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1、 考研英语文章阅读Robo-tradersTHANKS to slumping markets， investment banks are shedding many of their highly-paid traders. When markets recover， the banks might be tempted to replace them with rather cheaper talent. One alternative has been around for a while but has yet to catch on： autonomous trading agent
2、s-computers programmed to act like the human version without such pesky costs as holidays， lunch breaks or bonuses. Program trading has， of course， been done before； some blamed the 1987 stockmarket crash on computers instructed with simple decision-making rules. But robots can be smarter than that.
3、Dave Cliff， a researcher at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories in Bristol， England， has been creating trading robots for seven years. In computer simulations he lets them evolve “genetically“， and so allows them to adapt and fit models of real-world financial markets. His experiments have suggested that a
4、 redesign of some markets could lead to greater efficiency. Last year， a research group at IBM showed that Mr Cliff”s artificial traders could consistently beat the human variety， in various kinds of market. Nearly all take the shape of an auction. One well-known type is the English auction， familia
5、r to patrons of the salesrooms of Christie”s and Sotheby”s， where sellers keep mum on their offer price， and buyers increase their bids by stages until only one remains.At the other extreme is the Dutch auction， familiar to 17th-century tulip-traders in the Netherlands as well as to bidders for Amer
6、ican Treasury bonds. Here， buyers remain silent， and a seller reduces his price until it is accepted. Most markets for shares， commodities， foreign exchange and derivatives are a hybrid of these two types： buyers and sellers can announce their bid or offer prices at any time， and deals are constantl
7、y being closed， a so-called “continuous double auction“.Mr Cliff”s novel idea was to apply his evolutionary computer programs to marketplaces themselves. Why not， he thought， try and see what types of auction would let traders converge most quickly towards an equilibrium price？ The results were surp
8、rising. In his models， auctions that let buyers and sellers bid at any time like most of today”s financial exchanges were less efficient than ones that required relatively more bids from either buyers or sellers. These “evolved auctions“ also withstood big market shocks， such as crashes and panics，
9、better than today”s real-world versions. Mr Cliff”s most recent results， which will be presented in Sydney， Australia， on December 10th， show that the best type of auction for any market depends crucially on even slight differences in the number of buyers and sellers.Bank of America has been investi
10、gating these new auctions， along with robotic traders， for possible use in electronic exchanges. The hope is that today”s financial auctions and online marketplaces might work better by becoming more like their English and Dutch forebears. But what to call such multi-ethnic hybrids？ Here”s introduci
11、ng the “Cliffhanger“.注（1）：本文选自Economist；11/30/2022， p65， 1/2p， 1c；注（2）：本文习题命题仿照2022年真题text 3第1题（1），text 4第3题（2），2022年真题text 4第1题，2022年真题text 1第2题（4），1999年真题text 1第4题（5）；1.The passage is mainly_.A a review of two kinds of auctionsB an introduction of trading robotsC a survey of the trading marketD ab
12、out trading alternatives2.Which of the following is true according to the text？A Davids robot traders have now been used in real-world markets.B Robot traders can evolve like creatures.C There is room for improvement in efficiency in trading markets.D The English auction is the most popular trading
13、form.3.If you were trading American Treasury bonds， you would most likely take the tradingform of _.A the English auctionB the continuous double auctionC the Dutch auctionD the evolved auction4.We can infer from the text that_.A existing auctions can not withstand market shocksB the Dutch auction is
14、 better than the continuous double auctionC its hard for traders to reach an equilibrium priceD the best type of auction takes place when the number of the buyers is equal to that of sellers5.Toward robot traders， the writers attitude can be said to be_.A biasedB objectiveC pessimisticD optimistic答案
15、：B C C B D篇章剖析本篇文章是一篇说明文，介绍了一种机器人交易员。第一段以银行也需要薪资更低廉的交易员开头引入机器人交易员的话题，说明机器人交易员不同于程序交易，是聪慧的交易员。其次段介绍了这种机器人交易员的研发过程和其模拟的一种拍卖形式。第三段介绍了其他拍卖形式。第四段介绍了这种机器人交易员在模拟拍卖中的表现。最终一段对这种机器人交易员的前景及影响作了简洁评价。词汇解释slump： slQmp v. （价格等）暴跌， （买卖）清淡； 衰落； 萧条shed： Fed v. 去除除去（不想要或不需要的东西）pesky： 5peski adj. 厌烦的，麻烦的auction： 5C：kFEn n. 拍卖patron： 5peitrEn n. 顾客；主顾salesroom： n. 拍卖场mum： mQm adj. 缄默的；无言的；不说话的derivative： di5rivEtiv n. 衍生物hybrid： 5haibrid n. 混合物converge： kEn5vE
