Robots,(become)increasinglyprevalentinfactoriesandindustrialplantsthroughoutthedevelopedworld,areprogrammedandengineeredtoperformindustrialtaskswithouthumanintervention.

共用题干
The Robot Man
According to Hans Moravec,universal robots will take over all the physical activities that we engage in,leaving us with little to do.Moravec sees four generations on the road to true universal robots. The first generation will be here by 2010 and will consist of free-ranging robots that can navigate by building an internal mental map of their surroundings.In new situations they'll be able to adapt,unlike today's mobile industrial robots.These robots will have the computing power to cope with simple speech and text recognition,and will be used for tasks such as domestic clean-ing.
The second generation will arrive around 2020 and will be distinguished by the ability to learn .Second generation robots are programmed with sets of primitive tasks and with feedback that provide"pleasure"and"pain"stimuli .For example,a collision provokes a negative response,a completed task would be positive.
Move forward another ten years to 2030 and you get to generation three.This robot can build internal simulations of the world around it. Before beginning a task,it can imagine what will happen in order to predict problems.If it has a free moment,it can replay past experiences and try variations in order to find a better way of如ing things next time .It could even observe a person or another robot performing a task and learn by imitation.For the first time,we have here a robot that can think.
By the time we get to generation four in 2040,Moravec predicts that robots will be able to: match human reasoning and behaviour;generalise abstract ideas from specific experience;and, conversely,compile detailed plans of action from general commands such as"earn a living"or "make more robots".
The Moravec manifesto（宣告）runs something like this. As robots start to become useful in generation one,they'll begin to take on many tasks in industry.Driven by the availability of this cheap and tireless labour force,the economy will boom and the demand for robots will grow so rapidly that they will soon become lowcost commodity items.So much so that they'll move into the home,where the domestic robot will relieve us of many chores.
With increasing automation in generations two and three,the length of the average working day will plummet,eventually to near zero. Most people will be unemployed as robots take over not just primary industry,but the service economy too.Moravec sees the fourth generation as an opportunity to surpass our human limitations.
These future machines will be our"mind children".Like biological children of previous generations,they will embody humanity's best hope for a long-term future.

What does Moravec think of these future robots?
A: They will look like previous biological children.
B: They will be humans' mind-children.
C: They will create a dangerous world.
D: They will rule the world.

共用题干
Wide World of Robots
Engineers who build and program robots have fascinating jobs. These researchers tinker （修补）with machines in the lab and write computer software to control these devices.
“They're the best toys out there,” says Howie Choset at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Choset is a roboticist,a person who designs,builds or programs robots.
When Choset was a kid,he was interested in anything that moved一cars,trains,animals. He put motors on Tinkertoy cars to make them move. Later,in high school,he built mobile robots similar to small cars.
Hoping to continue working on robots,he studied computer science in college. But when he got to graduate school at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena,Choset's lab- mates were working on something even cooler than remotely controlled cars:robotic snakes. Some robots can move only forward,backward,left and right. But snakes can twist（扭曲）in many directions and travel over a lot of different types of terrain（地形）.“Snakes are far more interesting than the cars,”Choset concluded.
After he started working at Carnegie Mellon,Choset and his colleagues there began developing their own snake robots.Choset's team programmed robots to perform the same movements as real snakes,such as sliding and inching forward. The robots also moved in ways that snakes usually don't, such as rolling. Choset's snake robots could crawl（爬行） through the grass,swim in a pond and even climb a flagpole.
But Choset wondered if his snakes might be useful for medicine as well. For some heart surgeries,the doctor has to open a patient's chest,cutting through the breastbone. Recovering from these surgeries can be very painful. What if the doctor could perform the operation by instead making a small hole in the body and sending in a thin robotic snake?
Choset teamed up with Marco Zenati,a heart surgeon now at Harvard Medical School,to investigate the idea. Zenati practiced using the robot on a plastic model of the chest and then tested the robot in pigs.
A company called Medrobotics in Boston is now adapting the technology to surgeries on people.
Even after 15 years of working with his team's creations,”I still don't get bored of watching the motion of my robots,”Choset says.

Snake robots could move in only four directions.
A: Right
B: Wrong
C: Not mentioned

共用题干
第一篇

Almost Human?

