天空吸引你展翅飛翔，海洋召喚你揚帆啟航，高山激勵你奮勇攀登，平原等待你信馬由韁……出發(fā)吧，愿你前程無量,努力備考，考入理想院校！以下是為大家整理的 《2018年10月自考英語（二）閱讀強化輔導(dǎo)【9-11】》供您查閱。
【篇一】
Slavery on Our Doorstep
There are estimated to be more than 20,000 overseas domestic servants working in Britain (the exact figure is not known because the Home Office, the government department that deals with this, does not keep statistics). Usually, they have been brought over by foreign businessmen, diplomats or Britons returning from abroad. Of these 20,000, just under 2,000 are being exploited and abused by their employers, according to a London-based campaigning group which helps overseas servants working in Britain.
The abuse can take several forms. Often the domestics are not allowed to go out, and they do not receive any payment. They can be physically, sexually and psychologically abused. And they can have their passports removed, making leaving or "escaping" virtually impossible.
The sad condition of women working as domestics around the world received much media attention earlier this year in several highly publicised cases. In one of them, a Filipino maid was executed is Singapore after being convicted of murder, despite protests from various quarters that her guilt had not been adequately established.
Groups like Anti-Slavery International say other, less dramatic, cases are equally deserving of attention, such as that of Lydia Garcia, a Filipino maid working in London:"I was hired by a Saudi diplomat directly form the Philippines to work in London in 1989. I was supposed to be paid ￡120 but I never received that amount. They always threatened that they would send me back to my country."
Then there is the case of Kumari from Sri Lanka. The main breadwinner in her family, she used to work for a very low wage at a tea factory in Sri Lanka. Because she found it difficult to feed her four children, she accepted a job working as a domestic in London. She says she felt like a prisoner at the London house where she worked:"No days off - ever, no breaks at all, no proper food. I didn't have my own room; I slept on a shelf with a space of only three feet above me. I wasn't allowed to talk to anybody. I wasn't even allowed to open the window. My employers always threatened to report me to the Home Office or the police."
At the end of 1994 the British Government introduced new measures to help protect domestic workers from abuse by their employers. This included increasing the minimum age of employees to 18, getting employees to read and understand an advice leaflet, getting employers to agree to provide adequate maintenance and conditions, and to put in writing the main terms and conditions of the job (of which the employees should see a copy).
However, many people doubt whether this will successfully reduce the incidence of abuse. For the main problem facing overseas maids and domestics who try to complain about cruel living and working conditions is that they do not have independent immigrant status and so cannot change employer. (They are allowed in the United Kingdom under a special concession in the immigration rules which allows foreigners to bring domestic staff with them.) So if they do complain, they risk being deported.
Allowing domestic workers the freedom to seek the same type of work but with a different employer, if the so choose, is what groups like Anti-Slavery International are campaigning the Government for. It is, they say, the right to change employers which distinguishes employment from slavery.
我們身邊的奴役
據(jù)估計，在英國工作的外籍家庭傭人有兩萬多人。通常，他們是被外國商人、外交官和從國外歸來的英國人帶來的。根據(jù)某個設(shè)在倫敦的幫助在英國做工的外籍傭人的政治組織說，兩萬名傭人中有近兩千人被他們的雇主剝削、*。*有多種形式：家仆常不許外出或得不到工錢;有的家仆還受到*、性或精神方面的*;還有的護照遭到?jīng)]收，這樣他們走也走不了，逃也逃不掉。
今年早些時候引起大眾高度注意的事件中，全世界女傭的悲慘狀況得到了媒體的注意。其中一件是，一個菲律賓女傭在被判殺謀殺罪后，在新加坡被處決，盡管各方面都*她的罪行尚未充分證實。一些組織如"反奴役國際"稱還有一些案件雖然沒有菲律賓女傭案那么具有戲劇性，也同樣值得關(guān)注。如在倫敦做事的菲籍女傭迪亞加西亞一案："1989年一個沙特外交官直接把我從菲律賓雇來到倫敦工作。說是一個月120鎊，但多從沒有拿過那么多。她還經(jīng)常嚇唬我，說要把我送回國去。"
