Question

New crime prediction software should reduce not only the murder rate, but the rate of other crimes. Developed by Richard Berk, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, the software has already used in Baltimore and Philadelphia to predict which individuals on probation(緩刑) or parole(假釋) are most likely to murder and to be murdered.

????? “When a person goes on probation or parole he is supervised(監(jiān)督) by an officer. The question is ‘what level of supervision is appropriate?’” said Berk. It used to be that parole officers used the person’s criminal record, and their judgment to make decisions.

??? “This research replaces those seat-of-the –pants calculations,” he said.

??? Technology helps determine level of supervision. On average there is one murder for every 100,000 people. Even among high-risk groups the murder rate is one in 100. Predicting such a rare event is very difficult, but advances in computer technology works.

?? Years ago, the researchers made a dataset of more than 60,000 various crimes. Using the software they developed, they found some much more likely to commit murder when paroled or probated. They could identify eight future murderers out of 100.

??? Berk’s software examines roughly two dozen variables(可變因素), from criminal record to geographic location. The type of crimes, and more importantly, the age at which that crime was committed, were two of the most predictive variables.

???? “People assume that if someone murdered then they will murder in the future,” said Berk. “ What really matters is what that person did as a young individual. Predicting future crimes sounds well. But we aren’t anywhere near being able to do that.”

???? “Berk’s scientific answer leaves policymakers with difficult questions. By labeling one group of people as high risk, and supervise them closely, there should be fewer murders, which the potential victims should be happy about. It also means that those high-risk individuals will be supervised more aggressively. For human rights advocates, that means punishing people who, most likely, will not commit a crime in the future,” said Bushway. “It comes down to a question of whether you would rather make these errors or those errors.”

1.The underlined words(in Para.3) probably mean___.?

A. calculations based on subjective opinions?????

B. calculations based on widespread voting

C. calculations made by advanced technology????

D. calculations based on serious considering

2.For 650 people with crime records, how many potential murderers would the software find?

A. 6.5.?????? ????????????? ????????????? ????????????? B. 13.??????? ????????????? ????????????? C. 52.??? ????????????? ????????????? ????????????? D. 65.

3.From Para 7, we can infer that______.

A. the technology developed by Richard Berk will soon be widely used in the US

B. the technology would not be widely accepted in the short term

C. whether a person murders or not largely decided by his upbringing while young

D. if a person murdered when he was fifty, he is sure to murder again while on probation

4.Bushway’s attitude to the technology put forward by Richard Berk is ____.

A. positive???? ????????????? ????????????? B. negative?? ????????????? ????????????? C. objective??? ????????????? ????????????? D. indifferent

5.Which would be the best title for the passage?

A. Closely Supervise Potential Murders?????????

B. Measures Taken to Prevent Criminal Behavior

C. Technology Revolutionizes Judges’ Way of Working????

D. Software is Developed to Predict Criminal Behavior

 

Answer 1

【答案】

1.A

2.C

3.B

4.C

5.D

【解析】

試題分析：文章全篇介紹了預(yù)測(cè)犯罪行為軟件的開(kāi)發(fā)是把雙刃劍，雖然可以提高對(duì)高危人群發(fā)生犯罪行為預(yù)測(cè)的精準(zhǔn)度，預(yù)防犯罪行為發(fā)生，但也會(huì)給那些不會(huì)再發(fā)生犯罪行為的人帶來(lái)不必要的實(shí)時(shí)監(jiān)控，使他們的權(quán)益受到損害。

1.推理題：劃線部分“seat-of-the –pants calculations”可用上一段中“It used to be that parole officers used the person’s criminal record, and their judgment to make decisions”解釋，指的是過(guò)去假釋官根據(jù)一個(gè)人的犯罪記錄和自己的判斷來(lái)做決定，可知假釋官的主觀因素很大。A項(xiàng)符合原句意。故選A。

2.細(xì)節(jié)題：根據(jù)文章第四段中“They could identify eight future murderers out of 100”他們將來(lái)可以確定100個(gè)人中有8個(gè)殺人犯，因此650個(gè)人中會(huì)有52個(gè)罪犯。故選C。

3.推理題： 根據(jù)第七段最后一句“ But we aren’t anywhere near being able to do that.”但我們現(xiàn)在還做不到，可知這項(xiàng)技術(shù)短時(shí)間內(nèi)還不能被廣泛接受。故選B。

4.推理題：根據(jù)最后一段內(nèi)容可知對(duì)高危人群的監(jiān)控雖然會(huì)讓潛在的受害者高興，但也會(huì)對(duì)那些將來(lái)不會(huì)在犯罪的人是一種不必要的懲罰。由此可知他的觀點(diǎn)比較客觀。故選C。

5.主旨題：閱讀全文可知是在討論預(yù)測(cè)犯罪行為軟件的開(kāi)發(fā)。故選D

考點(diǎn)：考查科學(xué)技術(shù)類閱讀