Scientists are racing to build the world's first thinking robot.This is not science fiction:
some say they will have made it by the year 2020.Carol Packer reports.
Machines that walk,speak and feel are no longer science fiction.Kismet is the name
of an android（机器人）which scientists have built at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology(MIT).Kismet is different from the traditional robot because it can show
human emotions.Its eyes,ears and lips move to show when it feels happy,sad or bored.
Kismet is one of the first of a new generation of androids一robots that look like human
beings一which can imitate human feelings.Cog,another android invented by the MIT,
imitates the action of a mother. However,scientists admit that so far Cog has the mental
ability of a two-year-old.
The optimists（乐观主义者）say that by the year 2020 we will have created humanoids
（机器人）with brains similar to those of an adult human being. These robots will be
designed to look like people to make them more attractive and easier to sell to the public.
What kind of jobs will they do?In the future,robots like Robonaut,a humanoid invented by
NASA,Will be doing dangerous jobs,like repairing space stations.They will also be doing
more and more of the household work for us.In Japan,scientists are designing androids
that will entertain us by dancing and playing the piano.
Some people worry about what the future holds:will robots become monsters（怪物）?
Will people themselves become increasingly like robots?Experts predict that more and more
people will be wearing micro-computers,connected to the Internet,in the future.People
will have micro-chips in various parts of their body,which will connect them to a wide variety
of gadgets（小装置）.Perhaps we should not exaggerate（夸大）the importance of
technology,but one wonders whether,in years to come,we will still be falling in love,
and whether we will still feel pain.Who knows?

In about 1 5 years' time from now,robots
A:will become space designers.
B:will look like monsters.
C:will behave like animals.
D:will think like humans.

共用题干
第一篇

Almost Human?

Scientists are racing to build the world's first thinking robot.This is not science fiction:
some say they will have made it by the year 2020.Carol Packer reports.
Machines that walk,speak and feel are no longer science fiction.Kismet is the name
of an android（机器人）which scientists have built at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology(MIT).Kismet is different from the traditional robot because it can show
human emotions.Its eyes,ears and lips move to show when it feels happy,sad or bored.
Kismet is one of the first of a new generation of androids一robots that look like human
beings一which can imitate human feelings.Cog,another android invented by the MIT,
imitates the action of a mother. However,scientists admit that so far Cog has the mental
ability of a two-year-old.
The optimists（乐观主义者）say that by the year 2020 we will have created humanoids
（机器人）with brains similar to those of an adult human being. These robots will be
designed to look like people to make them more attractive and easier to sell to the public.
What kind of jobs will they do?In the future,robots like Robonaut,a humanoid invented by
NASA,Will be doing dangerous jobs,like repairing space stations.They will also be doing
more and more of the household work for us.In Japan,scientists are designing androids
that will entertain us by dancing and playing the piano.
Some people worry about what the future holds:will robots become monsters（怪物）?
Will people themselves become increasingly like robots?Experts predict that more and more
people will be wearing micro-computers,connected to the Internet,in the future.People
will have micro-chips in various parts of their body,which will connect them to a wide variety
of gadgets（小装置）.Perhaps we should not exaggerate（夸大）the importance of
technology,but one wonders whether,in years to come,we will still be falling in love,
and whether we will still feel pain.Who knows?

In the future robots will also
A:explore space.
B:entertain people.
C:move much faster.
D:do all of the housework.

共用题干
第一篇

Almost Human?

