Robots and us: reading answers and analysis
Astrophysicist Martin Rees, engineer Daniel Wolpert and anthropologist Kathleen Richardson answer four questions: should robots colonise other planets, when will machines out-think us, should we fear AI, and what can science fiction teach us? Rees worries about networked minds and our duties to robots, Wolpert weighs benefits against misuse, and Richardson says the fear is about us, not the machines.
Questions 27-40 · 14 marks · 3 question blocks
Where the answers sit
The passage goes question by question, and each expert answers in turn. The expert matching (27-33) needs the whole text. The endings (34-36) compare pairs of experts. The multiple choice (37-40) follows F, G, K and L in order.
Questions 27-33
Rees gets three: keep robots as 'idiot savants', ask whether we treat robots fairly, and prefer good science fiction to poor science. Wolpert gets two: robots are more useful gathering resources on Earth, and creative machine intelligence is decades away. Richardson says the fear is overblown and that many people welcome smarter machines.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 27 | A | — |
| 28 | C | — |
| 29 | B | — |
| 30 | A | — |
| 31 | B | — |
| 32 | A | — |
| 33 | C | — |
Questions 34-36
Each ending is a topic, and you have to find where two experts meet or clash on it. Rees (terraforming, preserving planets like Antarctica) and Richardson (colonisation is morally dubious) both raise ethics about changing other planets. Rees and Wolpert agree machines already beat us at some things. Wolpert thinks AI has already done harm, through viruses, while Richardson says robots have never challenged us.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 34 | C | — |
| 35 | B | — |
| 36 | D | — |
Questions 37-40
Question 37 is Richardson's point that we personify objects. Question 38 is Rees's fear of networks acting like one brain with its own goals. Wolpert stresses that almost no science fiction imagines a future without robots. Richardson ends by recommending that we bring reality and fantasy back together.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 37 | B | — |
| 38 | C | — |
| 39 | B | — |
| 40 | C | — |
The questions most people get wrong
D. Wolpert points to computer viruses as harm already done, while Richardson stresses that robots have never risen against us. Their disagreement is about harm so far.
C. Rees fears networks behaving like a single brain with a mind of its own. B tempts because robots already out-calculate us, but he's comfortable with that as long as they stay 'idiot savants'.
C (Richardson). 'Not all fear robots; many people welcome machine intelligence' is her line. It's easy to guess Wolpert because he's the most positive.
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Cambridge IELTS 20, Test 3, Reading Passage 3. The passage name belongs to Cambridge University Press. No passage text or question wording is reproduced on this page. The answers are published for self-marking, and the analysis is our own.