英語六級閱讀理解：AI能給降噪耳機分離人聲？

英語原文

Modern life is noisy. If you don’t like it, noise-canceling headphones can reduce the sounds in your environment. But they muffle sounds indiscriminately, so you can easily end up missing something you actually want to hear.

A new prototype AI system for such headphones aims to solve this. Called Target Speech Hearing, the system gives users the ability to select a person whose voice will remain audible even when all other sounds are canceled out. Although the technology is currently a proof of concept, its creators say they are in talks to embed it in popular brands of noise-canceling earbuds and are also working to make it available for hearing aids.

“Listening to specific people is such a fundamental aspect of how we communicate and how we interact in the world with other humans,” says Shyam Gollakota, a professor at the University of Washington, who worked on the project. “But it can get really challenging, even if you don’t have any hearing loss issues, to focus on specific people when it comes to noisy situations.”

For now, the system is only able to successfully enroll a targeted speaker whose voice is the only loud one present, but the team aims to make it work even when the loudest voice in a particular direction is not the target speaker.

While speech separation research tends to be more theoretical than practical, this work has clear real-world applications, says Samuele Cornell, a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University’s Language Technologies Institute, who did not work on the research. “I think it’s a step in the right direction,” Cornell says. “It’s a breath of fresh air.”


閱讀理解題目

1.What is the primary drawback of traditional noise-canceling headphones mentioned in the passage?
A) They are not widely available.
B) They muffle all sounds indiscriminately.
C) They are too expensive for most consumers.
D) They are not compatible with hearing aids.

2.What is the main purpose of the Target Speech Hearing system?
A) To increase the volume of all sounds in noisy environments.
B) To suppress all background noise indiscriminately.
C) To selectively hear specific voices while canceling out background noise.
D) To analyze theoretical aspects of speech separation.

3.What potential applications are being considered for the Target Speech Hearing system?
A) Integration into popular noise-canceling earbuds.
B) Compatibility with virtual reality headsets.
C) Implementation in smartphone applications.
D) Use in medical devices for hearing loss treatment.

4.According to Shyam Gollakota, what challenge do individuals face in noisy environments?
A) Difficulty communicating with others.
B) Difficulty focusing on specific voices.
C) Difficulty hearing loud sounds.
D) Difficulty adjusting their hearing aids.

5.What is Samuele Cornell's opinion of the Target Speech Hearing system?
A) He believes it is a theoretical concept with no practical applications.
B) He believes it is a significant advancement with real-world applications.
C) He believes it is a temporary solution to a long-standing problem.
D) He believes it is a redundant technology already covered by existing products.


中文翻譯

現(xiàn)代生活很喧鬧。如果您不喜歡，降噪耳機可以降低環(huán)境中的聲音。但它們會不加區(qū)別地抑制聲音，因此您很容易錯過您真正想聽的內(nèi)容。

此類耳機的新原型人工智能系統(tǒng)旨在解決這個問題。該系統(tǒng)稱為“目標(biāo)語音聽力”，使用戶能夠選擇一個人，即使所有其他聲音都被抵消，其聲音仍然可以聽到。盡管這項技術(shù)目前只是概念驗證，但其創(chuàng)造者表示，他們正在商談將其嵌入到流行品牌的降噪耳塞中，并正在努力將其用于助聽器。

參與該項目的華盛頓大學(xué)教授希亞姆·戈拉科塔 (Shyam Gollakota) 表示：“傾聽特定人的聲音是我們?nèi)绾螠贤ㄒ约叭绾闻c其他人互動的一個基本方面。” “但是，即使您沒有任何聽力損失問題，在嘈雜的環(huán)境中關(guān)注特定的人也可能非常具有挑戰(zhàn)性。”

目前，該系統(tǒng)只能成功注冊一個目標(biāo)發(fā)言者，其聲音是唯一大聲的，但該團隊的目標(biāo)是即使在特定方向上最響亮的聲音不是目標(biāo)發(fā)言者時也能正常工作。

卡內(nèi)基梅隆大學(xué)語言技術(shù)研究所的研究員薩繆爾·康奈爾（Samuele Cornell）并未參與這項研究，他表示，雖然語音分離研究往往更偏于理論而非實踐，但這項工作具有明確的現(xiàn)實應(yīng)用。 “我認為這是朝著正確方向邁出的一步，”康奈爾說。 “這是一股新鮮空氣。”


答案解析

1. B) They muffle all sounds indiscriminately.
解析: 文章提到，傳統(tǒng)的降噪耳機會無差別地壓制所有聲音，可能導(dǎo)致用戶錯過重要的聽覺線索。

2. C) To selectively hear specific voices while canceling out background noise.
解析: 文章指出，Target Speech Hearing系統(tǒng)的主要目的是在抑制背景噪音的同時，允許用戶選擇性地聽到特定的聲音。

3. A) Integration into popular noise-canceling earbuds
解析: 文章提到，研究人員正在考慮將Target Speech Hearing系統(tǒng)集成到流行的降噪耳塞中。

4. B) Difficulty focusing on specific voices
解析: Shyam Gollakota指出，即使沒有聽力損失問題，在嘈雜的環(huán)境中，個人也面臨著集中注意力于特定聲音的困難。

5. B) He believes it is a significant advancement with real-world applications.
解析: Samuele Cornell認為，Target Speech Hearing系統(tǒng)具有重要的實際應(yīng)用，并表示這是朝著正確方向邁出的一步，為解決實際問題提供了有希望的解決方案。