Scientists are racing to build the world's first thinking robot.This is not science fiction:
some say they will have made it by the year 2020.Carol Packer reports.
Machines that walk,speak and feel are no longer science fiction.Kismet is the name
of an android（机器人）which scientists have built at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology(MIT).Kismet is different from the traditional robot because it can show
human emotions.Its eyes,ears and lips move to show when it feels happy,sad or bored.
Kismet is one of the first of a new generation of androids一robots that look like human
beings一which can imitate human feelings.Cog,another android invented by the MIT,
imitates the action of a mother. However,scientists admit that so far Cog has the mental
ability of a two-year-old.
The optimists（乐观主义者）say that by the year 2020 we will have created humanoids
（机器人）with brains similar to those of an adult human being. These robots will be
designed to look like people to make them more attractive and easier to sell to the public.
What kind of jobs will they do?In the future,robots like Robonaut,a humanoid invented by
NASA,Will be doing dangerous jobs,like repairing space stations.They will also be doing
more and more of the household work for us.In Japan,scientists are designing androids
that will entertain us by dancing and playing the piano.
Some people worry about what the future holds:will robots become monsters（怪物）?
Will people themselves become increasingly like robots?Experts predict that more and more
people will be wearing micro-computers,connected to the Internet,in the future.People
will have micro-chips in various parts of their body,which will connect them to a wide variety
of gadgets（小装置）.Perhaps we should not exaggerate（夸大）the importance of
technology,but one wonders whether,in years to come,we will still be falling in love,
and whether we will still feel pain.Who knows?

What makes Cog special?
A:It looks like a mother.
B:It behaves like a child.
C:It can imitate the behavior of a mother.
D:It has a huge brain.

Robots came into the world as a literary device whereby the writers and film-makers of the early 20th centu0'could explore their hopes and fears about technology,as the era of the automobile,telephone and aeroplane picked up its reckless jazz-age speed.From Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Isaac Asimov's l,Robot to WALL-E and the Terrnirator films,and in countless repetitions in between,they have succeeded admirably in their task.41.Since moving from the page and screen lo real life,robots have been a mild disappointment.They do some things that humans cannot do themselves,like exploring Mars,and a host of things people do not much want to do,like dealing with unexploded bombs or vacuuming floors.And they are very useful in bits of manufacturing.But reliable robots-especially ones required to work beyond the safety cages of a factory flom-have proved hard to make,and robots are still pretty stupid.So although they fascinate people,they have not yet made much of a mark on the world 42.That seems about to change.The exponential growth in the power of silicon chips,digital sensors and high-bandwidth communications improves robots just as it improves all sorts of other products.And,as our special report this week explains,three other factors are at play.43.One is that robotics R&D is getting easier.New shared standards make good ideas easily porta-ble from one robot platform to another.And accumulated know-how means that building such plat-forms is Setting a lot cheaper.A robot like Rethink Robotics's Baxter,with two arms and a remarkably easy,inLuiLive proyammrng interface,would have been barely conceivable ten years ago.Now you can buy one for$25,000.44.A second factor is investment.The biggest robot news of 2013 was that Goog1e bought eight promising robot startups.Rich and well led and with access to world-beating expertise in cloud computing and artificial intelligence,both highly relevant,Google's robot programme promises the possibility of something spectacular-though no one outside the company knows what that might be.Amazon,too,is betting on robots,both to automate its warehouses and,more speculaLively,to make deliveries by drone.In South Korea and elsewhere companies are movinS robot technology to new areas of manufacturing and other services.Venture capitalists see a much better chance of a profitable exit from a robotics srartup than they used to.45.The third factor is imagination.In the past few years,clever companies have seen ways to make robots work.Now more people will grasp how a robotic attribute such as high precision or fast reac-tions or independent locomotion can be integrated into a profitable business;eventually some of them will build mass markets.Aerial robots-drones-may be in the vanguarcl here.They willlet farmers tend their crops in new ways,give citizens,journalists and broadcasters new perspectives on events big and small,monitor traffic and fires,look for infrastniccure in need of repair and much more besides.41选？

A.Robots Come from Lhe Movies.
B.Development of Robots Is Fast.
C.Google Enters the Robot Industry.
D.Robots Today Are Not Impressive EnouS;h.

