Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.

As Dr. Samuel Johnson said in a different era about ladies preaching, the surprising thing about computer is not that they think less well than a man, but that they think at all. The early electronic computer did not have much going for it except a marvelous memory and some good math skills. But today the best models can be wired up to learn by experience, follow an argument, ask proper questions and write poetry and write poetry and music. They can also carry on somewhat puzzling conversations.

Computers imitate life. As computer get more complex, the imitation gets better. Finally, the line between the original and the copy becomes unclear. In another 15 years or so, we will the computer as a new form. of life.

The opinion seems ridiculous because, for one thing, computers lack the drives and emotions of living creatures. But drives car can be programmed into the computer’s brain just as nature programmed them into our human brains as a part of the equipment for survival.

Computers match people in some roles, and when fast decisions are needed in a cr, they often surpass them. Having evolved when the pace of life was slower, the human brain has an inherent defect that prs it from absorbing several streams of information simultaneously and acting on them quickly. Throw too many things at the brain one time and it freezes up.

We are still control, but the capabilities of computer are increasing at a fantastic rate, while raw human intelce is changing slowly, if as all. Computer power has increased ten times every eight years since 1946. In the 1990s, when the sixth generation appears, the reasoning power of an intelce built out of silicon will begin to match that of the human brain.

That does not mean the evolution of intelce has ended on the earth. Judging by the he past, we can expect that a new species will arise out of man, surpassing his achievements those of his predecessor. Only a carbon chemistry enthusiast would assume that the new species must be man’s flesh-and-blood descendants. The new kind of intelt life is more I likely to be made of silicon.

What do you suppose the attitude of Dr. Samuel Johnson towards ladies preaching?