英语笔记三

If foreigners learning Chinese think the modern language is difficult to grasp, they should be glad they don't have to learn classical Chinese. Ancient texts are far more challenging, and not easy for even native Chinese speakers to decipher.

Thankfully, a team of researchers from the South China University of Technology has made such work easier. The team has developed a large, artificial intelligence-powered language machine that automatically translates ancient Chinese texts into modern language.

The team won first prize in the international ancient Chinese machine translation contest during the Machine Translation Summit 2023 held in the Macao Special Administrative Region in September. The system could help enhance people's understanding of Chinese history and promote traditional Chinese culture, said Jin Lianwen, the professor who led the research team in their work at the university's deep learning and vision computing lab.

It could also help with data mining and analysis, and intelligent development and application related to ancient texts and relics, he said.

The massive system requires powerful computing capacity, which was a huge hurdle the team had to overcome during its research, Jin said, adding that the team received multiple graphic processing unit servers from a cooperating company.

The machine translation is meant to provide classical Chinese enthusiasts with a convenient way to gain a general understanding of ancient texts, with Jin saying that authoritative publications should be the go-to sources for precise translations.

The major challenge in robotic ancient language translation was the lack of high-quality ancient language data, Li Bin, an associate professor in the linguistic technology department at Nanjing Normal University, told a seminar at the summit.

At present, such translation relies heavily on the professional knowledge of classical language experts.

Jin's team has also developed a system that recognizes and analyzes ancient Chinese text on pictures. The system automatically locates, extracts and arranges related texts in order. The texts can then be punctuated and translated into modern Chinese using the aforementioned language system.

The algorithm for the system has been optimized to address challenges such as analyzing text on wrinkled or creased photos or those with low resolution.

In cooperation with Shanghai University and the Intsig Information Co, Jin's team has also created a system for analyzing and recognizing texts written in the language of China's Yi ethnic group.

Classical text translation technology, when combined with text recognition technology, can facilitate ancient text digitalization and understanding.

When joined by powerful AI technology such as ChatGPT, it can become an interactive system for understanding ancient texts.

The team will continue its research on ancient text understanding and protection, Jin said, adding that sufficient computing capacity will be necessary for further research.

BEIJING -- President Xi Jinping sent a letter to the sixth China International Import Expo (CIIE), which opened in Shanghai on Sunday, pledging firm efforts to advance high-standard opening up.

First held in 2018, the annual expo has leveraged the strengths of China's enormous market, fulfilled its platform function for international procurement, investment promotion, people-to-people exchanges and open cooperation, and made positive contributions to creating a new development pattern and promoting world economic development, Xi said in the letter.

Noting that the world economic recovery lacks momentum and requires the solidarity and cooperation of all countries, Xi said China will always be an important opportunity for global development.

He pledged that China will firmly advance high-standard opening up and continue to make economic globalization more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial to all.

The CIIE is the world's first national-level exposition dedicated to imports and an event Xi personally planned, proposed, deployed and promoted.

Since its debut in 2018, the expo has become a showcase of China's new development paradigm, a platform for high-standard opening up, and a public good for the whole world.

The previous five editions saw a total of 131 countries and international organizations participating in country exhibitions, with nearly 2,000 new products, technologies and services making their debuts and a combined intended turnover reaching nearly $350 billion.

Xi said in his letter that he hopes the CIIE will better serve as a window for fostering a new development pattern that creates new opportunities for the world through China's further development, and as a platform of high-standard opening up that allows China's enormous market to be shared by the world.

He also expressed the hope that the expo will play a greater role in providing shared international public goods and services that facilitate an open world economy and let the world benefit from win-win cooperation.

This year's expo, scheduled from Nov 5 to 10, has set a new record with 289 Global Fortune 500 companies and industry leaders in attendance. Over 3,400 exhibitors and 394,000 professional visitors registered for the event, a full recovery to pre-pandemic levels.

Capitalizing on China's vast market opportunities, participants have come to Shanghai from 154 countries, regions and international organizations, including the least developed, developing and developed nations.