共用题干
The Robot Man
According to Hans Moravec,universal robots will take over all the physical activities that we engage in,leaving us with little to do.Moravec sees four generations on the road to true universal robots. The first generation will be here by 2010 and will consist of free-ranging robots that can navigate by building an internal mental map of their surroundings.In new situations they'll be able to adapt,unlike today's mobile industrial robots.These robots will have the computing power to cope with simple speech and text recognition,and will be used for tasks such as domestic clean-ing.
The second generation will arrive around 2020 and will be distinguished by the ability to learn .Second generation robots are programmed with sets of primitive tasks and with feedback that provide"pleasure"and"pain"stimuli .For example,a collision provokes a negative response,a completed task would be positive.
Move forward another ten years to 2030 and you get to generation three.This robot can build internal simulations of the world around it. Before beginning a task,it can imagine what will happen in order to predict problems.If it has a free moment,it can replay past experiences and try variations in order to find a better way of如ing things next time .It could even observe a person or another robot performing a task and learn by imitation.For the first time,we have here a robot that can think.
By the time we get to generation four in 2040,Moravec predicts that robots will be able to: match human reasoning and behaviour;generalise abstract ideas from specific experience;and, conversely,compile detailed plans of action from general commands such as"earn a living"or "make more robots".
The Moravec manifesto（宣告）runs something like this. As robots start to become useful in generation one,they'll begin to take on many tasks in industry.Driven by the availability of this cheap and tireless labour force,the economy will boom and the demand for robots will grow so rapidly that they will soon become lowcost commodity items.So much so that they'll move into the home,where the domestic robot will relieve us of many chores.
With increasing automation in generations two and three,the length of the average working day will plummet,eventually to near zero. Most people will be unemployed as robots take over not just primary industry,but the service economy too.Moravec sees the fourth generation as an opportunity to surpass our human limitations.
These future machines will be our"mind children".Like biological children of previous generations,they will embody humanity's best hope for a long-term future.

Which of the following statements is true of the future robots?
A: They will relieve us of many chores.
B: They will take over the information industry.
C: They will never surpass us.
D: They will become high-cost commodity items.

共用题干
第一篇

Almost Human?

Scientists are racing to build the world's first thinking robot.This is not science fiction:
some say they will have made it by the year 2020.Carol Packer reports.
Machines that walk,speak and feel are no longer science fiction.Kismet is the name
of an android（机器人）which scientists have built at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology(MIT).Kismet is different from the traditional robot because it can show
human emotions.Its eyes,ears and lips move to show when it feels happy,sad or bored.
Kismet is one of the first of a new generation of androids一robots that look like human
beings一which can imitate human feelings.Cog,another android invented by the MIT,
imitates the action of a mother. However,scientists admit that so far Cog has the mental
ability of a two-year-old.
The optimists（乐观主义者）say that by the year 2020 we will have created humanoids
（机器人）with brains similar to those of an adult human being. These robots will be
designed to look like people to make them more attractive and easier to sell to the public.
What kind of jobs will they do?In the future,robots like Robonaut,a humanoid invented by
NASA,Will be doing dangerous jobs,like repairing space stations.They will also be doing
more and more of the household work for us.In Japan,scientists are designing androids
that will entertain us by dancing and playing the piano.
Some people worry about what the future holds:will robots become monsters（怪物）?
Will people themselves become increasingly like robots?Experts predict that more and more
people will be wearing micro-computers,connected to the Internet,in the future.People
will have micro-chips in various parts of their body,which will connect them to a wide variety
of gadgets（小装置）.Perhaps we should not exaggerate（夸大）the importance of
technology,but one wonders whether,in years to come,we will still be falling in love,
and whether we will still feel pain.Who knows?

What is the writer's attitude to robots in the future?
A:Critical.
B:Hostile.
C:Objective.
D:Enthusiastic.

共用题干
The Robot Man
According to Hans Moravec,universal robots will take over all the physical activities that we engage in,leaving us with little to do.Moravec sees four generations on the road to true universal robots. The first generation will be here by 2010 and will consist of free-ranging robots that can navigate by building an internal mental map of their surroundings.In new situations they'll be able to adapt,unlike today's mobile industrial robots.These robots will have the computing power to cope with simple speech and text recognition,and will be used for tasks such as domestic clean-ing.
The second generation will arrive around 2020 and will be distinguished by the ability to learn .Second generation robots are programmed with sets of primitive tasks and with feedback that provide"pleasure"and"pain"stimuli .For example,a collision provokes a negative response,a completed task would be positive.
Move forward another ten years to 2030 and you get to generation three.This robot can build internal simulations of the world around it. Before beginning a task,it can imagine what will happen in order to predict problems.If it has a free moment,it can replay past experiences and try variations in order to find a better way of如ing things next time .It could even observe a person or another robot performing a task and learn by imitation.For the first time,we have here a robot that can think.
By the time we get to generation four in 2040,Moravec predicts that robots will be able to: match human reasoning and behaviour;generalise abstract ideas from specific experience;and, conversely,compile detailed plans of action from general commands such as"earn a living"or "make more robots".
The Moravec manifesto（宣告）runs something like this. As robots start to become useful in generation one,they'll begin to take on many tasks in industry.Driven by the availability of this cheap and tireless labour force,the economy will boom and the demand for robots will grow so rapidly that they will soon become lowcost commodity items.So much so that they'll move into the home,where the domestic robot will relieve us of many chores.
With increasing automation in generations two and three,the length of the average working day will plummet,eventually to near zero. Most people will be unemployed as robots take over not just primary industry,but the service economy too.Moravec sees the fourth generation as an opportunity to surpass our human limitations.
These future machines will be our"mind children".Like biological children of previous generations,they will embody humanity's best hope for a long-term future.

