Grammatical Rules Reading Answers

Oct 23, 2024

Grammatical Rules Reading Answers is an academic reading answers topic. Grammatical Rules Reading Answers has a total of 13 IELTS questions in total. In the questions set, there are questions where you have to tell which passage contains the given statement. In the next section, you have to fill in the blanks with correct answers.

The IELTS Reading section is a crucial component of the IELTS exam, designed to assess a candidate's ability to comprehend and analyze different types of texts. In this passage, you will engage with a series of IELTS reading practice questions that simulate real test scenarios. These questions are aimed at improving your skills in identifying key ideas, extracting specific information, and making inferences. Whether you are preparing for the Academic or General Training module, practicing these IELTS reading questions will help you become familiar with the format and boost your confidence for the actual test.

Section 1

GRAMMATICAL RULES

A. There is no doubting the practical value of a device that is capable of translating any language into another, and remarkably, such devices are now on the verge of becoming a reality thanks to new "statistical machine translation" software. Unlike previous approaches to machine translation, which relied upon rules identified by linguists which then had to be tediously hand-coded into software, this new method requires absolutely no linguistic knowledge or expert understanding of a language in order to translate it. Last month researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh began work on a machine that they hope will be able to learn a new language simply by getting foreign speakers to talk into it and perhaps, eventually, by watching television.

B. Within the next few years there will be an explosion in translation technologies, says Alex Waibel, director of the International Centre for Advanced Communication Technology, which is based jointly at the University of Karlsruhe in Germany and at CMU. He predicts there will be real-time automatic dubbing, which will let people watch foreign films or television programmes in their native languages, and search engines that will enable users to trawl through multilingual archives of documents, videos and audio files. Eventually, there may even be electronic devices that work like Babel fish, whispering translations in your ear as someone speaks to you in a foreign tongue.

C. This may sound fanciful, but already a system has been developed that can translate speeches or lectures from one language into another, in real time and regardless of the subject matter. The system required no programming of grammatical rules or syntax. Instead it was given a vast number of speeches, and their accurate translations (performed by humans) into a second language, for statistical analysis. One of the reasons it works so well is that these speeches came from the United Nations and the European Parliament, where a broad range of topics are discussed. "The linguistic knowledge is automatically extracted from these huge data resources," says Dr Waibel.

D. Statistical translation encompasses a range of techniques, but what they all have in common is the use of statistical analysis, rather than rigid rules, to convert text from one language into another. Most systems start with a large bilingual corpus of text. By analyzing the frequency with which clusters of words appear in close proximity in the two languages, it is possible to work out which words correspond to each other in the two languages. This approach offers much greater flexibility than rule-based systems, since it translates languages based on how they are actually used, rather than relying on rigid grammatical rules which may not always be observed, and often have exceptions.

E. The statistical approach, which starts off without any linguistic knowledge of a language, might seem a strange way of doing things, but it is actually remarkably similar to the way humans attempt to translate languages, says Shou-de Lin, a machine-translation expert who was until recently a researcher at the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute (ISI). "It looks at the script and bunches symbols together," he explains, much as a human mind might try to solve the problem. But in order for this approach to work, the voracious translation systems must be fed with huge numbers of training texts. This prompted Franz Och, Google's machine-translation expert, to boast recently that the search-engine giant would probably have a key role in the future of machine translation, since it has such a huge repository of text.

F. Translation systems are of limited use if they cannot be used by people on the move, such as tourists looking for a restaurant or soldiers talking to local people in a war zone. So what is on the cards to replace the good old-fashioned phrasebook? In the past couple of years the Defence Advanced Research Projects

Agency (DARPA), an American military research body, has been testing a number of projects that cram a combination of speech-recognition, machine-translation and voice-synthesis software into a handheld device. One of these projects, developed at CMU and called Babylon, can now perform two-way translations between spoken English and Iragi Arabic.