此外，還有來自斯里蘭卡的庫馬里事件。她家主要靠她賺錢維持生計，她曾在斯里蘭卡一家茶場掙一份微薄的工資。因為她發(fā)現(xiàn)很難養(yǎng)活她的四個孩子，就接受了在倫敦做傭人的一份工作。她說在倫敦那所她工作的房子里感覺像個囚犯。"不放假，也不讓休息，連一口像樣的飯也吃不上。而且我沒有自己的房間，讓我睡在壁櫥的隔板上，躺上去，身子離上面的隔板只有三尺來高，還不容許我跟別人說話，連窗戶也不讓開。雇主動不動就嚇唬說要向內(nèi)政部或警察告我的狀。"
1993年末英國政府采取了新措施，保護家傭不再受雇主的欺負。其中包括把雇傭的年齡提高到18歲，讓雇傭新聞記者并理解一份有建議的宣傳材料，使雇主同意提供適當?shù)纳钯M用和條件，把工作的主要條款和條件形成文字。
但是，這些措施能否有效地減少*的發(fā)生，很多人感到懷疑。外籍女傭和家仆雖有意對惡劣的生活和工作條件提出控訴，但主要的問題是他們沒有獨立的移民身份，因此不能改換雇主，故而他們敢發(fā)泄不滿的話，就有被遣送回國的可能。
做家仆的人有選擇雇主的自由，這也就是"反奴役國際"這類組織努力促使政府去實現(xiàn)的事。這類組織說，正是改換雇主的權(quán)利劃清了雇傭和奴役的界限。
【篇二】
Return of The Chain Gang
Eyewitnesses say it was a scene straight out of a black and white movie from the 1950s. As the sun rose over the fields of Huntsville, Alabama, in the American South, the convicts got down from the trucks that had brought them there. Watched over by guards with guns, they raised their legs in unison and made their way to the edge of the highway, Interstate 65. The BBC's Washington correspondent Clare Bolderson was there and she sent this report:"They wore white uniforms with the words 'Chain Gang' on their backs and, in groups of five, were shackled together in leg irons joined by an eight-foot chain. The prisoners will work for up to 90 days on the gang: they'll clear ditches of weeds and mend fences along Alabama's main roads. While they are working on the gang, they'll also live in some of the harshest prison conditions in the United States.
There'll be no televisions or phone calls; many other day-to-day privileges will be denied."
The authorities in Alabama say there is a lot of support for the re-introduction of chain gangs in the State after a gap of 30 years (the last gangs were abolished in Georgia in the early 1960s). Many people believe it is an effective way to get criminals to pay back their debt to society.
The prisoners stay shackled when they use toilets. They reacted sharply to the treatment they are given:Prisoner one: "This is like a circus. A zoo. All chained here to a zoo. We're all animals now."
Prisoner two: "It's degrading. It's embarrassing."
Prisoner three: "In chains. It's slavery!"
Six out of every ten prisoners in chains are black, which is why the chain gangs call up images of slavery in centuries gone by, when black people were brought from Africa in leg irons and made to work in plantations owned by white men. Not surprisingly, although three quarters of the white population of Alabama supports chain gangs, only a small number of black people do. Don Claxton, spokesman for the State Government of Alabama, insists that the system is not racist:"This isn't something that's done for racial reasons, for political reasons. This is something that's going to help save the people of Alabama tax money because they don't have to pay as many officers to work on the highways. And it's going to help clean up our highways and it's going to help clean up the State."
However, the re-introduction of these measures has caused a great deal of strong disagreement. Human rights organizations say that putting prisoners in chains is not only inhumane but also ineffective.
Alvin Bronstein, member of the Civil Liberties Union, says that study after study has shown that you cannot prevent people from committing crimes by punishment or the threat of punishment: "What they will do is make prisoners more angry, more hostile, so that when they get out of prison, they will increase the level of their criminal behaviour."
Civil liberties groups say that chaining people together doesn't solve the causes of crime, such as poverty or disaffection within society. What it does is punish prisoners for the ills of society.
They say the practice takes the United States back to the Middle Ages, and that it is a shame to American society. But that's not an argument likely to win favour among many people in the Deep South of the United States. Alabama's experiment is to be widened to include more prisoners, and other States, such as Arkansas and Arizona, will very probably introduce their own chain gang schemes.