The author's main purpose is to______.
A: describe the life of Hans Moravec
B: support the view that robots will play a major role in our life
C: make fun of the views of Hans Moravec
D: get people prepared for the threat of future robots

共用题干
The Robot Man
According to Hans Moravec,universal robots will take over all the physical activities that we engage in,leaving us with little to do.Moravec sees four generations on the road to true universal robots. The first generation will be here by 2010 and will consist of free-ranging robots that can navigate by building an internal mental map of their surroundings.In new situations they'll be able to adapt,unlike today's mobile industrial robots.These robots will have the computing power to cope with simple speech and text recognition,and will be used for tasks such as domestic clean-ing.
The second generation will arrive around 2020 and will be distinguished by the ability to learn .Second generation robots are programmed with sets of primitive tasks and with feedback that provide"pleasure"and"pain"stimuli .For example,a collision provokes a negative response,a completed task would be positive.
Move forward another ten years to 2030 and you get to generation three.This robot can build internal simulations of the world around it. Before beginning a task,it can imagine what will happen in order to predict problems.If it has a free moment,it can replay past experiences and try variations in order to find a better way of如ing things next time .It could even observe a person or another robot performing a task and learn by imitation.For the first time,we have here a robot that can think.
By the time we get to generation four in 2040,Moravec predicts that robots will be able to: match human reasoning and behaviour;generalise abstract ideas from specific experience;and, conversely,compile detailed plans of action from general commands such as"earn a living"or "make more robots".
The Moravec manifesto（宣告）runs something like this. As robots start to become useful in generation one,they'll begin to take on many tasks in industry.Driven by the availability of this cheap and tireless labour force,the economy will boom and the demand for robots will grow so rapidly that they will soon become lowcost commodity items.So much so that they'll move into the home,where the domestic robot will relieve us of many chores.
With increasing automation in generations two and three,the length of the average working day will plummet,eventually to near zero. Most people will be unemployed as robots take over not just primary industry,but the service economy too.Moravec sees the fourth generation as an opportunity to surpass our human limitations.
These future machines will be our"mind children".Like biological children of previous generations,they will embody humanity's best hope for a long-term future.

The word"plummet" in paragraph 6 means______.
A: decrease
B:stretch
C: extend
D: grow

共用题干
Robots May Allow Surgery in Space

Small robots designed by University of Nebraska researchers may allow doctors on
Earth to help perlorm surgery on patients in space.
The tiny,wheeled robots,_________(1)are about 3 inches tall and as wide as a
lipstick case, can be slipped into small incisions（切口）and computer-controlled by
surgeons in different locations.Some robots are equipped_________(2)cameras and
lights and can send images back to surgeons and others have surgical tools attached that
can be_________(3)remotely.
"We think this is going to_________(4)open surgery,"Dr. Dmitry Oleynikov said
at a news conference.Oleynikov is a_________(5)in computer-assisted surgery at
the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.
Officials hope that NASA will teach_________(6)to use the robots soon enough so
that surgeries could one day be performed in space.
On earth,the surgeons could control the robots themselves_________(7)other
locations.For example,the robots could enable surgeons in other places to_________
(8)on injured soldiers on the front line.Researchers plan to seek federal regulatory
_________(9)early next year.Tests on animals have been successful,and tests on
humans in England will begin very soon.
The camera-carrying robots can provide_________(10)of affected areas and the
ones with surgical tools will be able to maneuver（操控）inside the body in ways surgeons'
hands can't.The views from the camera-carrying robots are_________(11)than the
naked eye,because they_________(12)back color images that are magnified（放大）.
Because several robots can be inserted through one incision,they could reduce the amount
and_________(13)of cuts needed for surgery,which would decrease recovery time.
This is particularly_________( 14) to those patients who have been debilitated（使虚弱）
by long illness.
Eventually,Oleynikov said,the tiny robots may enable surgeons to work without ever
_________(15)their hands in patients' bodies."That's the goal,"Oleynikov said."It's
getting easier and easier.We can do even more with these devices."

