The first robots were invented in the 1920s. Robots have appeared in Hollywood films such as Robocop and The Terminator. The robots in these films are stronger, faster and more intelligent than people.
In real life, robots are mainly used in factories. They do many different jobs. Usually these jobs are too dangerous, difficult or boring for humans.
Robots also help disabled people and people who cannot look after themselves. For example, scientists are making a robot to help blind people. Nowadays many blind people have a dog to help them. This dog is called a guide dog. In the future, robot dogs might take the place of these guide dogs.
One robot guide dog is called Meldog. It has wheels. It usually “walks” in front of its owner. It is very clever. It knows the speed of its owner’s walk. Meldog talks to its owner by radio. The owner wears a special belt. This belt sends instructions to the owner from Meldog such as “Stop here”, “Turn left” and “Turn right”.
In the United States, another type of robot helps disabled workers. This robot, called Kilroy, helps disabled computer operators. The robot hears the sound of its owner’s voice. It follows instructions such as “Turn the page” and “Make a cup of coffee”. This robot will bring its owner tissue paper when he or she sneezes!
Robots are also used in American hospitals. They can do simple jobs. For example, they shave patients and brush their teeth and take meals from the kitchen to the patients’ rooms. They never get lost because they have a map of the hospital in their computer memory.
Some robots in real life are .
| A．dangerous | B．boring |
| C．film stars | D．factory workers |
Some disabled people need robots to .
| A．make robots | B．become scientists |
| C．look after themselves | D．do dangerous jobs |
Meldog is a .
| A．blind dog | B．robot scientist |
| C．real dog | D．robot guide dog |
The robots used in American hospitals can do the following except .
| A．make a map |
| B．shave patients |
| C．brush the patients’teeth |
| D．take meals from the kitchen to the patients’ rooms |
After spending three days in a wheelchair, I was ready to quit. Not only did I have to battle cracked (裂缝的) and uneven (不平的) pavements, I had to deal with the bad attitude of pedestrians (行人) and a cold rain. But I didn’t give up because of people like Tiffany Payne.
Payne, who has been using a wheelchair for 18 years, laughed at me:
“Imagine trying to get around town in the winter,” she said.
I could see her point: You’re battling to get to a doctor’s appointment (预约), but no one has shoveled (铲) after a big snowfall. Your choices: Move out and risk getting stuck, or reschedule the appointment.
Those of us fortunate enough to get around on our own two legs don’t give a second thought to the person in a wheelchair next to us at a crosswalk. That would require us to look down.
So I decided to try using a wheelchair to get a sample of what their lives are like. It wasn’t long before I saw that people who use wheelchairs are forced to deal with a lot of trouble.
During my experiment, I was ignored by store staff while shopping and bumped into by inattentive (疏忽的) walkers without so much as an apology.
Some people even gave me angry looks as if I were the one at fault.
Once in a store, a woman bumped into me trying to get to the new iPad. She didn’t say, “Excuse me.”
When salespeople did offer assistance, they talked to people who were with me, instead of me. I wanted to yell: “Hey, I’m down here!”
Some salespeople talked to me as though I were a child or acted like they didn’t want to be bothered with me.
People who use wheelchairs want to be treated like everyone else. They also comprehend (理解), so you don’t have to speak to them in a childlike, sing-song voice. It’s not very appealing (吸引人的), especially when the person is an adult. And most importantly, remember they have feelings that can be hurt just like yours.
Spending three days in a wheelchair made me look differently at those who have to use one. I hope you do the same.
By James E. CauseyThe author writes the story to _______.
| A．help those in wheelchairs gain self-confidence |
B．share his experience of acting as a wheelch air user |
| C．ask people to show sympathy for those in wheelchairs |
| D．call on people to respect and help those in wheelchairs |
During his three days in a wheelchair, the author met all of the following
difficulties EXCEPT ______.
| A．bad road conditions | B．poor attitudes of ordinary people |
| C．terrible medical service | D．bad weather |
What can we conclude from the article?
| A．A wheelchair user may feel offended when you do not address him or her directly. |
| B．Assistants in big stores are usually kind to people in wheelchairs. |
| C．People in wheelchairs should fight for fair treatment. |
| D．People in wheelchairs are usually hard to get along with. |
Which of the following statements would the author agree to?
| A．Look down on a person in a wheelchair. |
| B．Speak to a person in a wheelchair in a sing-song voice. |
| C．Treat a person in a wheelchair as you would any other person. |
| D．Offer assistance to a person in a wheelchair without asking for permission. |
It’s 2035. You have a job, a family and you’re about 40 years old. Welcome to your future life. Getting ready for work, you pause in front of the mirror, “Turn red,” you say. Your shirt changes from sky blue to deep red. Tiny preprogrammed electronic（智能电子元件） is rearranged in your shirt to change its color. Looking into the mirror, you find it hard to believe that you are 40. You look much younger. With amazing advances in medicine, people in your generation may live to be 150 years old. You’re not even middle-aged.
As you go into the kitchen and prepare to pour your breakfast cereal into a bowl, you hear: “To lose weight, you shouldn’t eat that,” from your shoes. They read the tiny electronic code（电 子源码）on the cereal box to find out the nutrition details. You decide to listen to your shoes. “Kitchen, what can I have for breakfast?” A list of possible food appears on the counter as kitchen checks its food supplies.
