top-notch 復習
東京大学の合格を目指すAIの「東ロボくん」を開発してきた国立情報学研究所は、今年の大学入試センター試験模試でも合格レベルに達することができなかったと発表しました。
AI robot to get 'real job' after flunking Todai entry exam
The dream is over for a robot boasting artificial intelligence that had hoped to secure a place at the top-notch University of Tokyo.
Torobo-kun failed miserably in the entry exam and having now flunked four years in a row has accepted defeat and will now have to go out and work in a "real job" in industry.
“As the robot scored about the same as last year, we were able to gauge the possibilities and limits of artificial intelligence,” said Noriko Arai, a professor of information and society research at the National Institute of Informatics who heads the team behind Torobo-kun.
“From now on, we will grow its abilities in the fields it’s doing well in and aim to improve them to levels that can be applied in industry,” she announced Nov. 14 after the robot's latest flop.
Short for Todai (University of Tokyo) Robot Project, Torobo-kun (“kun” is a note of affection added to a name in Japanese) has attempted to pass the National Center Test, a standardized exam adopted by Japanese universities, since fiscal 2013.
This year, Torobo-kun tackled a mock exam designed by education-publishing company Benesse Corp., just like it had in 2015. The exam consisted of eight tests in five subjects and the robot scored 525 out of 950.
The score was 14 points higher than last year, but the robot received an overall standard deviation score of 57.1.
Since a score of at least 80 percent is said to be required to be accepted by the University of Tokyo’s liberal arts courses, the robot was far from the required level.
以下省略
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201611150071.html
今回取り上げる表現は、“top-notch”です。『ウィズダム英和辞典』(第３版、三省堂)で“notch”を引いたところ、第２義に「段(階)、等級」とありました。この意味から推測できるように、“top-notch”で「一流の、最高の」という意味になります。
LDOCEには“something that is top-notch is of the highest quality or standard”と定義されています。
“notch”は動詞としてもよく用いられ、例えば“notch a victory”で「勝利を収める」などと表現することができます(「英辞郎 on the WEB」)。この他にも“notch”を含む表現は多数あるので、ぜひ調べてみてください。(Blue Sky)
