Questões

Read the text below and choose the correct option in question.

Artificial intelligence

    Artificial intelligence (AI) is the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings. The term is frequently applied to the project of developing systems endowed with the intellectual processes characteristic of humans, such as the ability to reason, discover meaning, generalize, or learn from past experience. Since their development in the 1940s, digital computers have been programmed to carry out very complex tasks – such as discovering proofs for mathematical theorems or playing chess – with great proficiency. Despite continuing advances in computer processing speed and memory capacity, there are as yet no programs that can match full human flexibility over wider domains or in tasks requiring much everyday knowledge. On the other hand, some programs have attained the performance levels of human experts and professionals in executing certain specific tasks, so that artificial intelligence in this limited sense is found in applications as diverse as medical diagnosis, computer search engines, voice or handwriting recognition, and chatbots.

    All but the simplest human behavior is ascribed to intelligence, while even the most complicated insect behavior is usually not taken as an indication of intelligence. What is the difference? Consider the behavior of the digger wasp, Sphex ichneumoneus. When the female wasp returns to her burrow with food, she first deposits it on the threshold, checks for intruders inside her burrow, and only then, if the coast is clear, carries her food inside. The real nature of the wasp’s instinctual behavior is revealed if the food is moved a few inches away from the entrance to her burrow while she is inside: on emerging, she will repeat the whole procedure as often as the food is displaced. Intelligence conspicuously absent in the case of the wasp must include the ability to adapt to new circumstances.

    Psychologists generally characterize human intelligence not by just one trait but by the combination of many diverse abilities. Research in AI has focused chiefly on the following components of intelligence: learning, reasoning, problem solving, perception, and using language.

(Adapted from: https://www.britannica.com/technology/artificial-intelligence)

Village’s Amateur Archaeologists Find Lost Tudor Palace

1. When a group of amateur archaeologists set out to find the buried remains of a Tudor palace
2. in their Northamptonshire village five years ago, they knew the odds were against them. “Many
3. of us were brought up in the village, and you hear about this lost palace, and wonder whether
4. it’s a myth or real. So we just wanted to find it”, said Chris Close, the chair of the Collyweston
5. Historical and Preservation Society (Chaps) which made the discovery of the Palace of
6. Collyweston in a back garden this year. “But we’re a bunch of amateurs. We had no money, no
7. expertise, no plans, no artist impressions to go off, and nothing remaining of the palace. It was
8. naivety and just hard work that has led us to it”.
9. The site was found using geophysical surveys and ground-penetrating radar. Various
10. attempts had been made in the 1980s and 90s to find Collyweston Palace, the home of Henry
11. VII’s mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort. However, without the advantage of modern technology,
12. none had succeeded. The palace was famous during the 15th century and several historic events
13. took place there. The pre-wedding celebrations of Margaret Tudor to James IV of Scotland in
14. 1503 took place in the palace, and Henry VIII is recorded as holding court there on 16 and 17
15. October 1541. By the mid-17th century, it had fallen into disrepair, and until the Chaps dig
16. uncovered the palace walls in March, there was very little remaining evidence of its existence.
17. “A number of things have only really come to light as we’ve done this project”, said Close.
18. “As you do more and more research, and various different records start to become unearthed,
19. we realized Collyweston had privy councils being run from here, which is of massive national
20. importance”. Historians from the University of York helped verify the group’s findings and identify
21. the palace through some uncovered stone moldings, and will work with Chaps on more
22. excavations to further reveal the structure and conserve it for the future.
23. The Chaps team, which comprises more than 80 members ranging from teenagers to people
24. in their 70s and 80s, first set out their plan to find the palace in March 2018, using “local folktales
25. and hearsay” to help refine their search area. They carried out geophysical surveys and used
26. ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to help reveal the location of the palace walls, before securing
27. permission from homeowners to excavate in gardens. “We’ve done it all on an absolute
28. shoestring”, said Close. “We’ve basically done an £80,000-£90,000 project for roughly £13,000.
29. For us, being a little society, to have achieved this with no money, or expertise, or plans, I think
30. it’s something that the whole society should be proud of”.

(Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/dec/06/tudor-collyweston-palace-northamptonshire-found-in-garden-by-amateur-archeologists - text especially adapted for this test).