Question 17 is based on the passage you have just heard.

听力原文

        (16) [Steve Miller began his career in IT back in the late 1980s. Being a deaf person in tech required a huge amount of effort and organization.] Because there was no email or text messages service, everything had to be done face to face or by telephone. Communicating in meetings was very difficult. He needed a sign language interpreter for every meeting, but it was a huge effort to coordinate. These days, although challenges still remain, it’s a good time to be a deaf person in tech, says Miller. (17) [Big advances in speech recognition technology have enabled communication tools to turn live speech into text in real time on your smartphone or laptop and sign language into text as well.] New tech, coupled with improvements in hearing aid technology and medical advances, means that Miller is able to focus far more on his work. He has benefited to a great extent from a tiny hearing device in his ear. It gives him a degree of hearing, and he can use a variety of communication methods, depending on the situation. He can employ lip reading and have meetings via video instead of on the phone. These things have made a huge difference. (18) [He no longer has to worry about whether or not he can understand.] He can just concentrate on how interesting the meeting might be and what he needs to get out of it in order to progress.

17. What does Miller say is making things better for people like him?（米勒说什么能让像他这样的人过得更好？）

解析：B。录音中间部分，米勒说技术领域的听障人士是赶上了好时候，因为语音识别技术的巨大进步使得语音和手语都能转换为文本。由此可知，是语言识别技术的进步给予了听障人士很大帮助，故正确答案为B。

错项排除：录音中提到了沟通，但未提到沟通技能的提高，故A项排除。C项利用录音中的Big advances设置干扰，但录音中没有提到手语存在巨大进步，故C项错误。录音中没有提到IT行业有所转变，故D项排除。