G. This is a huge improvement on the earlier one-way text-based translators used by American soldiers, says Alan Black, one of the researchers involved in the development of Babylon. For one thing, Iraqis can respond in their native language, rather than communicating through nods and shakes of the head, he says. Better still, Babylon is capable of translating completely novel sentences, rather than being limited to only a couple of hundred set phrases, as with the earlier systems.

H. The next phase of the project, says Dr Black, will be to allow portable translation devices to be trained in the field. The idea is that when a traveller encounters people speaking a new language that is unknown by the translation device, it can be trained by exposing the software to lots of chatter. In theory, once a language model has been acquired, you could just leave the device in training mode in front of the television, although it would probably be preferable to find some bilingual people and ask them to repeat set phrases containing a lot of linguistic information, says Dr Black.

I. Learning a new language from scratch, as humans can, is far more difficult than statistical translation using parallel texts. But since the number of high-quality parallel texts is limited, particularly for more obscure languages, a lot of effort is now being put into the development of statistical translation systems that can manage without them. Instead, the aim is to use statistical techniques to divine the language's inherent structure, and then to work out what particular words mean. If this could be done, of course, it would open the way to a universal translator. How far can machine translators be taken? "There is no reason why they should not become as good, if not better, than humans," says Dr Waibel.

Questions 27 - 32

Which paragraph contains

27. examples of problems with rule-based translations.

Answer: D

Supporting statement: “........This approach offers much greater flexibility than rule-based systems, since it translates languages based on how they are actually used, rather than relying on rigid grammatical rules.......”

Keywords: based, flexibility

Keyword Location: para D, Line 3

Explanation: The statement contrasts statistical translation with rule-based systems. Rule-based systems struggle because they depend on fixed grammar rules, which do not always apply consistently in real-world usage.

28. why search web sites may be useful.

Answer: E

Supporting statement: “........Franz Och, Google's machine-translation expert, boasted that the search-engine giant would probably have a key role in the future of machine translation, since it has such a huge repository of text........”

Keywords: engine, text

Keyword Location: para E, Line 6

Explanation: Google’s vast collection of text is highlighted as an essential resource for developing advanced machine translation systems. These datasets provide the large volume of multilingual text required to train statistical translation models.

29. how a wide range of international language data was collected.

Answer: C

Supporting statement: “........The system required no programming of grammatical rules or syntax... these speeches came from the United Nations and the European Parliament, where a broad range of topics are discussed........”

Keywords: speeches, topics

Keyword Location: para C, Line 4

Explanation: The translation system was trained using speeches from international organizations like the United Nations and European Parliament. These institutions cover a variety of subjects, providing the system with diverse linguistic input.

30. the need for a system which is mobile.

Answer: F

Supporting statement: “.......Translation systems are of limited use if they cannot be used by people on the move, such as tourists looking for a restaurant or soldiers talking to local people in a war zone........”

Keywords: limited, mobile

Keyword Location: para F, Line 1

Explanation: Mobile translation systems are essential for practical usage in real-world scenarios. Soldiers in conflict zones or tourists in foreign countries need portable devices to communicate effectively. Stationary or bulky systems are not practical, which is why the development of mobile translation devices is crucial.

31. details of an older, labor intensive translation system.

Answer: A

Supporting statement: “........Previous approaches to machine translation relied upon rules identified by linguists which then had to be tediously hand-coded into software.......”

Keywords: coded, linguists

Keyword Location: para A, Line 4

Explanation: Early machine translation systems depended heavily on linguists to identify grammatical rules, which were then manually coded into software. This was a slow and labor-intensive process, limiting the scalability and effectiveness of translation systems.

32. a prediction that translation systems will develop significantly in the future.

Answer: B

Supporting statement: “........Alex Waibel... predicts there will be real-time automatic dubbing... and search engines that will enable users to trawl through multilingual archives of documents, videos, and audio files.......”

Keywords: predicts, multilingual

Keyword Location: para B, Line 3

Explanation: Alex Waibel anticipates major improvements in translation technologies, including real-time dubbing for films and better search engines. These advancements will make it easier for users to access multilingual content, paving the way for more seamless communication across languages.

