What if you arrived home to find a delicious hot meal waiting for you, prepared by your own kitchen robot? It might sound like science fiction, but professors at the University of Tokyo have taken the first steps toward making that a reality. The team recently introduced a human-shaped kitchen robot that can pour tea and other drinks into cups and serve them to guests. When teatime is over, the robot can also wash the dishes and put them away. In California, another interesting kitchen robot has been developed, called Readybot. It can pick up objects and either store them in cabinets or put them in the trash. It also carries a separate floor-cleaning robot that can operate by itself. Unlike the Japanese robot, Readybot just looks more like a large box with arms and wheels. Readybot was created by engineers and designers who established a club called the Readybot Challenge. They believe that in the future millions of robots will be needed in homes to perform ordinary household tasks. Readybot is just the first step in their plan to create a robot that can do jobs not only in kitchens but in other rooms of homes and in offices as well. Clearly there are technological difficulties to solve before robots can cook a complete dinner, and there are also many safety concerns . Not everyone (especially parents) would be comfortable with the idea of robots in their house, _ hot pans and sharp knives. The European Commission recently funded a project to study these concerns. According to lead researcher Professor Chris Melhuish, "Enabling robots to work safely with humans is a key need for the future development of robotics." Readybot can now be used to _ . A) drive you around B) clean your kitchen C) prepare food for you D) work for office workers
B
(Question)
Good readers know that reading isn't just about knowing words--it's a way of thinking. Some readers think before, during and after reading. Here are some suggestions that may be of some help. Think before you read. Before you read the text, ask yourself the questions that why you are reading it and what you want to get from it. Answering the questions will help you choose what words you need to know and what words you can skip or scan. Think while you are reading. Can you get the meaning of the text without looking up new words in a dictionary? Are there any clues in the text? A text will often give examples that may help you understand what some of the words mean, let's take the following sentence for example. Many large Russian cities such as Chelayabinsk and Irkutsk, have taken steps to protect their culture. The words "Chelyabinsk"and"Irkutsk" may be new to us, but the sentence tells us that they are examples of _ Think after you read. Do you understand the text? What is the main idea of the text? Can you guess the meaning of the new words? Which words do you need to look up? Is the text too easy or too hard for you? If you practice reading and thinking in this way, you will become a smarter reader and you will learn more, faster and better. The author of the passage mainly advises that_. A) we should think before, while and after reading a passage B) we'd better look up every new word in a dictionary C) we should learn to guess the meanings of new words D) the clues in a passage should be made use of
(Answer)
A
Ques: I entered St Thoma's Hospital as a medical student at the age of 18 and spent five years there . I was an unsatisfactory student , for my heart , as you might have guessed , was not in it . I wanted , I had always wanted to be a writer , and in the evening , after my high tea , I wrote and read . Before long , I wrote a novel , called " Liza of Lambeth", which I sent to a publisher and was accepted . It appeared during my last year at the hospital and had something of a success . It was of course an accident , but naturally I did not know that . I felt I could afford to give up medicine and make writing my profession ; so, three days after I graduated from the school of medicine , I set out forprefix = st1 /Spainto write another book. Looking back now , and knowing as I do the terrible difficulties of making a living by writing , I realize I was taking a fearful risk . It never even occurred to me . The next ten years were very hard , and I earned an average of PS100 a year . Then I had a bit of luck . The manager of the Court Theatre put on a play that failed ; the next play he arranged to put on was not ready , and he was at his wits' end.He read a play of mine and , though he did not much like it , he thought it might just run for the six weeks till the play he had in mind to follow it with could be produced . It ran for fifteen months . Within a short while I had four plays running in Londonat the same time . Nothing of the kind had ever happened before . I was the talk of the town . One of the students atSt Thomas's Hospital asked the eminent surgeon with whom I had worked whether he remembered me . " Yes, I remember him quite well , " he said . " One of our failures , I'm afraid ." The author became the talk of the town . The reason was that _ . A) he talked with a great many people in Londonabout his plays B) the plays he wrote were excellently performed in London C) his performances in the Court Theatre were unexpectedly D) he was criticized by an eminent surgeon as one of their failures
Ans: B
Question: Internet use appears to cause a decline in psychological well-being , according to research at Carnegie Mellon University. Even people who spent just a few hours a week on the Internet experienced more depression and loneliness than those who logged on less frequently, the two-year study showed. And it wasn't that people who were already feeling bad spent more time on the Internet, but that using the Net actually appeared to cause the bad feeling. Researchers are puzzling over the results, which were completely contrary to their expectations. They expected that the net would prove socially healthier than television, since the Net allows users to choose their information and to communicate with others. The fact that Internet use reduces time available for family and friends may account for the drop in well-being, researchers suggested. Faceless, bodiless "virtual" communication may be less psychologically satisfying than actual conversation, and the relationship formed through it may be shallower. Another possibility is that exposure to the wider world via the Net makes users less satisfied with their lives. "But it's important to remember this is not about the technology _ ; it's about how it is used," says psychologist Christine Riley of Intel, one of the study's sponsors. "It really points to the need for considering social effects in terms of how you design applications and services for technology." Internet use may cause a decline in psychological well-being because _ . A) people who were already feeling bad spend more time on the Internet B) Internet users thought the world was wider than it really was C) people were too eager to turn the "virtual" communication into reality D) people have less time for actual communication with their family and friends
Answer:
D