又把犯人串在一起了
看到這個情景的人說，這就像50年代一部黑白*中的場景：當太陽從美國南部阿拉巴馬州的亨茨威爾的田野上升起時，罪犯們從運送他們的卡車上下來。在持槍的衛(wèi)兵監(jiān)視下，他們步伐整齊地向65號州際的高速公路的路邊走去。英國廣播公司駐華盛頓記者克萊爾德森就在現(xiàn)場，并發(fā)回如下報道：罪犯們穿著白我號衣，背上寫有"Chain Gang"字樣。他們五人一組，用一條八英尺長的鐵鏈把他們的腿拴在一起。這些囚犯要這樣串在一起干90天活兒;他們要清理排水溝上的雜草，要維修沿阿拉巴馬主干道的防護欄。他們要串在一起勞動不說，他們監(jiān)獄的有些條件也是美國惡劣的：沒有電視，不讓接電話;其他日常生活的權(quán)利也被剝削。
阿拉巴馬州*說，事隔30年，有許多人贊成恢復(fù)使用這種刑罰認為這是讓罪犯向社會贖罪的有效方法。囚犯們上廁所戴著鐐銬，他們對遭受的待遇反應(yīng)強烈：囚犯甲說，"這簡直是一個馬戲團，一個動物園。所有的人都被鏈子捆在一起，這是把我們當動物嘛!"
囚犯乙說，"這不是踐踏人，羞辱人嘛!"
囚犯丙說，"用鐵鐐，奴隸制才會這樣做。"
用鐵鏈串在一起的犯人60%是黑人，正因如此，這些帶鐐銬和囚犯想到了幾個世紀前的奴隸制下的種種景象，那時黑人帶著腳鐐從非洲帶來，被近在白人的種植園里干活。阿拉巴馬雖有3/4的白人支持帶鐐服刑，卻只有很少一部分黑人贊同這樣做，這就不足為怪了。阿拉巴馬州政府發(fā)言人唐克萊斯頓堅持認為這個辦法并沒有各族歧視的意思："這樣做并非是種族和政治原因。這樣做管理高速公路的干部少了，阿拉巴馬的百姓就可以少交些稅嘛。而且，還可以清理高速公路的衛(wèi)生，此外，全州的衛(wèi)生也可以得到清理。"
但是，恢復(fù)這些措施招致了許多人的強烈反對。一些****組織認為，把犯人用鐵鏈拴在一起既不人道也不起什么作用。"公民自由聯(lián)合會"的會員阿爾文布朗斯坦認為，研究一再證明不能靠懲罰或用懲罰威嚇來阻止犯罪，"他們這樣做的結(jié)果是犯人更加惱怒，抵觸情緒更厲害。等出了獄，他們會變本加厲地做壞事。"
一些公民自由組織認為，把人用鐵鏈拴起來不能消除像社會中存在的貧困以及不滿等犯罪根源;它的作用不亞于為懲罰囚犯來維護社會的弊病。他們覺得這是讓美國退回到了中世紀，是美國社會的恥辱。但這種說法看來不大可能贏得美國南方腹地幾個州的人民的響應(yīng)。阿拉巴馬很快就要在更多的囚犯身上使用這個辦法，像阿肯和亞利桑那等其他幾個州也很有可能實行各自的一套串綁囚犯的辦法。
【篇三】
Improving Industrial efficiency through Robotics
Robots, becoming increasingly prevalent in factories and industrial plants throughout the developed world, are programmed and engineered to perform industrial tasks without human intervention.
Most of today's robots are employed in the automotive industry, where they are programmed to take over such jobs as welding and spray painting automobile and truck bodies. They also load and unload hot, heavy metal forms used in machines casting automobile and truck frames.
Robots, already taking over human tasks in the automotive field, are beginning to be seen, although to a lesser degree, in other industries as well.
There they build electric motors, small appliances, pocket calculators, and even watches. The robots used in nuclear power plants handle the radioactive materials, preventing human personnel from being exposed to radiation. These are the robots responsible for the reduction in job-related injuries in this new industry.
What makes a robot a robot and not just another kind of automatic machine? Robots differ from automatic machines in that after completion of one specific task, they can be reprogrammed by a computer to do another one. As an example, a robot doing spot welding one month can be reprogrammed and switched to spray painting the next.
Automatic machine, on the other hand, are not capable of many different uses; they are built to perform only one task.
