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Giải đề IELTS Reading Passage 3 (Test 2) Cam 20 _ Invasion of the Robot Umpires | Phân tích chi tiết

Giải đề IELTS Reading Passage 3 (Test 2) Cam 20 _ Invasion of the Robot Umpires | Phân tích chi tiết

Giải đề IELTS Reading Passage 3 (Test 2) Cam 20

Chủ đề:
Bài đọc Invasion of the Robot Umpires bàn về việc ứng dụng trí tuệ nhân tạo (AI) trong thể thao – cụ thể là bóng chày, nơi các trọng tài robot (robo-umpires) được thử nghiệm để gọi bóng chính xác hơn con người. Bài viết trình bày quan điểm ủng hộ và phản đối, xoay quanh ranh giới giữa tính chính xác công nghệ và sự “người” trong thể thao.

Độ khó: Trung bình – nâng cao (chủ đề công nghệ & ethics, nhiều trích dẫn và lập luận trái chiều).

Bài đọc: Invasion of the Robot Umpires

A few years ago, Fred DeJesus from Brooklyn, New York became the first umpire in a minor league baseball game to use something called the Automated Ball-Strike System (ABS), often referred to as the ‘robo-umpire’. Instead of making any judgments himself about a strike*, DeJesus had decisions fed to him through an earpiece, connected to a modified missile-tracking system. The contraption looked like a large black pizza box with one glowing green eye; it was mounted above the press stand.

Major League Baseball (MLB), who had commissioned the system, wanted human umpires to announce the calls, just as they would have done in the past. When the first pitch came in, a recorded voice told DeJesus it was a strike. Previously, calling a strike was a judgment call on the part of the umpire. Even if the batter does not hit the ball, a pitch that passes through the ‘strike zone’ (an imaginary zone about seventeen inches wide, stretching from the batter’s knees to the middle of his chest) is considered a strike. During that first game, when DeJesus announced calls, there was no heckling and no shouted disagreement. Nobody said a word.

For a hundred and fifty years or so, the strike zone has been the game’s animating force-countless arguments between a team’s manager and the umpire have taken place over its boundaries and whether a ball had crossed through it.The rules of play have evolved in various stages. Today, everyone knows that you may scream your disagreement in an umpire’s face, but you must never shout personal abuse at them or touch them. That’s a no-no. When the robo-umpires came, however, the arguments stopped.

During the first robo-umpire season, players complained about some strange calls. In response, MLB decided to tweak the dimensions of the zone, and the following year the consensus was that ABS is profoundly consistent. MLB says the device is near-perfect, precise to within fractions of an inch. “It’ll reduce controversy in the game, and be good for the game,” says Rob Manfred, who is Commissioner for MLB. But the question is whether controversy is worth reducing, or whether it is the sign of a human hand.

A human, at least, yells back. When I spoke with Frank Viola, a coach for a North Carolina team, he said that ABS works as designed, but that it was also unforgiving and pedantic, almost legalistic. “Manfred is a lawyer,” Viola noted. Some pitchers have complained that, compared with a human’s, the robot’s strike zone seems too precise. Viola was once a major-league player himself. When he was pitching, he explained, umpires rewarded skill. “Throw it where you aimed, and it would be a strike, even if it was an inch or two outside. There was a dialogue between pitcher and umpire.”

The executive tasked with running the experiment for MLB is Morgan Sword, who’s in charge of baseball operations. According to Sword, ABS was part of a larger project to make baseball more exciting since executives are terrified of losing younger fans, as has been the case with horse racing and boxing. He explains how they began the process by asking fans what version of baseball they found most exciting. The results showed that everyone wanted more action: more hits, more defense, more baserunning. This type of baseball essentially hasn’t existed since the 1960s, when the hundred-mile-an-hour fastball, which is difficult to hit and control, entered the game. It flattened the game into strikeouts, walks, and home runs-a type of play lacking much action.

Sword’s team brainstormed potential fixes. Any rule that existed, they talked about changing from changing the bats to changing the geometry of the field. But while all of these were ruled out as potential fixes, ABS was seen as a perfect vehicle for change. According to Sword, once you get the technology right, you can load any strike zone you want into the system. “It might be a triangle, or a blob, or something shaped like Texas. Over time, as baseball evolves, ABS can allow the zone to change with it.”

