Humans have been keeping animals as pets for tens of thousands of years, but Dr Jean-Loup Rault, an animal scientist at the University of Melbourne in Australia, believes new companions are coming: robot pets.

“Technology is moving very fast,” Rault told ABC News, “The Tamagotchi in the early 1990s was really the first robotic pet, and now Sony and other big companies have improved them a lot.”

This may not sit well with pet lovers. After all, who would choose a plastic toy over a lovely puppy? But Rault argues that the robotic kind has a lot going for it: “You don’t have to feed it, you don’t have to walk it, it won’t make a mess in your house, and you can go on a holiday without feeling guilty.” The technology also benefits those who are allergic to pets, short on space, or fearful of real animals.

It’s not clear whether robot pets can replace real ones. But studies do suggest that we can bond with these smart machines. People give their cars names and kids give their toy animals life stories. It’s the same with robots. When Sony stopped its repair service for its robot dog Aibo in March 2014, owners in Japan held funerals.

As an animal welfare researcher, Rault is concerned about how robotic pets could affect our attitudes towards live animals. “If we become used to a robotic companion that doesn’t need food, water or exercises, perhaps it will change how humans care about other living beings,” he said.

So are dogs and cats a thing of the past, as Rault predicts? For those who grew up with living and breathing pets, the mechanical kind might not do. But for our next generation who are in constant touch with smart technology, a future in which lovely pets needn’t have a heartbeat might not be a far-fetched dream.

1.What does the underlined phrase “sit well with” means?

A. be refused by B. be beneficial to

C. make a difference to D. receive support from

2.What are the advantages of robot pets?

a. They are plastic and feel smooth.

b. Owners needn’t worry about them when going out.

c. They can help cure allergies(过敏).

d. They save space and costs.

A. ab B. bc C. bd D.cd

3.We can learn from the passage that___________.

A. Sony is the first company to produce robot pets Aibo.

B. People can develop strong bond(联系、关系) with their robot pets.

C. Rault thinks robot pets still have a long way to go.

D. Robot toys may help people care more about living beings.

4.The passage mainly tells us___________.

A. the advantages of robot toys

B. the popularity of robot pets

C. living pets are dying out

D. robot pets are coming

请认真阅读下列短文,从短文后各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中,选出最佳选项,并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

Oliver Twist was born in a workhouse, and when he arrived in this hard world, it was very doubtful whether he would live beyond the first three minutes. He lay on a hard little bed and struggled to start breathing.

Oliver fought his first battle without much assistance from the two people present at his birth. One was an old woman, who was nearly always drunk, and the other was a busy local doctor, who was not paid enough to be very interested in Oliver’s survival. _______________

However, Oliver managed to draw his first breath, and then announced his arrival to the rest of the workhouse by crying loudly. His mother raised her pale young face from the pillow and whispered, “Let me see the child, and die.”

The doctor turned away from the fire, where he had been warming his hands. “You must not talk about dying yet,” he said to her kindly. He gave her the child to hold. Lovingly, she kissed the baby on its forehead with her cold white lips, then stared wildly around the room, fell back—and died. “Poor dear!” said the nurse, hurriedly putting a green glass bottle back in the pocket of her long skirt.

The doctor began to put on his coat. “The baby is weak and will probably have difficulties,” he said. “If so, give it a little milk to keep it quiet.” Then he looked at the dead woman. “The mother was a good-looking girl. Where did she come from?”

“She was brought here last night,” replied the old woman. “She was found lying in the street. She’d walked some distance, judging by her shoes, which were worn to pieces. Where she came from, where she was going to, or what her name was, nobody knows.”

The doctor lifted the girl’s left hand. “The old story,” he said sadly, shaking his head. “No wedding ring, I see. Ah! Good night.”

And so Oliver was left with only the drunken nurse. Without clothes, under his first blanket, he could have been the child of a king or a beggar. But when the woman dressed him later in rough cotton clothes, yellow with age, he looked exactly what he was—an orphan in a workhouse, ready for a life of misery, hunger, and neglect.

Oliver cried loudly. If he could have known that he was a workhouse orphan, perhaps he would have cried even more loudly.