The next generation of robots will be able to see objects, will have a sense of touch, and will make critical decisions. Engineers skilled in microelectronics and computer technology are developing artificial vision for robots. With the ability to "see", robots can identify and inspect one specific class of objects out of a stack of different kinds of materials. One robot vision system used electronic digital cameras containing many rows of light-sensitive materials.
When light from an object such as a machine part strikes the camera, the sensitive materials measure the intensity of light and convert the light rays into a range of numbers. The numbers are part of a grayscale system in which brightness is measured in a range of values.
One scale ranges from 0 to 15, and another from 0 to 255. The 0 is represented by black. The highest number is white. The numbers is between represent different shades of gray. The computer then makes the calculations and converts the numbers into a picture that shows an image of the object in question. It is not yet known whether robots will one day have vision as good as human vision. Technicians believe they will, but only after years of development.
Engineers working on other advances are designing and experimenting with new types of metal hands and fingers, giving robots a sense of touch. Other engineers are writing new programs allowing robots to make decisions such as whether to discard defective parts in finished products. To do this, the robot will also have to be capable of identifying those defective parts.
These future robots, assembled with a sense of touch and the ability to see and make decisions, will have plenty of work to do.
They can be used to explore for minerals on the ocean floor or in deep areas of mines too dangerous for humans to enter. They will work as gas station attendants, firemen, housekeepers, and security personnel.
Anyone wanting to understand the industry of the future will have to know about robotics.
利用機器人技術(shù)提高工業(yè)效率
機器人在所有發(fā)達國家的工廠日益普及，它們被編程、設(shè)計，在無人情況下執(zhí)行工業(yè)任務(wù)。現(xiàn)今大多數(shù)機器人用于汽車工業(yè)，人們對其編程，從事如汽車卡車車身焊接、噴漆之類的工作。它們也裝卸汽車和卡車框架的機器中所有的熾熱、笨重的金屬鑄模。
機器人已經(jīng)在汽車行業(yè)接任了人類工作，在其行業(yè)也開始看到它們的身影，雖然使用程度低一些。在那里它們制造電動馬達、小型設(shè)備、袖珍計算器，甚至手表。用于核電站的機器人處理輻射材料，使職員不暴露于輻射。這些機器人可以減少這一新型工業(yè)中與工作有關(guān)的傷害。
什么使機器變成機器人，而不是其他的自動化機器呢?機器人與自動化機器的區(qū)別在于完成一項特定工作后，它們可以被電腦重新編程去執(zhí)行一項任務(wù)。
比如說，一個機器人做了一個月的點焊，可以重新編程，下個月轉(zhuǎn)向噴漆。相反，自動化機器卻沒有許多不同用途，它們只是為了招待一項任務(wù)而被建造。下一代機器人將能看見物體，具有觸覺，能作出關(guān)鍵性的決定。精通于微電子和電腦技術(shù)的工程師正在為機器人開發(fā)人造視力，有了"看"的能力，機器人就能從一推不同的材料中鑒別檢查出具體的一類物體。機器人禮堂系統(tǒng)采用包含多行感官材料的電子數(shù)碼相機。當一個物體上的光，如機器零件，照射到相機上時，敏感材料就可測量出光的強度，把光線轉(zhuǎn)換為一組數(shù)字。這些數(shù)字是灰度系統(tǒng)的一部分，其亮度由一系列數(shù)值測量。一個刻度范圍是0到15，另一個是0到 225。0用黑色表示，高值用白色，其間的數(shù)值用不同的灰色陰影來表示。然后計算機進行計算，并將數(shù)字轉(zhuǎn)換為表明該無題形象的圖像?，F(xiàn)在還不知道有一天機器人是否具有人類一樣的好視力。技術(shù)人員想信它們會的，只是需要多年的開發(fā)。
在其他方面取得進展的工程技術(shù)人員正在設(shè)計和試驗新型金屬手臂和手指，使機器人具有觸覺。其他工程人員正在編寫新的程序使機器人做出如是否拋棄成品中有缺陷的零件的決定。要做到這點，機器人還必須具有鑒別有缺陷零件的能力。
集觸覺、看和做決定的能力于一體的這些未來機器人將會做大量的工作。它們可以用于海底探礦或探測對人類太危險的深層區(qū)域的礦物。它們可以做加油站服務(wù)人員、消防人員、房屋管理員和安全人員的工作。任何想了解未來工業(yè)的人必須懂機器人。
【篇一】
Slavery on Our Doorstep
There are estimated to be more than 20,000 overseas domestic servants working in Britain (the exact figure is not known because the Home Office, the government department that deals with this, does not keep statistics). Usually, they have been brought over by foreign businessmen, diplomats or Britons returning from abroad. Of these 20,000, just under 2,000 are being exploited and abused by their employers, according to a London-based campaigning group which helps overseas servants working in Britain.
