Robots in class

    Over 600,000 children in the United States spend their long time in hospital each year．Many of them say that they have difficult in returning to school after hospital stays．Thanks to technology，kids who are sick in the hospital no longer have to miss time in the classroom．

    A program called PEBBLES makes it possible for kids in hospital to take part in classroom discussions by using robot．PEBBLES(Providing Education by Bringing Environments to Students)supplies robots to help kids who are staying in hospital keep up with their classmates．

    For Achim Nurse，a 13-yers-old patient at Blythedale Children’s Hospital in Valhalla，New York，PEBBLES helped him so much．When he first learned about the program，he wasn’t so sure it would work．    

   “When I first saw it，it looked difficult，”said Achim．

    However，after 30 minutes of working with the robot，Achim discovered that he had gotten good at operating it．

    The robots work in pairs—一one in the hospital with the student，the other in the classroom．

    The robot in the classroom gives the student in the hospital a feel of“tele-presence．”A live picture of the students is shown on a video screen in the classroom．Meanwhile，in the hospital room，the student knows clear about what is going on in the classroom．

    The robot at the school has four wheels．so it can move around from class to class．Its“face” is an auto-focus(可以自动调焦的)camera．By using a control box，the student call turn the robot’s head，raise its hand，and adjust the volume(音量)．It is even equipped with a scanner(扫描器)and printer，so if the teacher want to have an exercise or testing class，the student can participate from the hospital．

   “The robot is greeted by students in the classroom．It is also greeted by the sick student。”said Andrew Summa，national director of the robot project．

根据短文内容完成下面各题。

1．Try to use the phrase underlined in the first paragraph to make a sentence．

2．Guess the Chinese meaning of“keep up with”．

3．The robot is greeted by students in the classroom．It is also greeted by the student in the hospital．(改写为同义句)

4．According to the passage，we can know that____

  A．We can operate this kind of robot easily．   

  B．the student in hospital cannot adjust the volume by using control box．

  C．The teacher wants to have a test in the class now. Although the student in the hospital has this kind of robot，he also cannot participate it．

5．What do you think of the robot project in the United States? Do you think it can help sick students? What do you think are its limitations?

“ Dreams may be more important than sleep. We all need to dream.” some scientists say. Dreams take up about one quarter of our sleeping time. People have several dreams each night.

   Dreams are like short films. They are usually in color. Some dreams are like old films. They come up over and over again. That may be the dreamer worrying about something. Dreaming may be a way of trying to find an answer.

   Some people get new ideas about their work from dreams. They may have been thinking about their work all day. These thoughts can carry over into dreams.

   Too much dreaming can be harmful. The more we sleep,the longer we dream. The mind is still at work when we dream. That is why we may have a long sleep and still wake up tired.

1. It may be less important to sleep than to _____.

A.think    B.dream     C.work    D.study

2.Dreams and films are usually _____.

A.very long    B.in color    C.about work    D.very sad

3.Why do some people often dream about their work?

A.Because they are tired in the daytime.

B.Because they not interested in their work.

C.Because they may be thinking about their work all day.

D.Because they have too much work to do.

4. The main idea of the story is that_____

A.what dream is          B.people like to sleep

C.dreams are like films     D.we always remember dreams

5. Which sentence is RIGHT?

A. It is good to sleep longer.

B. We will feel tired after a long dream.

C. The mind isn’t work when we dream.

D. All people can find an answer of the work in the dream.

 

Three kids have been learning chemistry for only a few months. But they have already begun to challenge (挑战) a world famous scientist!
Li Weichi, Huang Runling, and Xiao Yan are from Zhongshan Huaqiao Middle School in Guangdong. They have just found a red cabbage that could be a new kind of acid-base indicator (酸碱指示剂). They want it to take the place of litmus (石蕊) paper.
"We've learnt to think of and ask questions about life by ourselves," said Li, "We work well with each other."
British scientist Robert Boyle discovered the use of litmus paper over 300 years ago. Now it is used widely in experiments all over the world.
But when the kids did some experiments in class last winter, they saw that the litmus paper didn’t turn very blue with base matter. It's hard to get a clear result.
Will there be a better indicator than litmus paper? The three kids decided to try and find out!
How? They went to collect over 40 plants in parks, gardens and markets. Then they ground (研磨) leaves, flowers and stems (茎) to get the pigments (色素) from them.
The kids mixed pigments with acid and base. They spent months watching carefully to see which paper showed the best color change. They decided it was the litmus paper!
"It's our first scientific journey, Huang said, "But it makes me want to try harder."
【小题1】Whom did the three kids want to challenge?

