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 BTS IRIS
– SUJET TYPE No
2
The Adaptive House,
Boulder, Colorado
1 - COMPREHENSION
(10 points)
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DOCUMENT-RÉPONSE
A/ Fill in the blanks in
the following sentences with words taken from paragraph 1
(4 points):
1/ The axis on which our entire
project turns is that of an intelligent home that teaches itself to
anticipate
its occupants' requirements.
2/ The system observes the
occupants' habits and deduces patterns in the environment that precede
them.
3/ If the occupants' behavior can be
reliably predicted, the Adaptive House's control systems can liberate its
owners from the difficulties of manual control.
B/ Are the following statements
true or false? Supply the relevant quotation from the text to justify your
answer. (6 points – No points will be given without quotations!)
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1/ It's impossible to design a
home that will be intelligent enough to manage its programming by itself.
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False |
| Quotation: The crux of the project is to
develop a home that essentially programs itself by observing the lifestyle
and desires of the inhabitants, and learning to anticipate and accommodate
their needs. |
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2/ One advantage of a home
capable of deducing from the behaviour of its occupants, how to program its
systems and appliances, would be a more efficient use of resources.
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True |
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| Quotation: A secondary consideration of the
system is to conserve energy resources, when possible. |
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3/ While the Adaptive House is
a good idea, no working model of it exists to prove whether it would really
fulfil its promises. |
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False |
| Quotation: We have constructed a prototype
system in actual residence. |
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4/ A great number of sensors
and actuators are all that is required to make the Adaptive House respond to
its occupants' needs. |
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False |
| Quotation: Control systems in the residence are
based on neural network reinforcement learning and prediction techniques. |
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5/ The design of the Adaptive
House's control systems resembles the neuronal structure of the brain.
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True |
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| Quotation:
Neural networks are artificial learning devices inspired by the workings of
the human brain. |
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6/ The Adaptive House would be
unable to cope with an individual's particular habits that might differ from
those of most people. |
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False |
| Quotation: inferring where the occupant is and in what activities the occupant is
engaged |
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2 - TRANSLATION -
Translate into French the passage from "In contrast to..." to "...an interior
lighting." (Paragraph 1, between square brackets) (5 points)
Par opposition aux maisons
informatisées courantes qui peuvent être programmées de façon à exécuter
diverses fonctions, le point crucial de notre projet est de mettre au point une
maison qui, fondamentalement, se programme toute seule en observant le mode de
vie et les désirs des habitants et en apprenant à prévenir et à prendre en
charge leurs besoins. Le système que nous avons mis au point, régit les éléments
de confort résidentiels de base – la CVC (chauffage, ventilation et
climatisation), le chauffe-eau et l'éclairage intérieur.
3 - EXPRESSION -
Discuss the following question in English and express your opinions:
Although the first automated homes using the Adaptive House technology will, of
course, be expensive, do you think such homes will become the norm for
house-owners in the near future?
(120 words approximately) (5 points)
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© Christian Lassure - English For Techies
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