The abuse can take several forms. Often the domestics are not allowed to go out, and they do not receive any payment. They can be physically, sexually and psychologically abused. And they can have their passports removed, making leaving or "escaping" virtually impossible.
The sad condition of women working as domestics around the world received much media attention earlier this year in several highly publicised cases. In one of them, a Filipino maid was executed is Singapore after being convicted of murder, despite protests from various quarters that her guilt had not been adequately established.
Groups like Anti-Slavery International say other, less dramatic, cases are equally deserving of attention, such as that of Lydia Garcia, a Filipino maid working in London:"I was hired by a Saudi diplomat directly form the Philippines to work in London in 1989. I was supposed to be paid ￡120 but I never received that amount. They always threatened that they would send me back to my country."
Then there is the case of Kumari from Sri Lanka. The main breadwinner in her family, she used to work for a very low wage at a tea factory in Sri Lanka. Because she found it difficult to feed her four children, she accepted a job working as a domestic in London. She says she felt like a prisoner at the London house where she worked:"No days off - ever, no breaks at all, no proper food. I didn't have my own room; I slept on a shelf with a space of only three feet above me. I wasn't allowed to talk to anybody. I wasn't even allowed to open the window. My employers always threatened to report me to the Home Office or the police."
At the end of 1994 the British Government introduced new measures to help protect domestic workers from abuse by their employers. This included increasing the minimum age of employees to 18, getting employees to read and understand an advice leaflet, getting employers to agree to provide adequate maintenance and conditions, and to put in writing the main terms and conditions of the job (of which the employees should see a copy).
However, many people doubt whether this will successfully reduce the incidence of abuse. For the main problem facing overseas maids and domestics who try to complain about cruel living and working conditions is that they do not have independent immigrant status and so cannot change employer. (They are allowed in the United Kingdom under a special concession in the immigration rules which allows foreigners to bring domestic staff with them.) So if they do complain, they risk being deported.
Allowing domestic workers the freedom to seek the same type of work but with a different employer, if the so choose, is what groups like Anti-Slavery International are campaigning the Government for. It is, they say, the right to change employers which distinguishes employment from slavery.
我們身邊的奴役
據(jù)估計，在英國工作的外籍家庭傭人有兩萬多人。通常，他們是被外國商人、外交官和從國外歸來的英國人帶來的。根據(jù)某個設(shè)在倫敦的幫助在英國做工的外籍傭人的政治組織說，兩萬名傭人中有近兩千人被他們的雇主剝削、*。*有多種形式：家仆常不許外出或得不到工錢;有的家仆還受到*、性或精神方面的*;還有的護照遭到?jīng)]收，這樣他們走也走不了，逃也逃不掉。
今年早些時候引起大眾高度注意的事件中，全世界女傭的悲慘狀況得到了媒體的注意。其中一件是，一個菲律賓女傭在被判殺謀殺罪后，在新加坡被處決，盡管各方面都*她的罪行尚未充分證實。一些組織如"反奴役國際"稱還有一些案件雖然沒有菲律賓女傭案那么具有戲劇性，也同樣值得關(guān)注。如在倫敦做事的菲籍女傭迪亞加西亞一案："1989年一個沙特外交官直接把我從菲律賓雇來到倫敦工作。說是一個月120鎊，但多從沒有拿過那么多。她還經(jīng)常嚇唬我，說要把我送回國去。"
此外，還有來自斯里蘭卡的庫馬里事件。她家主要靠她賺錢維持生計，她曾在斯里蘭卡一家茶場掙一份微薄的工資。因為她發(fā)現(xiàn)很難養(yǎng)活她的四個孩子，就接受了在倫敦做傭人的一份工作。她說在倫敦那所她工作的房子里感覺像個囚犯。"不放假，也不讓休息，連一口像樣的飯也吃不上。而且我沒有自己的房間，讓我睡在壁櫥的隔板上，躺上去，身子離上面的隔板只有三尺來高，還不容許我跟別人說話，連窗戶也不讓開。雇主動不動就嚇唬說要向內(nèi)政部或警察告我的狀。"
1993年末英國政府采取了新措施，保護家傭不再受雇主的欺負。其中包括把雇傭的年齡提高到18歲，讓雇傭新聞記者并理解一份有建議的宣傳材料，使雇主同意提供適當?shù)纳钯M用和條件，把工作的主要條款和條件形成文字。
