2012年12月英语六级考试深度阅读试题与答案汇总_大学英语阅读

2012年12月英语六级考试深度阅读试题与答案汇总

　　Automation isnt just affecting factory workers, either. Some law firms now use artificial intelligence software to scan and read mountains of legal documents, work that previously was performed by highly paid human lawyers.

　　Robots continue to have an impact on blue-collar jobs, and white-collar jobs are under attack by microprocessors, says Edward Leamer, an economics professor at UCLAs Anderson School of Management and director of the UCLA Anderson Forecast, a survey of the U.S. and California economies. Leamer says the recession permanently wiped out 2.5 million jobs. U.S. gross domestic product has climbed back to pre-recession levels, meaning were producing as much as before, only with 6 percent fewer workers. To be sure, robotics are not the only job killers out there, with outsourcing stealing far more gigs than automation.

　　Jeff Burnstein, president of the Robotics Industry Association, a trade group in Ann Arbor, Mich., argues that robots actually save U.S. jobs. His logic: companies that embrace automation might use fewer workers, but thats still better than firing everyone and moving the work overseas.

　　Its not that robots are cheaper than humans, though often they are. Its that they are better. In some cases the quality requirements are so stringent that even if you wanted to have a human do the job, you couldnt, Burnstein says.

　　Same goes for surgeons, who are using robotic systems to perform an ever-growing list of operationsnot because the machines save money but because, thanks to the greater precision of robots, the patients recover in less time and have fewer complications, says Dr. Myriam Curet.