英语杂谈：63 The Battle of the Brains

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

Last month, students from one hundred three universities in eighty-eight countries took part in an international computer programming contest.  The Battle of the Brains took place in Harbin, China.  Three-person teams from each school had five hours to solve eleven real world problems.

Jerry Cain coached the team from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.  He says the problems involved, among other things, paperweights, robots, castles and lakes.

 

JERRY CAIN: "One of the programming problems was try to figure out how to break an arbitrary¹ chocolate bar into a certain number of pieces of a certain number of sizes and to do it as quickly as possible.  And that's probably the simplest of all of them."

The students first listed the problems in order of difficulty.  Then they figured out the requirements of each.  They designed ways to test their solutions. And they wrote the needed software systems. Even the winning team from Shanghai Jiaotong University in China was not able to solve all the problems within the given time limit.  Stanford's team solved five problems and finished in fourteenth place.  Stanford was one of twenty-one American universities that took part in the contest this year.

The official name of the Battle of the Brains is the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest. It began in nineteen seventy at Texas A and M University. The contest quickly became popular in the United States and Canada. It developed and grew as more and more schools took part in local and area contests.

The first final competition was held in nineteen seventy-seven at the Association² for Computer Machinery³ Computer Science Conference.

Today, a network of universities holds area competitions that send the winners to the world finals, now organized by IBM.

Contest spokesman⁴ Doug Heintzman says the world champions receive prizes and scholarships.  They are also guaranteed an offer of employment⁵ or internship⁶ with IBM.

DOUG HEINTZMAN: "We've had past world champions that IBM has gone and employed in our Zurich research laboratory⁷ and are now working on some of the leading edge materials in science and physics.  We have a world finalist from China who's been working on the Watson Supercomputer that in the near future will be playing Jeopardy⁸ against the best Jeopardy players in the world.  So this competition is an opportunity to be recognized and to be recruited⁹ by some of the top technology and research firms around the world."

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach, with reporting by Faiza Elmasry.  You can read all our reports and send comments to our newly¹⁰ re-designed Web site at http://www.tingroom,.com .  I'm Barbara Klein

 

1 arbitrary   

adj.任意的，任性的，主观的；专断的，武断的

参考例句：

• A good judge does not make arbitrary decisions.一个优秀的法官不会作武断的判决。
• You can make an arbitrary choice.你可以随便做选择。

2 association   

n.联盟，协会，社团；交往，联合；联想

参考例句：

• Our long association with your company has brought great benefits.我方和贵公司的长期合作带来了巨大的利益。
• I broke away from the association ten years ago.我10年前就脱离了那个团体。

3 machinery   

n.(总称)机械，机器；机构

参考例句：

• Has the machinery been put up ready for the broadcast?广播器材安装完毕了吗？
• Machinery ought to be well maintained all the time.机器应该随时注意维护。

4 spokesman   

n.发言人，代言人

参考例句：

• The government spokesman gave a quick briefing to the reporters.政府发言人向记者们作了情况简介。
• They drew lots to decide who should be their spokesman.他们抽签决定谁是他们的发言人。

5 employment   

n.雇用；使用；工作，职业

参考例句：

• A large office requires the employment of many people.一个大办事处需要雇用好多人员。
• The state of employment in this city is improving.这个城市就业状况正在改善。

6 internship   

n.实习医师，实习医师期

参考例句：

• an internship at a television station 在电视台的实习期
• a summer internship with a small stipend 薪水微薄的暑期实习

7 laboratory   

n.实验室，化验室

参考例句：

• She has donated money to establish a laboratory.她捐款成立了一个实验室。
• Our laboratory equipment isn't perfect,but we must make do.实验室设备是不够理想，但我们只好因陋就简。

8 jeopardy   

n.危险；危难

参考例句：

• His foolish behaviour may put his whole future in jeopardy.他愚蠢的行为可能毁了他一生的前程。
• It is precisely at this juncture that the boss finds himself in double jeopardy.恰恰在这个关键时刻，上司发现自己处于进退两难的境地。

9 recruited   

招聘( recruit的过去式和过去分词 )； 吸收某人为新成员； 动员…（提供帮助）； 雇用

参考例句：

• Were men for the Navy recruited from men on merchant ships? 海军的人员是从商船的人员中征募的吗？
• Most of the workers will be recruited locally. 大多数工人都会在本地招募。

10 newly   

adv.新近，最近；重新，再度；以新的方式

参考例句：

• Have you reviewed for this newly published novel?你给这本新出版的小说写书评了吗？
• It is a newly planted tree and it has not established yet.这是一颗新栽的树，还没有扎下根来。