但是，這些措施能否有效地減少*的發(fā)生，很多人感到懷疑。外籍女傭和家仆雖有意對惡劣的生活和工作條件提出控訴，但主要的問題是他們沒有獨立的移民身份，因此不能改換雇主，故而他們敢發(fā)泄不滿的話，就有被遣送回國的可能。
做家仆的人有選擇雇主的自由，這也就是"反奴役國際"這類組織努力促使政府去實現(xiàn)的事。這類組織說，正是改換雇主的權(quán)利劃清了雇傭和奴役的界限。
【篇二】
Return of The Chain Gang
Eyewitnesses say it was a scene straight out of a black and white movie from the 1950s. As the sun rose over the fields of Huntsville, Alabama, in the American South, the convicts got down from the trucks that had brought them there. Watched over by guards with guns, they raised their legs in unison and made their way to the edge of the highway, Interstate 65. The BBC's Washington correspondent Clare Bolderson was there and she sent this report:"They wore white uniforms with the words 'Chain Gang' on their backs and, in groups of five, were shackled together in leg irons joined by an eight-foot chain. The prisoners will work for up to 90 days on the gang: they'll clear ditches of weeds and mend fences along Alabama's main roads. While they are working on the gang, they'll also live in some of the harshest prison conditions in the United States.
There'll be no televisions or phone calls; many other day-to-day privileges will be denied."
The authorities in Alabama say there is a lot of support for the re-introduction of chain gangs in the State after a gap of 30 years (the last gangs were abolished in Georgia in the early 1960s). Many people believe it is an effective way to get criminals to pay back their debt to society.
The prisoners stay shackled when they use toilets. They reacted sharply to the treatment they are given:Prisoner one: "This is like a circus. A zoo. All chained here to a zoo. We're all animals now."
Prisoner two: "It's degrading. It's embarrassing."
Prisoner three: "In chains. It's slavery!"
Six out of every ten prisoners in chains are black, which is why the chain gangs call up images of slavery in centuries gone by, when black people were brought from Africa in leg irons and made to work in plantations owned by white men. Not surprisingly, although three quarters of the white population of Alabama supports chain gangs, only a small number of black people do. Don Claxton, spokesman for the State Government of Alabama, insists that the system is not racist:"This isn't something that's done for racial reasons, for political reasons. This is something that's going to help save the people of Alabama tax money because they don't have to pay as many officers to work on the highways. And it's going to help clean up our highways and it's going to help clean up the State."
However, the re-introduction of these measures has caused a great deal of strong disagreement. Human rights organizations say that putting prisoners in chains is not only inhumane but also ineffective.
Alvin Bronstein, member of the Civil Liberties Union, says that study after study has shown that you cannot prevent people from committing crimes by punishment or the threat of punishment: "What they will do is make prisoners more angry, more hostile, so that when they get out of prison, they will increase the level of their criminal behaviour."
Civil liberties groups say that chaining people together doesn't solve the causes of crime, such as poverty or disaffection within society. What it does is punish prisoners for the ills of society.
They say the practice takes the United States back to the Middle Ages, and that it is a shame to American society. But that's not an argument likely to win favour among many people in the Deep South of the United States. Alabama's experiment is to be widened to include more prisoners, and other States, such as Arkansas and Arizona, will very probably introduce their own chain gang schemes.