A．Their chemistry teacher.

B．Their headmaster.

C．Robert Boyle

D．Thomas Edison

【小题2】From the text, a red cabbage is a kind of ____.

A．plant

B．animal

C．paper

D．liquid

【小题3】What is widely used as the acid-base indicator now?

A．red cabbage	B．litmus paper
C．any plant	D．any flower

【小题4】The story mainly tells us ____.

A．how to make litmus paper

B．about the three kids' spirit

C．scientists were wrong

D．the kids are heroes

Height is just one of the thousands of features (特征) that your genes (基因) decide. In fact, because you have two parents, your genes provide you a height that usually lands somewhere between the height of each parent. If both your parents are tall, then maybe you will be tall, too, but if you have questions about how tall you’re going to be, ask your doctor if he or she can help you find it out.

But genes don’t decide everything. For example, eating an unhealthy diet can keep you from growing to your full potential (潜力). Getting enough sleep and enough exercise will help you grow to the right height.

No doubt you’re wondering how fast you should grow. There’s no perfect or right answer. Kids grow about 2 inches (5 centimetres) a year between age 3 and the time when they start puberty (when your body starts changing and becoming more grown up).

Your doctor will know how your growth has been going over the years. Two centimetres here and 2 inches there are not nearly as important as the height you’re at now, how you’ve been growing up to this point, and what other changes your body may be going through.

Don’t be scared if you seem to have grown a lot in a very short time. Everyone has a very quick growth during puberty. The age for starting puberty is about 10 for girls and about 11 for boys. But it can be earlier or later – between 7 and 13 for girls, 9 and 15 for boys.

You’ll usually begin to notice that you’re growing faster about a year after your body starts to show the first changes of puberty.

1.The Chinese for the underlined word in the third paragraph “puberty” is           .

A．童年时期

B．婴幼儿时期

C．习惯养成期

D．青春期

2.If you want to know how fast and how tall you should grow,          .

A．you should have enough exercise

B．you can ask doctors for help

C．you should protect the environment

D．you can record your growth during puberty

3.This passage is mainly about            .

A．how the genes work in your body

B．when is the time you grow fast

C．why you look like your parents

D．how you grow to a certain height

4.After reading this passage, we can explain ___________.   

A．how good it is to be a doctor

B．how much sleep we need

C．why genes can’t decide everything

D．what an unhealthy diet is

5.Which is NOT mentioned (提及) in the passage?

A．Your height most probably depends on (取决于) how tall your parents are.

B．Girls’ age for starting puberty is usually earlier than that for boys’.

C．The time showing the first changes of puberty is never noticed.

D．You may be scared sometimes when you grow too fast.

 

文】Many places in the world need more fresh water. Every country is trying to find ways to turn salt water into fresh. Why aren't there many factories like the Symi factory?
In some places the sun is not hot enough. Or it does not shine every day.
In such places other ways of heating sea water can be used. These ways cost more money, but they work faster than the sun. By boiling sea water with high heat a lot of fresh water can be made quickly.
But heating is not the only way to get fresh water from salt water. Other ways are tried.
One way is freezing. The fresh part of salt water freezes first. To get fresh water, the bits of ice are taken out.
Which way is the best? The one that gives the most water for the least money. It may be a different way for each place.
Symi's way seems very good for small, hot places. It does not make much water at a time. But the factory is easy to build and costs little.
That is why people in many dry places talk about Symi. 
A. is needed in many countries             B. is needed in every country
C. can be used in many ways              D. is very important for factories
【小题1】The Symi factory __________.

A．turns salt water into fresh	B．can be built everywhere
C．can make much fresh water at a time	D．doesn’t need sunshine every day

【小题2】Which is the best way for small and hot places to get fresh water?

A．Boiling the sea water.	B．Heating the sea water.
C．The Symi’s way.	D．Freezing the sea water.

【小题3】What fact doesn’t the passage mention (提到)?

A．New ways of getting fresh water.

B．A lot of fresh water can be made quickly by heating.

C．The best way is to get the freshest water with the least money.

D．The Symi’s way doesn’t work in dry places.

【小题4】The Symi’s way is not suitable for _________ places according to the passage.

A．small

B．hot

C．cool

D．dry