A group of swans flew down to a beach where a crow(乌鸦) was jumping around. The crow watched them with disdain(鄙视).

“You have no flying skills at all!” he said to the swans. “All you can do is to move your wings. Can you turn over in the air? No, that’s beyond you. Let’s have a flying competition. I’ll show you what real flying is!”

One of the swans, a strong young male, took up the challenge. The crow flew up and began to show his skills. He flew in circles, performed other flying tricks, and then came down and looked proudly at the swan.

Now it was the swan’s turn. He flew up, and began flying over the sea. The crow flew after him, making all kinds of comments(评价) about his flying. They flew on and on till they couldn’t see the land and there was nothing but water on all sides. The crow was making fewer and fewer comments. He was now so tired that he found it hard to stay in the air, and had to struggle to keep himself from falling into the water.

The swan pretended(假装) not to notice, and said, “Why do you keep touching the water, brother? Is that another trick?”

“No,” said the crow. He knew he had lost the competition. “I’m in trouble because of my pride! If you don’t help me, I’ll lose my life…”

The swan took pity on him, and took him on his shoulder and flew back to the beach.

1.What’s the correct order of the following events?

a. The crow showed off its flying skills.

b. The swan felt pity for the crow and saved it.

c. The crow laughed at the swan’s flying.

d. The crow followed the swan and got into trouble.

e. The crow challenged the swans and a strong young swan accepted it.

A.e, c, d, a, b B.a, e, c, d, b C.c, e, a, d, b D.e, a, d, c, b

2.Why did the crow keep touching the water?

A.It was showing another flying skill.

B.It was struggling to keep itself from falling into the water.

C.It was thirsty and wanted to drink some water.

D.It was enjoying itself by doing so.

3.What can we infer(推断) from the passage?

A.The crow didn’t know flying.

B.Flying skills were useless.

C.The swan saved the crow because they were good friends.

D.The swan was better at long-distance flying than the crow.

Don’t be too surprised if you see a car going down the road without a driver in Beijing these days. It might be one of Baidu’s self-driving cars. Last month, Baidu tested its self-driving cars on open roads in Beijing. Self-driving cars have been in progress since 2010, when Google said it was making such cars. From then on, companies like Tesla, Uber and Baidu tried to make and test their own self-driving cars.

Now, many people really want to buy a self-driving car if they have enough money. They think it will make their life easier. However, every coin has two sides.

Normally, when there is an obstacle (障碍物) in front of the self-diving car, the car will stop. But sometimes it also makes mistakes. In one test, when researchers sent a point of light in front of a moving self-driving car, the car stopped. And in another test, when researchers did it again, the car moved to another road. If scientists don’t solve the problem, some people may use the mistake to do bad things.

So self-driving at least now is still not safe enough. When we use our computers or smartphones, they sometimes don’t work well without any reason. If this happens to a self-driving car the results might be dangerous. So scientists are making improvements to work out the problem.

1.Is the self-driving car safe enough now?

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2.When did Baidu test its self-driving cars on open road in Beijing?

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3.In the tests, why did the self-driving car make mistakes when researchers sent a point of light?

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4.Do you still want to learn how to drive if you have a self-driving car? Why or why not?

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