Question

    When my 8-month-old cries, I ask him if he’s hungry, or wet or just needs a hug.

“Babububuu,” he says.

What I need is a baby cry translator. That’s just what a team of researchers say they’ve developed.

“Experienced nurses or pediatricians (儿科医师) can identify why baby is crying because they have experience, says Lichuan Liu, a professor of electrical engineering at Northern Illinois University, who conducted the research.” We talked to them, and they mentioned that based on the cry’s’ sound there’re’ some clues (线索).”

So Liu set out to identify the features of cries that can help mark them as expressions of pain or discomfort. These features include differences in pitch (音高) and frequency. The team then developed an algorithm (算法) based on automatic speech recognition to detect and identify these features. This “cry language recognition algorithm” was trained on recordings of baby cries taken from a hospital. It uses compressed sensing, a process that reconstructs a signal based on incomplete data. It can identify a baby cry against a background of, say, adult speech or loud television sounds. By classifying different cry features, like pitch, the algorithm can suggest whether the cry is due to sickness or pain, and identify the degree of urgency.

The team had experienced pediatric care providers assess forty-eight baby cry recordings for probable cause of crying hunger, tiredness, etc. They then compared these to the algorithm’s assessments. The algorithm agreed with the humans 70% of the time. Generally, so-called “uncommon cry signals”—signs of pain or sickness—are high-pitched and very loud compared to ordinary crying.

Liu and her team continue to train the technology for greater accuracy. They also plan to add more features, like the ability to identify and classify movement and facial expressions. This could help give more detailed reading of baby’s emotional (情感的) and physical state. They also hope to begin human trials in the near future.

1.The author mentions the 8-month-old child to ________.

A.draw attention to baby cries B.prove baby cries are common

C.lead in a translator for baby cries D.show the use of cry translators

2.What inspired Lichuan Liu’s idea of doing the study?

A.Pediatric care workers’ words. B.The pediatricians’ strong requests.

C.Her own nursing experiences. D.Her doubts about the previous research.

3.What did the researchers do in the study?

A.They collected baby cries from big hospitals.

B.They got 48 baby cry recordings evaluated.

C.They created an automatic speech recognition.

D.They analyzed cry features with compressed sensing.

4.What can we know about Liu’s cry language recognition algorithm?

A.It has been widely used in daily life.

B.It’s mainly meant for hungry cry signals.

C.It has been proved effective on babies.

D.It’s only been tested on recorded cries now.

Answer

1.C

2.A

3.B

4.D

【解析】

本文是一篇说明文。主要介绍了一款儿童哭声识别器的研发。

1.

推理判断题。根据第三段What need is baby cry translator. That’s just what team of researchers say they’ve developed.（我需要的是一个婴儿哭声翻译器，这正是一组研究人员所开发的。）可推断，作者在开头提到八个月大的小孩是为了导入婴儿哭声翻译器。故选C。

2.

推理判断题。根据第四段We talked to them, and they mentioned that based on the cry’s sound there’re some clues (线索).（我们和他们谈过了，他们提到，基于哭声，有一些线索是可以发现的）和第五段So Liu set out to identify the features of cries that can help mark them as expressions of pain or discomfort.（因此，刘开始识别哭声的特征，这些特征可以帮助将它们标记为疼痛或不适的表达。）可推断，是儿科护理工作人员的话语促使Lichuan Liu做这个研究。故选A。

3.

细节理解题。根据倒数第二段“The team had experienced pediatric care providers assess forty-eight baby cry recordings for probable cause of crying—hunger, tiredness, etc. They then compared these to the algorithm’s assessments.( 该团队经验丰富的儿科护理提供者评估了48个婴儿哭声记录的可能原因——饥饿，疲劳等。 然后，他们将这些与算法的评估进行了比较)”可知，研究者在这个研究中评估了48个婴儿哭声记录。故选B。

4.

推理判断题。根据最后一段“Liu and her team continue to train the technology for greater accuracy. They also plan to add more features, like the ability to identify and classify movement and facial expressions. They also hope to begin human trials in the near future.（刘和她的团队继续完善这项技术，以提高其准确性。 他们还计划增加更多特征，比如识别和分类动作和面部表情的能力。他们还希望在不久的将来开始人类试验。）”可推断，Liu的哭声语言识别算法目前只用于测试录制的哭声。故选D。