Not long ago, the only time you could see a robot was when you were reading a novel or watching a movie such as Star Wars (星球大战) . Today, however, a lot of things in science stories have been science facts. Robots are starting to appear in our everyday lives. These robots have different sizes, shapes, and colors. But they all have the same type of man-made “brain”. Leading the robot revolution （革命）are industrial(企业) robots that work in factories. Industrial（工业） robots can do different kinds of jobs that are often boring and sometimes dangerous. Robots are also coming to American homes, though not as quickly as they are entering factories. These robots aren’t as friendly and bright as those you saw in  Star Wars. But, their makers say, today’s home robots “walk”, sense objects(感知物体) in their way (and sometimes knock into them), and even carry objects (which they sometimes drop). Well, nobody is perfect.
We may laugh at home robot today, but some day they may see and hear better than humans do. We humans can only see certain wavelengths（波长） of light, and hear certain sounds. That’s because the abilities of our eyes and ears are limited. Robots, however, need not have the same limits as we have. Robot may also be equipped with devices that pick up information humans can’t. To understand what their sensing devices(传感器) pick up is a hard job. Remember, man—made brains handle(处理)information, including all kinds of data, as zeroes and ones. Imagine the difficulty in trying to explain to a robot what a football looks like—using only zeroes and ones.
【小题1】 From the passage, we can see that factory robots _________.

B）根据短文内容及首字母提示，填写所缺单词。
Be a potato, but be the best
A young college student thought that he chose the wrong major (专业) at a common college, so he drank every day and didn’t study at all. He b  1   more and more discouraged.
But he was never a  2   from Professor Yang’s biology (生物) class. He liked the course. Besides, Yang’s class was so i  3   that he always listened carefully, never caring about w  4   the other students were paying attention or not in class.
Once he put a note in the homework he handed in, saying: “Professor, it is said that today’s college students are c  5   than potatoes. Do you agree?”
That day Professor Yang sent for him after class. When he came, he f  6  the professor at a table with food on it. They drank happily over their meal.
When they became half drunk, the professor took out a small potato that was sprouting (发芽的). “Do you know how much this c  7 ?” he asked the young man. “It’s soft but poisonous. N  8  will take it even if it’s free. ” He then threw the potato away.
The professor then showed him another potato. It was half the s  9  of a football and perfectly round. “This potato is organic (有机的). It is not only large and fresh but also free of pollution. People are in need of such k  10   of potatoes and they’re quite expensive.”
The young man was impressed by what he’d heard. “Be such a potato,” said the professor.

B

If you want to find out a piece of information about anything , the best place to search for it is Wikepedia. This online encyclopedia is written by thousands of people around the world. Anyone can add or change the information if he or she finds it not correct or not well written. In this way, people who know a lot about a certain subject can write about it even if they are not university professors.

What is more, Wikepedia includes articles written in about 235 languages. This fact makes it one of the few websites (网站)on the Internet that are truly international. It was started in 2001 by Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales, as a free online English-language encyclopedia project. By April 2008, over 10 million articles had been put on Wikipedia. A quarter of the articles are in English. Wikipedia is also a place where people can find the latest news.

However, Wikipedia has its own problems. There have been many complaints that some of the information on Wikipedia is not accurate and some important subjects are not included. This has led to arguments between the writers of articles. The people running Wikipedia say that the accuracy of the information is improving and that it is one of the top 20 visited websites on the Internet.

So, if you are looking for some information, why not try Wikipedia?

1.Wikipedia is ___________.

A．a computer game                       B．a name of a magazine

C．a free university                        D．an online encyclopedia

2.People who write on Wikipadia__________.

A．know much about a certain subject          B．likes writing different stories

C．should be university professors             D．are usually famous scientists

3.Wikipedia is truly international because_________.

A．everything is written in English

B．the articles are in about 253 language

C．there are over 10 million articles

D．each writer can write in different languages

4.Besides information about different subjects, people can also_____ on Wikipedia.

A．watch interesting movies                 B．send e-mail to friends

C．read about the latest news                D．play exciting games

B）根据短文内容及首字母提示，填写所缺单词。

Be a potato, but be the best

A young college student thought that he chose the wrong major (专业) at a common college, so he drank every day and didn’t study at all. He b  1    more and more discouraged.

But he was never a  2    from Professor Yang’s biology (生物) class. He liked the course. Besides, Yang’s class was so i  3    that he always listened carefully, never caring about w  4    the other students were paying attention or not in class.

    Once he put a note in the homework he handed in, saying: “Professor, it is said that today’s college students are c  5    than potatoes. Do you agree?”

That day Professor Yang sent for him after class. When he came, he f  6   the professor at a table with food on it. They drank happily over their meal.

When they became half drunk, the professor took out a small potato that was sprouting (发芽的). “Do you know how much this c  7  ?” he asked the young man. “It’s soft but poisonous. N  8   will take it even if it’s free. ” He then threw the potato away.

The professor then showed him another potato. It was half the s  9   of a football and perfectly round. “This potato is organic (有机的). It is not only large and fresh but also free of pollution. People are in need of such k  10    of potatoes and they’re quite expensive.”

The young man was impressed by what he’d heard. “Be such a potato,” said the professor.