Questions 33 - 37

Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.

33. The DARPA is working on a handheld device containing ….... software.

Answer: COMBINATION OF

Supporting statement: “........DARPA... has been testing a number of projects that cram a combination of speech-recognition, machine-translation, and voice-synthesis software into a handheld device.......”

Keywords: combination, handheld

Keyword Location: para F, Line 2

Explanation: DARPA is focusing on developing mobile devices that integrate multiple types of software—speech recognition, machine translation, and voice synthesis. This combination ensures real-time communication and translation capabilities, making the system more practical in various field scenarios.

34. Currently many Iraqis communicate with American soldiers using basic …… movements.

Answer: HEAD

Supporting statement: “.......Iraqis can respond in their native language, rather than communicating through nods and shakes of the head........”

Keywords: nods, head

Keyword Location: para G, Line 2

Explanation: Before the development of more advanced translation systems, Iraqis used head movements like nods to communicate with American soldiers. This limited form of communication highlights the need for effective two-way translation devices, such as Babylon.

35. A major benefit of Babylon is that it goes beyond translating ……….

Answer: SETPHRASES / SET PHRASES

Supporting statement: “.......Babylon is capable of translating completely novel sentences, rather than being limited to only a couple of hundred set phrases, as with the earlier systems.........”

Keywords: set, phrases

Keyword Location: para G, Line 3

Explanation: Babylon offers significant improvement by translating entire sentences, not just predefined phrases. This feature enhances communication, as users are no longer restricted to limited expressions and can convey more complex ideas.

36. Attempts are now being made to develop a statistical translation system which does not rely on ………

Answer: PARALLEL TEXTS

Supporting statement: “........Since the number of high-quality parallel texts is limited, particularly for more obscure languages, a lot of effort is now being put into the development of statistical translation systems that can manage without them.......”

Keywords: parallel, texts

Keyword Location: para I, Line 2

Explanation: Parallel texts, which provide translations of the same content in different languages, are scarce for many lesser-known languages. Therefore, researchers are working on new statistical systems that can deduce the structure and meaning of a language without relying on such texts.

37. If statistical methods could understand a language's innate structure, ….. a could be developed.

Answer: UNIVERSAL TRANSLATOR

Supporting statement: “........If this could be done, of course, it would open the way to a universal translator........”

Keywords: universal, translator

Keyword Location: para I, Line 3

Explanation: The development of statistical methods capable of understanding the inherent structure of any language would allow the creation of a universal translator, a device that can seamlessly translate any language into another. This would revolutionize global communication.

Questions 38 - 40

Match each name to the sentences below.

A. Alex Waibel

B. Shou-de Lin

C. Dr Black

D. Franz Och

38. Sees a role for bilingual people in training the portable device.

Answer: C

Supporting statement: “.......It would probably be preferable to find some bilingual people and ask them to repeat set phrases containing a lot of linguistic information.........”

Keywords: bilingual, training

Keyword Location: para H, Line 5

Explanation: Dr. Black suggests that bilingual individuals can assist in training portable translation devices by providing sample phrases. Their input helps the system learn new languages effectively.

39. Thinks the statistical approach and the approach taken by people are not so different.

Answer: B

Supporting statement: “......It looks at the script and bunches symbols together, much as a human mind might try to solve the problem..........”

Keywords: human, symbols

Keyword Location: para E, Line 4

Explanation: Shou-de Lin explains that the statistical translation process mirrors how humans interpret language by grouping symbols and patterns. This similarity demonstrates the naturalness of the statistical approach.

40. believes it will be easier for people to watch foreign films in the future.

Answer: A

Supporting statement: “.......He predicts there will be real-time automatic dubbing, which will let people watch foreign films or television programmes in their native languages........”

Keywords: dubbing, films

Keyword Location: para B, Line 2

Explanation: Alex Waibel forecasts that real-time automatic dubbing will soon make it easier for audiences to watch foreign films in their native languages, enhancing entertainment accessibility.

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