虛擬助教

Professor Ashok Goel of Georgia Tech （佐治亞理工學院） 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 基于知識的

drop out of 退出

taper off 逐漸減少

interact with 和……互動

tell...apart from 將……與……區分

to one's delight 讓某人高興的是

be positive about 對……積極

be supposed to do 應該做……

take over 接管

have a rosy outlook on 對……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. 當學生們感到被孤立或者困惑且提出的問題沒有得到答案時，他們繼續學習的動力就會開始逐漸減弱。

【點石成金】go unanswered中的go作系動詞，后接形容詞，意為“變成；變為；變得（尤指朝壞的方面）”。

【運用遷移】當聽到明天要去公園野炊時，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負責回答學生在在線論壇上提出的所有問題的40%。

【點石成金】posed by students中的posed為非謂語動詞的過去分詞，意為“由學生提出的”。

【運用遷移】出生于一個美麗的村莊，他喜歡欣賞自然風光。

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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的真實身份。

【點石成金】“not until...+謂語+主語”為部分倒裝結構，強調了時間，意為“直到……，……才……”。

【運用遷移】直到剛剛我才意識到我被騙了。

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Activity B Reading for writing

隨著線上教學的普及，越來越多的虛擬助教走入學生們的日常學習中。校刊正在征集學生對虛擬助教的看法。 請你根據以下要求投稿。 內容要點：

1. 虛擬助教的應用情況；

2. 你對虛擬助教的看法和建議。

注意：

1. 詞數80左右；

2. 可以適當增加細節，以使行文連貫；

3. 至少需要使用一個非謂語或部分倒裝句；

4. 注意段落內的邏輯關系。

My view on virtual assistants

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寫作導引

本次的寫作任務是寫一篇文章給校刊投稿，要求學生描述虛擬助教的應用情況、對虛擬助教的看法以及建議等，并且至少需要使用一個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的。 我們可以通過整合同主題閱讀材料的內容和語言，梳理寫作思路和積累素材。

一、語篇解碼

（一）內容分析

What is the text mainly about?

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（二）宏觀結構

Fill in the blanks according to the text.

二、素材積累

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

（一）介紹現象的核心表達

1. with the advancement of the society 隨著社會的發展

2. as the society develops in leaps and bounds 隨著社會的迅速發展

3. an increasing number of people find it+adj.+to do sth 越來越多人發現做某事怎么樣

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

5. it is evident that... 很明顯的是……

（二）表達觀點的核心表達

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

2. hold various attitudes towards this issue 對這個問題持有不同的態度

3. views on...vary from person to person 對……的觀點因人而異

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

5. Some hold the point of view that it is of great importance/significance for sb to do sth. 有些人認為，對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“應該或不應該”的問題，而是“如何做”的問題。

（三）提出建議的核心表達

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. 你應該樂于為祖國做出貢獻。

三、寫作支架

本次的寫作任務是寫一篇融合說明和議論的文章，根據寫作要求，其語篇結構可定為“現象+觀點+建議”。 文章的框架如下：

With the advancement of..., it has become a trend that...（現象）

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

四、語篇過手

根據以上提供的主題、主題表達和語篇結構，我們可以寫出文章的第一、二段。第一段描述虛擬助教的應用情況，第二段表達個人的觀點并提出建議。 總詞數控制在80左右。

同時，學習運用前文閱讀材料中出現的非謂語或部分倒裝。尤其要注意表達的內在邏輯關系，需要注意使用恰當的連詞。