Bestcom - Considerate Computing IELTS Reading

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Luyện tập đề IELTS Reading Practice với passage Bestcom - Considerate Computing
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DOL IELTS Đình Lực 28/02/2022

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Bài đọc (reading passage )
Bestcom—Considerate Computing

‘Your battery is now fully charged,' announced the laptop to its owner Donald A. Norman in a synthetic
voice, with great enthusiasm and maybe even a hint of pride. For the record, humans are not at all
unfamiliar with distractions and multitasking. ‘We are used to a complex life that gets constantly
interrupted by computer’s attention-seeking requests, as much as we are familiar with procreation,’ laughs
Ted Selker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab,

Humanity has been connected to approximately three billion networked telephones, computers, traffic
lights and even fridges and picture frames since these things can facilitate our daily lives. That is why we
do not typically turn off the phones, shut down the e-mail system, or close the office door even when we
have a meeting coming or a stretch of concentrated work. We merely endure the consequences.
Countless research reports have confirmed that if people are unexpectedly interrupted, they may suffer a
drop in work efficiency, and they are more likely to make mistakes. According to Robert G. Picard from the
University of Missouri, it appears to build up the feeling of frustration cumulatively, and that stress
response makes it difficult to focus again. It is. not solely about productivity and the pace of life. For some
professionals like pilots, drivers, soldiers and doctors, loss of focus can be downright disastrous. 'If we
could find a way to make our computers and phones realise the limits of human attention and memory,
they may come off as more thoughtful and courteous,’ says Eric Horvitz of Microsoft Research. Horvitz,
Selker and Picard are just a few of a small but prospering group of researchers who are attempting to
make computers, phones, cars and other devices to function more like considerate colleagues instead of
egocentric oafs.

To do this, the machines need new skills of three kinds: sensing, reasoning and communicating. First, a
system must: sense or infer where its owner is and what he or she is doing. Next, it must weigh the value
of the messages it wants to convey against the cost of the disruption. Then it has to. choose the best
mode and time to .interject: Each of these pushes the limits of computer science and raises issues of
privacy, complexity or reliability. Nevertheless, ‘Attentive’ Computing Systems, have started to make an
appearance in the latest Volvos, and IBM has designed and developed a communications software called
WebSphere that comes with an underlying sense of busyness. Microsoft has been conducting extensive
in-house tests of a way more sophisticated system since 2003 . In a couple of years, companies might
manage to provide each office employee with a software version of the personal receptionist which is only
available to comer-suite executives today.

However, the truth is that most people are not as busy as they claim to be, which explains why we can
often stand interruptions from our inconsiderate electronic paraphernalia. To find out the extent to which
such disruption may claim people’s daily time, an IBM Research team led by Jennifer Lai from Carnegie
Mellon University studied ten managers, researchers and interns at the workplace. They had the subjects
on videotape, and within every period of a specific time, they asked the subjects to evaluate their
‘interruptibility’. The time a worker spent in leave-me-alone state varied from individual to individual and
day to day, and the percentage ranged from 10 to 51 . Generally, the employees wished to work without
interruption for roughly 1 /3 of the time. Similarly, by studying Microsoft workers, Horvitz also came to the
discovery that they ordinarily spend over 65 per cent of their day in a low-attention mode.

Obviously, today’s phones and computers are probably correct about two-thirds of time by assuming that
their users are always available to answer a call, check an email, or click the ‘OK’ button on an alert box.
But for the considerate systems to be functional and useful, their accuracy has to be above 65 in sending
when their users are about to reach their cognitive irril-

Inspired by Horvitz’s work, Microsoft prototype Bestcom-Enhanced Telephony (Bestcom- ET) digs a bit
deeper into every user’s computer to find out clues about what they are dealing with. As I said earlier,
Microsoft launched an internal beta test of the system in mid-2003. Horvitz points out that by the end of
last October, nearly 3,800 people had been relying on the system to field their incoming calls.

Horvitz is, in fact, a tester himself, and as we have our conversation in his office, Bestcom silently takes
care of all the calls. Firstly, it checks if the caller is in his address book, the company directory, or the
‘recent call’ list. After triangulating all these resources at the same time, it attempts to figure out what their
relationship is. The calls that get through are from family, supervisors and people he called earlier that
day. Other callers will get a: message on their screens that say he cannot answer now because he is in a
meeting, and will not be available until 3pm. The system will scan both Horvitz’s and the caller’s calendar
to check if it can reschedule a callback at a time which works for both of them. Some callers will take that
option, while others simply leave a voicemail. The same happens with e-mails. When Horvitz is not in his
office, Bestcom automatically offers to transfer selected callers to his cellphone, unless his calendar
implies that he is in a meeting.
Câu hỏi (questions )
Question 1 - 6
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage ?

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

1 According to Ted Selker, human reproduction has been disturbed throughout history.

2 If people are interrupted by calls or e-mails, they usually put up with it instead of feeling sickness.

3 Microsoft is now investigating a software which is compatible with ordinary offices.

4 People usually have a misperception about whether they are busy or not.

5 Experts in Carnegie Mellon University conducted a research observing all occupations of IBM.

6 Current phone and computer systems have shortcut keys for people receiving information
immediately.

Question 7 - 13
Complete the flow-chart below.
Choose ONLY ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.

Bestcom systen makes further offorts in order to find

7 about what users are doing.

Check the 8 between the caller and the

 user, whether the caller has contact information of the
7

user, such as their family, friends or collegues

If callers are not in ditectory, a(n) 9 will

show up on their screen, saying the user is not available

at the moment. The system will 10 a

8 suitable time for both, or callers can choose to leave a(n)

11 to users.

Bestcom will provide a solution by transferring your call

to the user's 12 if there is no
13 in his or her schedule.

10

11

12

13

Question 14 - 16
Complete each sentences with correct ending <firstOptionLabel> - <lastOptionLabel>, below

14 15
16
 14

16

15
Answer key (đáp án và giải thích )

1 Not Given Xem full giải thích

2 True Xem full giải thích

3 True Xem full giải thích

4 True Xem full giải thích

5 False Xem full giải thích

6 Not Given Xem full giải thích

7 clues Xem full giải thích

8 relationship Xem full giải thích

9 message Xem full giải thích

10 reschedule Xem full giải thích

11 voicemail Xem full giải thích

12 cellphone Xem full giải thích

13 meeting Xem full giải thích

14 aaaa Xem full giải thích

15 bbbb Xem full giải thích

16 ccccc Xem full giải thích