又把犯人串在一起了
看到這個情景的人說，這就像50年代一部黑白*中的場景：當太陽從美國南部阿拉巴馬州的亨茨威爾的田野上升起時，罪犯們從運送他們的卡車上下來。在持槍的衛(wèi)兵監(jiān)視下，他們步伐整齊地向65號州際的高速公路的路邊走去。英國廣播公司駐華盛頓記者克萊爾德森就在現(xiàn)場，并發(fā)回如下報道：罪犯們穿著白我號衣，背上寫有"Chain Gang"字樣。他們五人一組，用一條八英尺長的鐵鏈把他們的腿拴在一起。這些囚犯要這樣串在一起干90天活兒;他們要清理排水溝上的雜草，要維修沿阿拉巴馬主干道的防護欄。他們要串在一起勞動不說，他們監(jiān)獄的有些條件也是美國惡劣的：沒有電視，不讓接電話;其他日常生活的權(quán)利也被剝削。
阿拉巴馬州*說，事隔30年，有許多人贊成恢復(fù)使用這種刑罰認為這是讓罪犯向社會贖罪的有效方法。囚犯們上廁所戴著鐐銬，他們對遭受的待遇反應(yīng)強烈：囚犯甲說，"這簡直是一個馬戲團，一個動物園。所有的人都被鏈子捆在一起，這是把我們當動物嘛!"
囚犯乙說，"這不是踐踏人，羞辱人嘛!"
囚犯丙說，"用鐵鐐，奴隸制才會這樣做。"
用鐵鏈串在一起的犯人60%是黑人，正因如此，這些帶鐐銬和囚犯想到了幾個世紀前的奴隸制下的種種景象，那時黑人帶著腳鐐從非洲帶來，被近在白人的種植園里干活。阿拉巴馬雖有3/4的白人支持帶鐐服刑，卻只有很少一部分黑人贊同這樣做，這就不足為怪了。阿拉巴馬州政府發(fā)言人唐克萊斯頓堅持認為這個辦法并沒有各族歧視的意思："這樣做并非是種族和政治原因。這樣做管理高速公路的干部少了，阿拉巴馬的百姓就可以少交些稅嘛。而且，還可以清理高速公路的衛(wèi)生，此外，全州的衛(wèi)生也可以得到清理。"
但是，恢復(fù)這些措施招致了許多人的強烈反對。一些****組織認為，把犯人用鐵鏈拴在一起既不人道也不起什么作用。"公民自由聯(lián)合會"的會員阿爾文布朗斯坦認為，研究一再證明不能靠懲罰或用懲罰威嚇來阻止犯罪，"他們這樣做的結(jié)果是犯人更加惱怒，抵觸情緒更厲害。等出了獄，他們會變本加厲地做壞事。"
一些公民自由組織認為，把人用鐵鏈拴起來不能消除像社會中存在的貧困以及不滿等犯罪根源;它的作用不亞于為懲罰囚犯來維護社會的弊病。他們覺得這是讓美國退回到了中世紀，是美國社會的恥辱。但這種說法看來不大可能贏得美國南方腹地幾個州的人民的響應(yīng)。阿拉巴馬很快就要在更多的囚犯身上使用這個辦法，像阿肯和亞利桑那等其他幾個州也很有可能實行各自的一套串綁囚犯的辦法。
【篇三】
Improving Industrial efficiency through Robotics
Robots, becoming increasingly prevalent in factories and industrial plants throughout the developed world, are programmed and engineered to perform industrial tasks without human intervention.
Most of today's robots are employed in the automotive industry, where they are programmed to take over such jobs as welding and spray painting automobile and truck bodies. They also load and unload hot, heavy metal forms used in machines casting automobile and truck frames.
Robots, already taking over human tasks in the automotive field, are beginning to be seen, although to a lesser degree, in other industries as well.
There they build electric motors, small appliances, pocket calculators, and even watches. The robots used in nuclear power plants handle the radioactive materials, preventing human personnel from being exposed to radiation. These are the robots responsible for the reduction in job-related injuries in this new industry.
What makes a robot a robot and not just another kind of automatic machine? Robots differ from automatic machines in that after completion of one specific task, they can be reprogrammed by a computer to do another one. As an example, a robot doing spot welding one month can be reprogrammed and switched to spray painting the next.
Automatic machine, on the other hand, are not capable of many different uses; they are built to perform only one task.