“In the past twenty years, sports have moved away from judgment calls. Soccer has Video Assistant Referees (for office decisions, for example). Tennis has Hawk-Eye (for line calls, for example). For almost a decade, baseball has used instant replay on the base paths. This is widely liked, even if the precision can sometimes cause problems. But these applications deal with something physical: bases, lines, goals. The boundaries of action are precise, delineated like the keys of a piano. This is not the case with ABS and the strike zone. Historically, a certain discretion has been appreciated.”

I decided to email Alva Noë, a professor at Berkeley University and a baseball fan, for his opinion. “Hardly a day goes by that I don’t wake up and run through the reasons that this [robo-umpires] is such a terrible idea,” he replied. He later told me, “This is part of a movement to use algorithms to take the hard choices of living out of life.” Perhaps he’s right. We watch baseball to kill time, not to maximize it. Some players I have met take a dissenting stance toward the robots too, believing that accuracy is not the answer. According to Joe Russo, who plays for a New Jersey team, “With technology, people just want everything to be perfect. That’s not reality. I think perfect would be weird. Your teams are always winning, work is always just great, there’s always money in your pocket, your car never breaks down. What is there to talk about?”

* strike: a strike is when the batter swings at a ball and misses or when the batter does not swing at a ball that passes through the strike zone.

Questions 27-32

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3?

YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO  if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

    1. When DeJesus first used ABS, he shared decision-making about strikes with it.
    2. MLB considered it necessary to amend the size of the strike zone when criticisms were received from players.
    3. MLB is keen to justify the money spent on improving the accuracy of ABS’s calculations. 
    4. The hundred-mile-an-hour fastball led to a more exciting style of play.
    5. The differing proposals for alterations to the baseball bat led to fierce debate on Sword’s team.
    6. ABS makes changes to the shape of the strike zone feasible.

Đáp án 

    1. When DeJesus first used ABS, he shared decision-making about strikes with it.
      → NO
      Dẫn chứng: “Instead of making any judgments himself about a strike, DeJesus had decisions fed to him through an earpiece…”
    2. MLB considered it necessary to amend the size of the strike zone when criticisms were received from players
      → YES
      Dẫn chứng: “During the first robo-umpire season, players complained… In response, MLB decided to tweak the dimensions of the zone…”
    3. MLB is keen to justify the money spent on improving the accuracy of ABS’s calculations.
      → NOT GIVEN
      Dẫn chứng: Bài đọc không đề cập đến chi phí hay việc MLB muốn biện minh chi tiêu cho việc cải thiện độ chính xác của ABS. Nó chỉ nói rằng ABS rất chính xác.
    4. The hundred-mile-an-hour fastball led to a more exciting style of play.
      → NO
      Dẫn chứng: “It flattened the game into strikeouts, walks, and home runs—a type of play lacking much action.”
    5. The differing proposals for alterations to the baseball bat led to fierce debate on Sword’s team.
      → NOT GIVEN
      Dẫn chứng: Bài chỉ nói họ đã xem xét việc thay đổi gậy và các yếu tố khác, nhưng không đề cập đến tranh cãi gay gắt về các đề xuất đó.

Questions 33-37 

Complete the summary using the list of phrases, A-H, below.

Calls by the umpire

Even after ABS was developed, MLB still wanted human umpires to shout out decisions as they had in their 33 …………  required. The umpire’s job had, at one time, required 34 ………… , about whether a ball was a strike. A ball is considered a strike when the batter does not hit it and it crosses through a 35 …………  extending approximately from the batter’s knee to his chest. 