There was no one to look after the baby in the workhouse, so Oliver was sent to a special “baby farm” nearby. There, he and thirty other children rolled around the floor all day, without the inconvenience of too much food or too much clothing. Mrs Mann, the old woman who “looked after” them, was very experienced. She knew what was good for children, and a full stomach was very dangerous to their health. She also knew what was good for herself, so she kept for her own use the money that she was given for the children’s food. The board responsible for the orphans sometimes checked on the health of the children, but they always sent the beadle, a kind of local policeman, to announce their visit the day before. So whenever the board arrived, of course, the children were always neat and clean.

This was the way Oliver was brought up. Consequently, at the age of nine he was a pale, thin child and short for his age. But despite frequent beatings by Mrs Mann, his spirit was strong, which was probably the reason why he managed to reach the age of nine at all.

On Oliver’s ninth birthday, Mr Bumble, the beadle, came to the house to see Mrs Mann. Through the front window Mrs Mann saw him at the gate, and turned quickly to the girl who worked with her.

“Quick! Take Oliver and those others upstairs to be washed!” she said. Then she ran out to unlock the gate which was always kept locked.

1.According to the passage, a workhouse was where ________.

A. many women died unexpectedly

B. workers helped each other

C. the poor and homeless lived

D. people were only interested in money

2.Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A. Oliver was born into the world on a cold day.

B. Many people, especially women, drank heavily at that time.

C. The children in the baby farm were taken good care of.

D. Doctors were usually paid too little for the work they did.

3.Which sentence is most suitable for the blank in Paragraph 2?

A. Therefore, he felt very lonely in the world.

B. Frightened at the sight of the two, he started to cry.

C. After all, death was a common event in the workhouse.

D. In fact, the world was privileged to have him in it.

4.It can be inferred that the gate of the baby farm was always kept locked in order to ________.

A. protect the children inside from dangers outside

B. prevent official visitors walking in unexpectedly

C. keep the children inside working all the time

D. ensure the children were always neat and clean

5.According to the passage, Mrs. Mann ________.

A. was mad keen on looking after children

B. provided children with little food and few comforts

C. beat children frequently to make them mentally strong

D. cared little about Mr Bumble’s abrupt appearance

6.What is the passage mainly about?

A. Oliver’s early life. B. Oliver’s personality.

C. Mother’s death. D. People’s selfishness.

阅读下列短文,从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中,选出最佳选项。

My students often tell me they don’t have “enough time” to do all their schoolwork. My reply is often brief –You have as much time as the president. I usually carry on a bit about there being 24 hours per day for everyone, and suggest that “not enough time” is not an acceptable explanation of not getting something done.

Once in graduate school, I tried to justify myself to one of my professors by saying that I was working. His answer to me was, “That’s irrelevant. What’s important is the quality of your work.” Since then I have had time to reflect on the “hard worker” dodge(伎俩), and I have come to some conclusions – all relevant to the issue of how much time we have.

If you look at the matter analytically, you can identify two parts of the problem. There is, of course, the matter of “time”, which we can think of as fixed. Then there is the issue of “work” during that time, which can vary in intensity. But, as my professor suggested, it’s not diligence but the quality of the product that is important.

That led me to a new idea, the quality of work. That concept is perhaps best explained by a sign I once saw on the wall in someone’s office – Don’t work harder but work smarter! There’s a lot of sense in that idea.

If you can’t get more time, and few of us can, the only solution is to improve the quality of work. That means thinking of ways of getting more out of the same time than we might otherwise get. That should lead us to an analysis of our work habits. Since “work” for students usually means “homework”, the expression “work habits” should be read as “learning habits”.

Then, as a smart student, you will seek to improve those skills that you use in study, chiefly reading and writing. If you learn to read better and write better, there are big benefits that pay off across the board in all your studies.

1.From the passage, we know that the author is _____.

A. a poet B. an educator

C. an editor D. a director

2.We can infer from the first two paragraph that we students _____.

A. have enough time

B. can meet the president

C. get something done well

D. should accept the explanation

3.The underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 means _____.

A. That is impossible B. That is not important

C. That is unbearable D. That is not acceptable

4.The main purpose of writing the passage is to give _____.

A. information B. encouragement

C. criticism D. advice

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