_________(6)
A:astronauts
B:nurses
C:teachers
D:trainers

资料：Demystifying how social and human-like robots work is vital so that we can understand and shape how they will affect our future, Dr Hatice Gunes will tell the Hay Festival next week. (1)
　　Fear mongering and myth-making about human-like and social robots is stopping us from engaging with the technology behind them and having an input into how they—and we—evolve, says Hatice Gunes, Associate Professor at University of Cambridge's Computer Laboratory. (2)
　　Dr Gunes will be speaking about her research at the Hay Festival on 1st June and says we need to move beyond sensationalist portrayals of human-like robot. Her Hay talk will centre on human robot interaction [ HRI] and how it can be used for our benefit, for instance, for helping children with autism learn how to read expressions and to stimulate the senses of elderly people in care. (3)
　　Dr Gunes will outline how HRI works. She says it has to be believable in order to be effective. That means robots’ appearance is very important. This is what has driven the development of humanoid robots with arms and aspects of a human face which can behave in a human-like way, for instance, moving their arms, legs and eyes. However, more important than appearance is their behaviour and emotional expressivity. Dr Gunes refers to the way we relate to Disney’s animated characters. “People believe in them because they can portray emotion,” she says. (4)
　　To achieve expressivity requires an understanding of how human emotions are portrayed and triggered. Scientists have been working on artificial emotional intelligence which enables new technology such as embodied agents and robots to both express and detect emotions, understanding non-verbal cues. Dr Gunes cites the work of Charles Darwin on the visual nature of emotions and how they can be mapped to various changes in facial expressions. (5)
　　Her research investigates how humanoids can be programmed not only to extract and respond to facial clues to emotions, but also to understand the context in which those emotions are expressed. That means they will be able to offer a response that is sensitive to specific contexts. (6)
　　Will robots ever be able to have emotions themselves though? Dr Gunes says there is no reason why not and questions what emotions are. The process of working with robots on artificial emotional intelligence unpicks the nature of our emotions, showing them to be a layering of different goals, experiences and stimuli. (7)
　　 Another area which scientists are looking at in their quest to improve humanoids’ believability is personality. Dr Gunes has done a lot of work on personality in telepresence robotics, robots controlled remotely by a human—a kind of 3D avatar. These can be used in many ways, for instance, by medical staff to offer remote home care. The medical person can be based anywhere and operate the robot through a virtual headset. Dr Gunes is interested in how people react to the teleoperator (the human controlling the robot remotely) who is present in robot form. Once again, both the robot’s physical appearance and behaviour are important and research shows that their personality needs to be task dependent. (8)
　　Dr Gunes says there remain some big challenges for scientists working on HRI, including how to process and combine all the different data they are gathering, how to modify their appearance and behaviour dynamically, and how to keep their power going 24/7. The major challenges, however, are to do with breaking down some of the myths and fears people have about humanoids. (9)
　　 Part of this is because they don’t understand the benefits humanoid robots can bring and why, for instance, they need to take on a human form and understand emotions. She says humanoids can be positive in terms of increasing trust and engagement among certain groups, such as the elderly; that humans tends to anthropomorphise technology in any event; and that robots can be programmed to be limited to positive emotions that promote altruism. (10)
　　“People tend to love or hate robots, but they don’t really know a lot abou

A.it is not meaningful for robots to have the appearance of human
B.people who make the appearance of robots very human-like should be blamed
C.people need to pay more attention to the development of robots’functions
D.the appearance of robots has become more and more emotional