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In a few years, you might be able to speak Chinese, Korean, Japanese, French, and English
and all at the same time. This sounds incredible, but Alex Waibel, a computer science professor
at US's Carnegie
Mellon University (CMU) and Germany's University of Karlsruhe, announced last week that it
may soon be reality. He and his team have invented software and hardware that could make it
far easier for people who speak different languages to understand each other.
One application, called Lecture Translation, can easily translate a speech from one language
into another. Current translation technologies typically limit speakers to certain topics or a limited
vocabulary. Users also have to be trained how to use the programme.
Another prototype (雏形机) can send translations of a speech to different listeners depending
on what language they speak. "It is like having a simultaneous translator right next to you but without
disturbing the person next to you," Waibel said.
Prefer to read? So-called Translation Glasses transcribe (转录) the translations on a tiny
liquid-crystal(液晶) display (LCD) screen.
Then there's the Muscle Translator. Electrodes (电极) capture the electrical signals from facial
muscle movements made naturally when a person is mouthing words. The signals are then translated
into speech. The electrodes could be replaced with wireless chips implanted (植入) in a person's face,
according to researchers.
During a demonstration (演示) held last Thursday in CMU's Pittsburgh campus, a Chinese student
named Stan Jou had 11 tiny electrodes attached to the muscles of his cheeks, neck and throat. Then
he mouthed-without speaking aloud-a few words in Mandarin (普通话) to the audience. A few
seconds later, the phrase was displayed on a computer screen and spoken out by the computer
in English and Spanish: "Let me introduce our new prototype".
This particular gadget (器械), when fully developed, might allow anyone to speak in any number
of languages or, as Waibel put it, "to switch your mouth to a foreign language". "The idea behind the
university's prototypes is to create 'good enough' bridges for cross-cultural exchanges that are
becoming more common in the world," Waibel said.
With spontaneous (自发的) translators, foreign drivers in Germany could listen to traffic
warnings on the radio, tourists in China could read all the signs and talk with local people, and leaders
of different countries could have secret talks without any interpreters there.
1. What kind of prototype did the Chinese student named Stan Jou try?
A. Lecture Translation.
B. Translation Glasses.
C. Muscle Translator.
D. We don't know.
2. What is the purpose of inventing the translators?
A. To help students to learn English easily.
B. To help people to watch foreign TV programs without trouble.
C. To help people travel in foreign countries.
D. To promote cultural exchanges between countries.
3. What is the best title of this text?
A. Speak different languages at the same time
B. Flow to learn to speak foreign languages
C. New ways to learn foreign languages
D. You're welcome to learn foreign languages

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