倪B詞。