Question

    A few years ago, a doctor gave a wrong prescription to a 9-year-old boy because he had accidentally clicked the next medicine listed in the drop-down menu. Unfortunately, the boy died.

Dr. Gidi Stein heard the story and felt forced to do something. “It was like killing someone with a spelling error. He just clicked on the wrong button,” Stein said. “One would have thought there’d be some kind of spell-checker to prevent these terrible things from happening. But apparently this is not the case.”

Several things were immediately obvious to the 54-year-old Stein, who had previously studied computer science. “If you look at this problem from a bird’s eye view, there were so many places down the line where this decision could have been stopped — from the physician to the pharmacy (药房) even to the mother. All of them had all the relevant information to have a judgment call that this was just the wrong drug for the wrong patient.” For Stein, it represented a systemic failure.

Stein compared this with credit cards. “If you use your credit card in the daily routine over time, a pattern of how we use our cards comes out: the grocery store, the gas station in our local town. If your credit card would appear tomorrow in Zimbabwe, it would be unusual. The credit card company would call you and say, ‘Hey, was that you?’”

But nothing like that existed in the field of prescription drugs. So Stein set up a company called MedAware. He came up with a machine learning outlier detection (异常检测值) system. In other words, he trained the computers to realize if a doctor accidentally prescribed the wrong medicine.

The system is already used in hospitals and doctor’s offices. To date, MedAware has used their technology to help nearly six million patients in the United States and Israel.

1.What led to the boy’s death?

A.The doctor’s carelessness. B.The drawback of the computer.

C.The doctor’s poor medical skill. D.The incomplete health care system.

2.What does Stein feel about this medical accident?

A.Angry. B.Frightened.

C.Embarrassed. D.Regretful.

3.What can MedAware’s technology do?

A.Help doctor choose right medicine. B.Reminds patients to take medicine.

C.Introduce new drugs to doctors. D.Check the prescription.

4.Where is this text most likely from?

A.A diary. B.A guidebook.

C.A magazine. D.A science fiction.

Answer

1.A

2.D

3.D

4.C

【解析】

本文是一篇记叙文。文章讲述了吉迪·斯坦博士成立MedAware公司的原因及其研发的机器学习异常值检测系统。目前，该系统已经在医院和医生办公室使用。迄今为止，MedAware已经使用他们的技术帮助了美国和以色列的近600万患者。

1.细节理解题。根据第一段A few years ago, a doctor gave a wrong prescription to a 9-year-old boy because he had accidentally clicked the next medicine listed in the drop-down menu. Unfortunately, the boy died.可知，几年前，一个医生给一个9岁的男孩开了一个错误的处方，因为他不小心点击了下拉菜单中列出的下一种药。不幸的是，男孩死了。由此可知，医生的粗心导致了男孩的死亡。故选A。

2.推理判断题。根据第二段中的Dr. Gidi Stein heard the story and felt forced to do something. “It was like killing someone with a spelling error. He just clicked on the wrong button,” Stein said.可知，吉迪·斯坦博士听了这个故事，觉得自己必须做点什么。“这就像杀了一个拼写错误的人。他只是点错了按钮。”斯坦说。由此可知，斯坦因对这次医疗事故感到很遗憾。故选D。

3.细节理解题。根据倒数第二段中的He came up with a machine learning outlier detection (异常检测值) system. In other words, he trained the computers to realize if a doctor accidentally prescribed the wrong medicine.可知，他提出了一个机器学习异常值检测系统。换句话说，他训练计算机去意识到医生是否开错了药。由此可知，MedAware的技术可以检查处方。故选D。

4.推理判断题。本文主要讲述了吉迪·斯坦博士成立MedAware公司的原因及其研发的机器学习异常值检测系统。A. A diary.一本日记；B. A guidebook.一本导游手册；C. A magazine.一本杂志；D. A science fiction.一本科幻小说。结合选项可知，这篇文章最有可能来自于一本杂志。故选C。