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?

The spider (蜘蛛) is very little and clever. Its body is made up of two parts. It has four pairs of legs and eight little eyes.

The spider loves work. It begins to work as soon as it begins to live. Every spider is a weaver. Even the youngest spider knows how to weave (编织) its web (网) just as well as the oldest.

The silk of which it makes its web comes from its body. It is like hairs. Many of these hairs come out at the same time, but they are all formed into one rope of silk. It is so thin that a hundred of them together are only as thick as a human hair.

First the spider fasten (固定) one end of the silk thread (丝线) to a leaf or to a piece of wood, then it turns and fastens it to the other end.

When the spider fastens both ends, it can run down the silk and fix some more threads. These are the cross ropes of the web. Then it weaves other lines round them, and makes about twenty rings.

Then spider works hard and fast, and it finishes its work in less than an hour. The web is then so strong that the wind cannot blow it away and the rain cannot break it. The purpose (目的) of the spider’s web is to catch insects (昆虫), which are its food.

Insects cannot walk or fly out of the web, because the spider covers it all with something like glue (胶水), which sticks to (粘) anything that touches the web and holds it fast (牢固).

Not all the spiders are the same sort of work to do.

Some spiders are masons(泥瓦匠). They build houses the size of a big thimble (顶针). They make doors in them, which they shut after them when they go in. They can even fasten the door of the house from the inside, so that no robber can get in.

The garden spider lets thread float in the air till they stick to plants or to the branches of trees. It then uses these threads as the roads or bridges to cross from one place to another. 

1. What is the spider’s silk like?

A. It’s very thin. One hundred of them are as thin as a human hair.

B. It’s very strong. It is made of human’s hair.

C. It’s really like human hair and it’s as thin as human’s hair.

D. It’s no color and it is a strong line just like human’s hair.

2. While the spider makes its web,         .

A. first it makes a leaf or a piece of wood

B. first it fixes one end of the silk thread firmly to a leaf or a piece of wood

C. first it fixes one end of the silk thread to its own head

D. first it fixes human’s hair to a leaf or a piece of wood. Then makes a web along the air

3. The spider makes about          rings.

A. thirty        B. a hundred        C. fifty         D. twenty

4. The spider finishes its work         .

A. more than a day                  B. in less than an hour

C. in a week                        D. in half an hour

5. Which of the following is true?

A. All the spiders are masons.

B. The garden spider lets thread float in the air to catch insects.

C. The silk of which makes its web comes from human’s hair.

D. The spider is both little and clever.

Four years ago my sweet mom went to be with her Lord. She did it her way.

 I got the call at work, and I headed home quickly. Mom and Dad lived on a small farm that they had owned since I was seven. I hated going there every weekend. There was nothing for a young girl to do but watch the one station on the old TV set, if the weather allowed reception（接收）.

 My mom, on the other hand, loved the peace and quiet of the land and loved to work in the garden among her flowers and vegetables. The place was simple, with no indoor plumbing or heat. We had a big wood stove in the kitchen that did its best to heat the little farmhouse, but it always seemed cold and too quiet to me.

 In the evenings, my mom and I would sit for hours singing in the little kitchen. I sang the melody and Mom harmonized. Her favorite song was "Moon River" and we sang it over and over. Mom told me stories about how when I was a little girl, I could sing before I could talk. She loved to tell how my playpen（婴儿圈栏）sat in the kitchen next to the radio and there was one song I particularly loved called "Ivory Tower".

As time passed, I had my own children and went to visit the farm every week or two. The kids loved the farm and the tractor rides with my dad. Me, well, I still hated the silence of the farm. While my mom loved to sit at her kitchen table and look out at her garden and flowers and retell all the old stories, I missed the hustle and bustle（喧闹）of my life at home. But I sat there listening quietly as she reminisced.

Now, I sat back in the silence and the silence was deafening so I finally leaned over to turn on an old radio. Music always comforted me.

My heart skipped a beat. "Moon River" was playing on the radio. I sat there stunned, with a tear running down my cheek, as I listened to every familiar note.

Then the radio announcer of this oldie station came on. "Here's one we haven't heard in a while," and an unfamiliar song began. I began to cry harder as I heard the words sung over the airwaves. “Come down, come down from your Ivory Tower...”.

1.The writer didn’t like staying in the farm for the following reasons EXCEPT that

    ________.

A. it was too cold and quiet

B. she could only sing one song on the small farm

C. there was nothing more that could make her excited

D. The place was simple, with no indoor plumbing or heat

2.From the first paragraph, we know that the writer’s mother ________.

    A. passed away four years ago

 B. left the small farm with Lord

C. left for Lord to live her own way

    D. preferred to be with Lord

3.The underlined word reminisced in the fifth paragraph probably means ________.

A. recalled       B. comforted       C. shouted        D. sighed

4.Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage _______.

A. The writer was able to sing before she could speak.

B. The writer preferred to live a busy life in the city.

C. The writer was still quite familiar with the song "Ivory Tower".

D. The writer treasured all her childhood memories in the small farmhouse.

5.Which of the following would be the best title for this passage? _______

A. Cherish life                      B. My happy childhood

C. Our small farmhouse               D. Mom’s music

If you’re into sports, you’ve seen it happen—tennis players jump over the net to shake hands after a hard match; football players exchange jerseys（运动衣）after ninety minutes of knocking each other around; even boxers touch gloves at the beginning of each round. Players in every event, from spelling bees to golf（高尔夫球），act in this way. It’s all part of sportsmanship（体育精神），a great tradition in sports and competition. It means playing and being calm all through the match.
Everyone feels great when they win. In the last few years, you might see some players celebrate a goal（进球）with a long victory dance or talk big about their ability. However, it’s always hard for people to say in public that they made a bad play. Good sportsmanship is what they really need. It’s the golden rule of sports.
Good sportsmanship means that you play by the rules, talk politely to everyone during games and stay cool even when you lose the game. At the school sports meeting, for example, it’s more important for you to know how to work as part of a team and cheer your teammates on. That may help you enjoy more success at your future work. In competition—as in life—you may not always win, but believe me, sportsmanship will help you get through, and there is always the next match.
【小题1】What match do you know will last ninety minutes?
A. Tennis.                        b. Football.     
C. Golf.                           D. Spelling.
【小题2】The underlined word “bees” in the passage means            .
A. fly.                            b. competition.     
C. guess.                           D. research.
【小题3】Why do you think good sportsmanship is really important?
A. It’s all part of sports.
b. It’s all part of celebration.
C. It’s the golden rule of sports.
D. It’s how to stay cool.
【小题4】Winning the game will make it possible for players to          .
A. celebrate a goal.                  b. exchange jerseys.     
C. shake hands.                      D. feel great .
【小题5】The passage mainly tells us that sportsmanship gets you through no matter whether          .
A. you win or lose.                  b. you play or learn.     
C. you are happy or not.               D. you feel hard or not.