The holiday’s upon us．After months of study, you have some time to yourself．So, why not read a book? Well, some people will say, “Why trouble with books? We have the Internet and other media (媒体) that offer a lot more colorful programs．Books are history!”
But don’t be fooled．There’s still a lot to be said for reading-and reading as widely as possible．
(1) One clear reason is that a well-chosen ______ is a wonderful collection of ______ and expressions, so long as you have a good dictionary, of course．Believe me, it’s far easier to get new English words and expressions from a book or article than it is from the TV or the Internet．
(2) But an even more important point is that books give you something that modern media simply cannot. The webpage（网页）is always full of pictures and the text is often designed to make it as easy to read as possible．
Though “easy” may be welcome, unluckily it’s of little use for any long-time development of reading skills and the general language level．For that, there’s still no substitute(替代品)for a book．
But perhaps the best single reason is that simply choosing what you read and doing it by yourself means that it’s something you do by and for yourself．You can choose what you want to read．It’s hard work, but while you are reading, you’ll find that what once seemed like a duty is now a pleasure．Reading can bring us pleasure.
【小题1】在(1)句空白处填入适当的词：___________  ___________
【小题2】把(2) 划线句子翻译成中文：_______________________________________
【小题3】回答问题: How many reasons for reading books does the text mention?
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【小题4】在文中找出与下面句子意思相近的句子：It’s nearly useless.
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【小题5】在文中找出最能表达文章主题的句子：
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1.How did Daniel get to New York?

2.What is Daniel’s flat like?

A. It’s far away from his office.   B. It’s quite cheap

C. It’s very big.                       D. It’s very nice.

3.What does Daniel NOT tell us?

A. Whether he has visited New York before.

B. Where he stayed before he found a flat.

C. Why he had a party on April Fool’s Day.

D. What his workmates and new neighbours are like.

【小题1】Mary is always the first person to get to school every day, she arrives at school __________(早) than anyone else in her class.
【小题2】The World Cup will be covered ______________(现场地)，don’t miss it.
【小题3】---Is the book easy enough for young children?
---I don’t think so. It’s far __________（超出）their ability.
【小题4】The house is ________________（充满）with heavy smoke. Does it catch fire?
【小题5】My tooth ached the whole night, it’s better for me to go to the _______________（牙医诊所） to have it pulled out.
【小题6】Some of the film stars had been _____________(歌手) before they entered the film industry.
【小题7】_____（成千上万）of swallows will fly to southern countries to spend winter.
【小题8】Beijing is the most important cultural center of China, do you agree_ me?
【小题9】 Wenchuan Earthquake is remembered as a natural ______________. It has destroyed lots of people’s homelands and made them homeless.
【小题10】After Mr. Green raised the question, there was dead _____________ in the classroom. None of us was able to answer it. Everyone just sat there quietly.

In some science fiction movies, evil robots refuse to die, no matter how hard people fight back.
Now science fiction has become science fact. For the first time, scientists have made a robot that can take a beating (挨打) and keep on going. Scientists from Cornell University made the robot, which looks like a spider with four legs.
Until now, even the most advanced (先进的) robot was almost certain to break down when it was damaged. That is because its computer inside simply doesn’t know how to make the machine work after its shape has changed.
To deal with this problem, the scientists put eight motors (发动机) and two sensors (传感器) that read how the machine is working. They all give signals to the machine’s software. Using this information, the computer can then figure out the machine’s shape at any moment.
The new technology is a big advance in robot-making, scientists say, and it’s far from scary. It may someday help scientists create better artificial (假的) arms and legs and give new freedom to people who lose them. It might also help scientists understand how people and animals figure out their own sense of place in space.
“It has been difficult to design robots that can work well when the environment changes or when it’s damaged,” says Olaf Sporns of Indiana University in US. “With this work, we are nearer to solving this problem.”

【小题1】Why do robots easily break down when they are damaged?