Whether in the home or the workplace, social robots are going to become a lot more common in the next few years. Social robots are about to bring technology to the everyday world in a more humanized way, said Cynthia Breazeal, chief scientist at the robot company Jibo.

While household robots today do the normal housework, social robots will be much more like companions(伙伴) than mere tools. For example, these robots will be able to distinguish when someone is happy or sad. This allows them to respond more appropriately to the user.

The Jibo robot, arranged to ship later this year, is designed to be a personalized assistant. You can talk to the robot, ask it questions, and make requests for it to perform different tasks. The robot doesn’t just deliver general answers to questions; it responds based on what it learns about each individual in the household. It can do things such as reminding an elderly family member to take medicine or taking family photos.

Social robots are not just finding their way into the home. They have potential applications in everything from education to health care and are already finding their way into some of these spaces.

Fellow Robots is one company bringing social robots to the market. The company’s “Oshbot” robot is built to assist customers in a store, which can help the customers find items and help guide them to the product’s location in the store. It can also speak different languages and make recommendations for different items based on what the customer is shopping for.

The more interaction the robot has with humans, the more it learns. But Oshbot, like other social robots, is not intended to replace workers, but to work alongside other employees. “We have technologies to train social robots to do things not for us, but with us,” said Breazeal.

1.How are social robots different from household robots?

A. They can control their emotions.

B. They are more like humans.

C. They do the normal housework.

D. They respond to users more slowly.

2.What can Oshbot work as?

A. A language teacher.

B. A tour guide.

C. A shop assistant.

D. A private nurse.

3.We can learn from the last paragraph that social robots will ______.

A. train employees B. be our workmates

C. improve technologies D. take the place of workers

4.What does the passage mainly present?

A. A new design idea of household robots.

B. Marketing strategies for social robots.

C. Information on household robots.

D. An introduction to social robots.

Humans have daydreamed for thousands of years, and yet, these days, spare moments are filled with using our smartphones and other devices—going through social media, listening to podcasts, responding to emails—leaving us little time to let our minds wander.

1. When you’re in a daydreaming state of mind, you can imagine or pretend your own version of events.

“My most creative moments come when my brain is allowed to rest” says Megan King, a designer. But she is addicted to her smart phone. 2. According to Nielsen, Americans spend 10.5 hours a day consuming media. And UK residents are close behind at almost 10 hours a day, according to eMarketer.

3. This may seem a small change, but its effect, on the way our minds work and on our collective creativity could be serious. 4.

Over years of studies, researchers have found that our brain has two separate attention systems — an external one and an internal one. The internal attention system, which is activated(激活)during daydreaming, is called the default network(默认网络).

The default network is particularly active when we are thinking about ourselves, thinking about the past, thinking about the future. 5.

If both systems can’t be active at the same time and we’re spending 10 hours a day in one attention system, it begs the question: what is that doing to our brains — and our ability to come up with creative ideas?

A. Daydreaming is the opposite of our dreams.

B. This extended screen time has made some of us uncomfortable sitting alone with our own thoughts.

C. Daydreaming is how we access our big-picture state of mind.

D. In fact, it could be preventing your ability to come up with fresh, creative ideas.

E. We can’t really have both attention systems active at the same time.

F. People spend too much time on screen suffer from headaches.

G. She's not alone.

With the Reading Day coming,I'd like to recommend a couple of books to you.

A License to Heal by Steven Bentley

It describes the real world of emergency medicine from the viewpoint of a practicing emergency physician, Bentley.In the world of emergency medicine,there's lots of pain,blood and sadness in our daily life,but there's also hope,excitement and a surprising amount of humor—for both the patients and the staff.The narrative(叙述)writing is effective,for Bentley appears as the doctor everyone needs in a medical emergency.

Battering Rocks over the Barn by Lawn Griffiths

An Iowa farm boy's Odyssey.The rhythm of rural life during the 1950s and 1960s comes alive through the eyes of a boy who grew up to become a newspaper journalist and farm editor.Follow his journey in this book.

Imperfect Family by Leyland A.king

This is a novel describing an ordinary family's union,strength,ambition and determination that contribute to the great possibility for one generation to climb the shabby ladder from the low class to the American middle class.

Walking the Stones of Time by Oswald Brown

This is a tale of two lovers separated by social status in primitive Scotland.It unfolds as a young man makes it his task to free a beautiful young girl from slavery.What follows is an adventurous story of disloyalty(不忠实)overcome by courage.

Honeyball by Pete Liebengood.

Rachel's father hands her a minor league baseball team.She hired an all female staff and created a highly successful marketing campaign called honeyball.The book Honeyball offers an entertaining perspective(视角)of the league baseball where a group of women pull together in a campaign to find success at the box office while their leader finally finds the love of Rachel's life.

1.What can we know about A License to Heal?

A. It tells readers stories about patients.

B. It's about a humor story of a physician.

C. It impresses readers with a heart-broken story.

D. It's convincing because of its narrative writing style.

2.Which book is about country life?

A. Honeyball.

B. Battering Rocks over the Barn.

C. Walking the Stones of Time.

D. Imperfect Family.

3.What can we learn from the passage?

A. The writer of A License to Heal is a humorous doctor.

B. Imperfect Family describes an amazing women baseball Learn.

C. There're love stories in Walking the Stones of Time and Honeyball.

D. Battering Rocks over the Barn describes the city life of a journalist.

In January, 2016, Harry Styles made a bold decision. He left the popular boy band One Direction and went solo (单飞). Now he is making his own voice heard. The 23-year-old British singer released his first solo single called Sign of the Times. His self-titled album (个人同名专辑) is coming out on May 12.

Going solo is a journey for him to find his identity (身份). Though at the time, he was uncertain about his future, he kept a word in his mind - “honesty”. “I didn’t want to write ‘stories’,” he told Rolling Stone. “I wanted to write my stories, things that happened to me. The number-one thing was I wanted to be honest. I hadn’t done that before.”

He is indeed full of stories since beginning his solo career. Last fall, he spent two months recording on a remote island in Jamaica (牙买加).Along with some musicians, he filled a two-floor house with instruments. They hung out at the bar that looked like a tree house. Many mornings began with a swim in the river down the hill. They watched many romantic comedies. Styles always held a black notebook and looked like a college student who was studying, Rolling Stone reported.

His coming album is about rock music. In fact, he grew up with it. His father Desmond was a rock music fan. When Styles was very young, he danced to The Dark Side of the Moon, a classic song by British rock band Pink Floyd. “I couldn’t really get it. But I just remember (thinking that) this is really cool.”

Harry said, “At the very beginning, all I wanted was to be the granddad with the best stories.” Surely, now he is on the right track (轨道).

1.Why did Styles go solo?

A. He wanted to travel with his friends.

B. He was certain that he would succeed.

C. He wanted to be independent from the hand.

D. He wanted to do the things that he hadn’t done before.

2.From the article, which of the followings is true?

A. Styles,next album is about his father.

B. Styles wanted to be a man with “stories”.

C. He left the band because of its dishonesty.

D. Styles couldn’t find his identity after going solo.

3.What Styles did on the island in Jamaica didn’t include .

A. making a record B. hanging out at the bar

C. swimming in the river D. studying like a college student.

4.What is the article mainly about?

A. Styles’ “stories” about his solo career. B. Styles’ favoriate sports

C. The band One Direction D. Styles’ achievements in music.

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