The next generation of robots will be able to see objects, will have a sense of touch, and will make critical decisions. Engineers skilled in microelectronics and computer technology are developing artificial vision for robots. With the ability to "see", robots can identify and inspect one specific class of objects out of a stack of different kinds of materials. One robot vision system used electronic digital cameras containing many rows of light-sensitive materials.
When light from an object such as a machine part strikes the camera, the sensitive materials measure the intensity of light and convert the light rays into a range of numbers. The numbers are part of a grayscale system in which brightness is measured in a range of values.
One scale ranges from 0 to 15, and another from 0 to 255. The 0 is represented by black. The highest number is white. The numbers is between represent different shades of gray. The computer then makes the calculations and converts the numbers into a picture that shows an image of the object in question. It is not yet known whether robots will one day have vision as good as human vision. Technicians believe they will, but only after years of development.
Engineers working on other advances are designing and experimenting with new types of metal hands and fingers, giving robots a sense of touch. Other engineers are writing new programs allowing robots to make decisions such as whether to discard defective parts in finished products. To do this, the robot will also have to be capable of identifying those defective parts.
These future robots, assembled with a sense of touch and the ability to see and make decisions, will have plenty of work to do.
They can be used to explore for minerals on the ocean floor or in deep areas of mines too dangerous for humans to enter. They will work as gas station attendants, firemen, housekeepers, and security personnel.
Anyone wanting to understand the industry of the future will have to know about robotics.
利用機器人技術(shù)提高工業(yè)效率
機器人在所有發(fā)達國家的工廠日益普及，它們被編程、設(shè)計，在無人情況下執(zhí)行工業(yè)任務(wù)。現(xiàn)今大多數(shù)機器人用于汽車工業(yè)，人們對其編程，從事如汽車卡車車身焊接、噴漆之類的工作。它們也裝卸汽車和卡車框架的機器中所有的熾熱、笨重的金屬鑄模。
機器人已經(jīng)在汽車行業(yè)接任了人類工作，在其行業(yè)也開始看到它們的身影，雖然使用程度低一些。在那里它們制造電動馬達、小型設(shè)備、袖珍計算器，甚至手表。用于核電站的機器人處理輻射材料，使職員不暴露于輻射。這些機器人可以減少這一新型工業(yè)中與工作有關(guān)的傷害。
什么使機器變成機器人，而不是其他的自動化機器呢?機器人與自動化機器的區(qū)別在于完成一項特定工作后，它們可以被電腦重新編程去執(zhí)行一項任務(wù)。
比如說，一個機器人做了一個月的點焊，可以重新編程，下個月轉(zhuǎn)向噴漆。相反，自動化機器卻沒有許多不同用途，它們只是為了招待一項任務(wù)而被建造。下一代機器人將能看見物體，具有觸覺，能作出關(guān)鍵性的決定。精通于微電子和電腦技術(shù)的工程師正在為機器人開發(fā)人造視力，有了"看"的能力，機器人就能從一推不同的材料中鑒別檢查出具體的一類物體。機器人禮堂系統(tǒng)采用包含多行感官材料的電子數(shù)碼相機。當一個物體上的光，如機器零件，照射到相機上時，敏感材料就可測量出光的強度，把光線轉(zhuǎn)換為一組數(shù)字。這些數(shù)字是灰度系統(tǒng)的一部分，其亮度由一系列數(shù)值測量。一個刻度范圍是0到15，另一個是0到 225。0用黑色表示，高值用白色，其間的數(shù)值用不同的灰色陰影來表示。然后計算機進行計算，并將數(shù)字轉(zhuǎn)換為表明該無題形象的圖像?，F(xiàn)在還不知道有一天機器人是否具有人類一樣的好視力。技術(shù)人員想信它們會的，只是需要多年的開發(fā)。
在其他方面取得進展的工程技術(shù)人員正在設(shè)計和試驗新型金屬手臂和手指，使機器人具有觸覺。其他工程人員正在編寫新的程序使機器人做出如是否拋棄成品中有缺陷的零件的決定。要做到這點，機器人還必須具有鑒別有缺陷零件的能力。
集觸覺、看和做決定的能力于一體的這些未來機器人將會做大量的工作。它們可以用于海底探礦或探測對人類太危險的深層區(qū)域的礦物。它們可以做加油站服務(wù)人員、消防人員、房屋管理員和安全人員的工作。任何想了解未來工業(yè)的人必須懂機器人。