In a few years, you might be able to speak Chinese, Korean, Japanese, French,and English—and all at the same time. This sounds incredible, but Alex Waibel,a computer science professor at US's Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Germany's University of Karlsruhe,announced last week that it may soon be reality. He and his team have invented software and hardware that could make it far easier for people who speak different languages to understand each other.
One application, called Lecture Translation, can easily translate a speech from one language into another. Current translation technologies typically limit speakers to certain topics or a limited vocabulary. Users also have to be trained how to use the programme.
Another prototype(雏形机) can send translations of a speech to different listeners depending on what language they speak.“It is like having a simultaneous translator right next to you but without disturbing the person next to you,” Waibel said.
Prefer to read? So-called Translation Glasses transcribe(转录) the translations on a tiny liquid-crystal(液晶) display(LCD) screen.
Then there's the Muscle Translator. Electrodes capture the electrical signals from facial muscle movements made naturally when a person is mouthing words. The signals are then translated into speech. The electrodes could be replaced with wireless chips implanted in a person's face, according to researchers.
During a demonstration held last Thursday in CMU's Pittsburgh campus, a Chinese student named Stan Jou had 11 tiny electrodes attached to the muscles of his cheeks, neck and throat. Then he mouthed—without speaking aloud—a few words in Mandarin(普通话) to the audience. A few seconds later, the phrase was displayed on a computer screen and spoken out by the computer in English and Spanish: “Let me introduce our new prototype.”
This particular gadget(器械),when fully developed, might allow anyone to speak in any number of languages or, as Waibel put it, “to switch your mouth to a foreign language”. “The idea behind the university's prototypes is to create ‘good enough’ bridges for cross-cultural exchanges that are becoming more common in the world,” Waibel said.
With spontaneous(自发的) translators, foreign drivers in Germany could listen to traffic warnings on the radio, tourists in China could read all the signs and talk with local people, and leaders of different countries could have secret talks without any interpreters there.
小题1:Which of the following statements is not TRUE?
A．A lecture translation can translate what you said into other languages easily.
B．There is no Muscle Translator in the world now.
C．Muscle Translators can translate what you think into speech if you just move your mouth.
D．The spontaneous translators will help us a lot.小题2:What kind of equipment is NOT mentioned in this passage?
A．Lecture Translation.
B．Muscle Translator.
C．Multiple Translator.
D．Translation Prototype.小题3: What's the final destination of inventing the language translators?
A．To make cultural exchanges between different countries easier.
B．To help students learn foreign languages more easily.
C．To make people live in foreign countries more comfortably.
D．To help people learn more foreign languages in the future.小题4:Where can this passage probably excerpted from?
A．A newspaper.
B．A magazine on science.
C．A fairy tale.
D．A scientific fantasy book.