Do computers think? It isn't a new question. In fact, Alan Turing, a British mathematician, proposed an experiment to answer the question in 1950 and the test, known as the Turing test, is still used today. In the experiment a group of people are asked to interact with something in another room through a computer terminal. They don't known wheter it is another person or a computer that they are interacting with. They can ask any question that they want. They can type their questions onto a computer screens or they can ask their questions speaking into a microphone. In response, they see the answers on a computer screen or they hear them played back by a voice synthesizer. At the end of the test, the people have to decide whether they have been talking to a person or to a computer. If they judge the computer to be a person, or if they can't determine the difference, then the machine has passed the Turing test.
Since 1950, a number of contests have been organized in which machines were challenged to the Turing Test. In 1990, Hugh Loebner sponsored a prize to be awarded by the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies- a gold metal and cash award of 100,000 dollars to the designer of the computer that could pass the Turing Test; however, so far, no computer has passed the test.
The reading and the lecture are both on the so called "Turing Test" which is a test proposed by the mentioned scientist in order to check whether computers think or not. The author of the reading argues that the Turing experiment may prove whether a computer can think or not. The lecturer casts doubt on the ideas in the reading. He believes that, at the basis of the Turing experiment, there is a faulty approach as we can not infer thoughts through behaviors nor vice versa.
First of all, the author tacitly recognizes to people the ability in judging whether something is a person or a computer, just using the Turing Test. He believes that the people have the competencies to go through such an experiment. This point is clearly challenged by the lecturer, who does not share the same idea, by arguing that behaviors cannot be compared to thoughts. By mean of example, he adducts the fact that an English native speaker won't ever understand a Chinese person in another room, as they do not share the same language. Eventually, the two speakers may interact using gestures or symbols rather than words, but this is not what the Turing Test is about.
Secondly, the author states that in the 50s several contests were put in place with the aim of challenging computers with the Turing Test, even though none of the machines passed the experiment. This argument is rebutted by the lecturer, who claims that a computer may pass the Test. Despite this, the result would be meaningless, because the Turing test itself is not supposed to show whether a computer can think or not.
Finally, the lecturer mentions that a computer may even be perfectly programmed, seeming very intelligent. However, this does not mean it really is.
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Comments
Yeah I know! I wrote the
Yeah I know! I wrote the essay in 20 minutes :)
I found a tutorial online, describing a fixed pattern to deal with the TOEFL Integrated essay task. It is more or less like the following pattern:
INTRODUCTION
The reading and the lecture are both about… which is…
The author of the reading argues that..
The lecturer cast doubts on the claims made in the article.
He/ she thinks that…
BODY PARAGRAPH 1
First of all, the author claims that… He believes that..
This point is challenged by the lecturer..
He says that.. Furthermore he points out..
BODY PARAGRAPH 2
Secondly, the authors states that..
He argues..
This argument is rebutted by the lecturer
He/ she suggest..
He/she elaborates on this by mentioning that..
BODY PARAGRAPH 3
Finally the author mention that,
He is of the opinion that
The lecturer on the other hand, feels that
He/she puts forth on the idea that..
CONCUSION
In conclusion, the lecture and the reading are both about..
The professor effectively challenges the claims made in the article..
What do you think? Could it work?
First of all, don't need a
First of all, don't need a conclusion paragraph.
Second, you can practice according to it at the beginning, then after a while when you get familiar with, have your own style and words. If not, you won't get a high mark.
Read sample essays from ETS:
http://www.testbig.com/users/toeflwritingmaster
flaws:
No. of Words: 300 250
Write the essay in 20 minutes. and the first argument has a lot of content (you may not put an example inside), but the third one has a little. We should keep a balance.
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Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 23 in 30
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 14 12
No. of Words: 300 250
No. of Characters: 1396 1200
No. of Different Words: 156 150
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.162 4.2
Average Word Length: 4.653 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.437 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 103 80
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 76 60
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 48 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 21 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.429 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.641 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.571 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.361 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.565 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.12 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 4