“Ready for your trip to space?” you ask your son a
nd daughter. In 2005 only specially trained astronauts went into space—and very few of them. Today anyone can go to space for day trip or longer vacation. Your best friend even works in space. Handing your children three strawberries each, you add, “The doctor said you need these for space travel.” Thanks to medical advice, vaccination shots（防疫针） are a thing of the past. Ordinary foods contain specific vaccines. With the berries in their mouths, the kids head for the front door.
It’s time for you to go to work. Your car checks your fingerprints and unlocks the doors. “My office. Autopilot,” you command. Your car drives itself down the road and moves smoothly into traffic on the highway. You sit back and unroll your e-newspaper. The latest news downloads and fills the viewer. Looking through the pages, you watch the news as video films rather than read it. What changes the color of your shirt?
| A．The mirror. | B．The shirt itself. | C．The counter. | D．The medicine. |
How do the shoes know that you shouldn’t eat the breakfast cereal?
| A．By pouring the breakfast into a bowl. |
| B．By listening to the doctor’s advice. |
| C．By testing the food supplies in the kitchen. |
| D．By checking the nutrition details of the food. |
The strawberries the children eat serve as ______.
| A．breakfast | B．lunch | C．vaccines | D．nutrition |
How is the text organized?
A．In order of time  |
B．In order of frequency. |
| C．In order of preference（偏爱）. | D．In order of importance |
A new study has found that the best way to make yourself feel happier is to think of something good that happened to you the day before.
Volunteers who were asked to remember a pleasant event from past 24 hours began to feel happier right away. Other activities such as saying “Thank you” and smiling also made volunteers feel happier, but not as much.
Professor Richard Wiseman of Hertfordshire University planned the study. He got 26,000 people to go online to try out a few different activities to make them feel happier. They were told to be nice, remember a pleasant event from the day before, give thanks or smile for 15 seconds twice a day. The volunteers did these activities for one week.
The result showed that thinking about one good thing that had happened the day before worked the best for making people happier. The text may probably be taken from _____.
| A．a personal anecdote(轶事) | B．sports news |
| C．a history novel | D．brief news |
Volunteers who _____ began to feel happier right away.
| A．thought of something good that happened the day before |
| B．were asked to remember a pleasant event from the past 24 hours |
| C．did other activities like saying “thank you” and smiling |
| D．went online to try out a few different activities |
From the text we know that Richard Wiseman is a(an) _____.
| A．worker | B．artist | C．professor | D．director |
The volunteers gave thanks or smile _____ a week.
| A．15 seconds | B．3.5 seconds | C．15 minutes | D．3.5 minutes |
Guangzhou （Xinhua）——12 people were killed and 20 injured early yesterday morning when they jumped from a burning train car into the path of an oncoming goods train in Southern China. When No. 247 Wuchang——Guangzhou passenger train was passing the Dayaoshan Tunnel in Guangdong Province， South China at 00:17 hours yesterday， a fire caused by passengers' smoking broke out on No. 17 car. They wanted to extinguish(扑灭) fire. As the train stopped some frightened passengers jumped from windows. 12 people were crushed to death and 20 others injured by a northward passing goods train（No. 1766）.. When did the accident happen？
| A．At 00:17 am. | B．At 00:17 pm. |
| C．At seventeen past one. | D．At seventeen to one. |
Where did the accident happen？
| A．In Wuchang. | B．In Guangzhou. |
| C．In Hubei. | D．In Guangdong. |
For what did the passenger train stop？
| A．To put out the fire. |
| B．To let the passengers jump out. |
| C．To let the other train pass. |
| D．To pick up some other passengers. |
What was the cause of the fire？
| A．A heavy rain. | B．High temperature. |
| C．Carelessness. | D．Fear. |
The clock struck eleven at night. The whole house was quiet. Everyone was in bed except me. Under the strong light，I looked sadly before me at a huge pile of that troublesome stuff（东西） they call “books”.
I was going to have my examination the
next day. “When can I go to bed？” I asked myself. I didn’t answer，in fact, I dared not.
The clock struck twelve. “ Oh，dear！” I cried. “Ten more books to read before I can go to bed！” We pupils are the most wretched creatures in the world. Dad does not agree with me on this. He did not have to work so hard when he was a boy.
The clock struck one. I was quite desperate（绝望的）now. I forgot all I had learned. I was too tired to go on. I did the only thing I could. I prayed，“Oh，God，please help me pass the exam tomorrow. I do promise to work hard afterwards，Amen.” My eyes were so heavy that I could hardly open them. A few minutes later，with my head on the desk，I fell asleep. When the author was going over his lessons，all the others in the house were ________ .
| A．asleep | B．outside |
| C．working in bed | D．quietly laughing at him |
The underlined word wretched in Paragraph 3 probably means _______ .
| A．very happy | B．disappointed |
| C．very unhappy | D．hopeful |
Reviewing his lessons didn’t help him because _______ .
| A．he was excited |
| B．he was nervous |
| C．he was worried |
| D．he hadn’t studied hard before the examination |
The best title for the passage would be __________ .
| A．The Night Before the Examination | B．Working Far into the Night |
| C．A Slow Student | D．Going Over My Lessons |
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