In the past, 36 ………… over strike calls were not uncommon, but today everyone accepts the complete ban on pushing or shoving the umpire. One difference, however, is that during the first game DeJesus used ABS, strike calls were met with 37 ………… 

    • pitch boundary
    • numerous disputes
    • team tactics 
    • subjective assessment
    • widespread approval
    • former roles
    • total silence
    • perceived area


Đáp án

    1. ABS makes changes to the shape of the strike zone feasible.
      → YES
      Dẫn chứng: “According to Sword… once you get the technology right, you can load any strike zone you want… shaped like Texas…”
    2. MLB still wanted human umpires to shout out decisions as they had in their ________ required.
      → F – former roles
      Dẫn chứng: “Major League Baseball (MLB), who had commissioned the system, wanted human umpires to announce the calls, just as they would have done in the past.”
    3. required ________, about whether a ball was a strike.
      → D – subjective assessment
      Dẫn chứng: “Previously, calling a strike was a judgment call on the part of the umpire.”
    4. A ball is considered a strike when the batter does not hit it and it crosses through approx ________ extending approximately from the batter’s knee to his chest.
      → H – perceived area
      Dẫn chứng: Bài đọc mô tả strike zone là một khu vực tưởng tượng (“an imaginary zone”). Từ “perceived area” (vùng được cảm nhận/hình dung) phù hợp với nghĩa “imaginary zone”.
    5. ________ over strike calls were not uncommon, but today everyone accepts the complete ban on pushing or shoving the umpire.
      → B – numerous disputes
      Dẫn chứng: “For a hundred and fifty years or so, the strike zone has been the game’s animating force—countless arguments”
    6. It’s that during the first game DeJesus used ABS, strike calls were met with ________
      → G – total silence
      Dẫn chứng: “During that first game, when DeJesus announced calls, there was no heckling and no shouted disagreement. Nobody said a word.”

Questions 38-40 

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

    1. What does the writer suggest about ABS in the fifth paragraph?
    1. It is bound to make key decisions that are wrong.
    2. It may reduce some of the appeal of the game.
    3. It will lead to the disappearance of human umpires.
    4. It may increase calls for the rules of baseball to be changed.
    1. Morgan Sword says that the introduction of ABS
    1. was regarded as an experiment without a guaranteed outcome.
    2. was intended to keep up with developments in other sports.
    3. was a response to changing attitudes about the role of sport.
    4. was an attempt to ensure baseball retained a young audience.
    1. Why does the writer include the views of Noë and Russo?
    1. to show that attitudes to technology vary widely
    2. to argue that people have unrealistic expectations of sport
    3. to indicate that accuracy is not the same thing as enjoyment
    4. to suggest that the number of baseball fans needs to increase

Đáp án 

    1. What does the writer suggest about ABS in the fifth paragraph?
      → B. It may reduce some of the appeal of the game.
      Dẫn chứng: “But the question is whether controversy is worth reducing, or whether it is the sign of a human hand. A human, at least, yells back.”
    2. Morgan Sword says that the introduction of ABS
      → D. was an attempt to ensure baseball retained a young audience.
      Dẫn chứng: “ABS was part of a larger project to make baseball more exciting since executives are terrified of losing younger fans…”
    3. Why does the writer include the views of Noë and Russo?
      → C. to indicate that accuracy is not the same thing as enjoyment
      Dẫn chứng: Cả Alva Noë và Joe Russo đều thể hiện quan điểm rằng độ chính xác của công nghệ không đồng nghĩa với sự hấp dẫn hay “tính người” trong thể thao (Noë xem việc dùng thuật toán để thay thế lựa chọn khó khăn là một ý tưởng tệ; Russo nói rằng nếu mọi thứ hoàn hảo thì sẽ “weird” và “there’s nothing to talk about”).

Lộ trình học IELTS Reading hiệu quả từ 0.0 đến band 9.0

Lộ trình học IELTS Reading hiệu quả cần được xây dựng theo từng giai đoạn rõ ràng, bắt đầu từ nền tảng đến nâng cao, thay vì lao ngay vào luyện đề.

  • Ở giai đoạn 0.0–4.0, người học tập trung xây dựng vốn từ vựng cơ bản, làm quen với cấu trúc câu tiếng Anh và rèn kỹ năng đọc hiểu ý chính qua các đoạn văn ngắn.
  • Khi đạt 4.0–5.5, trọng tâm chuyển sang nắm vững các dạng câu hỏi phổ biến trong IELTS Reading như True/False/Not Given, Matching Information hay Multiple Choice, đồng thời học cách xác định keyword và paraphrase trong bài đọc.
  • Từ 5.5–6.5, người học cần rèn chiến lược làm bài theo từng passage, cải thiện tốc độ đọc và giảm lỗi sai do bẫy đề.
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