Even though she’s just 5 years old, Cindy Smart speaks five languages. She’s a good reader. She can tell time and do simple math, including multiplication (乘法) and division. Cindy looks like an average doll, with long, blond hair, baby – blue eyes, and a button nose.

But loaded with some devices, Cindy is the first doll that can see, think, and do as she’s told. The eagle – eyed Cindy follows in the path of other breakthrough toys like Sony’s barking Robot Aibo, which was the first to popularize voice command in the late 1990s. Cindy takes Aibo’s innovations (创新) one step beyond: she not only follows instructions but also recognizes shapes, colors and words, and remembers. The effect is a doll that appears to be learning.

The toy company which produced Cindy Smart spent a decade trying to see how much human nature it could breathe into an inanimate (无生命的) object. Its engineers began creating minibots that sense light, sounds, and pressure. However, without the sense of sight, their toys seemed to be lacking in one of the abilities that life – forms use to react to their environments.

So how do the engineers make a doll actually see? In Cindy’s case, it’s a multistep process. When presented a text like “I love you” and asked “Can you read this?” Cindy identifies it as one of 70 preprogrammed commands. Then the inbuilt digital camera scans a 15 – degree radius (半径) in search of number – or letter – shaped objects. Buried in her stomach, Cindy’s 16 – bit microprocessor compares the text with her database of 700 words. If it’s a match, “I love you,” she says.

1．This passage most likely appears in a         .

      A．medical report      B．classified ad         C．science journal        D．music magazine

2．According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE about Robot Aibo?

       A．It could recognize shapes and colors.

       B．It could respond to spoken commands.

       C．It came onto the market no later than 1990.

       D．It was created much later that Cindy Smart.

3．The underlined “it” in the third paragraph most likely refers to          .

       A．the process          B．the object            C．the doll                D．the company

4．According to the passage, how can Cindy “see”?

      A．She recognizes any text as “I love you”.

       B．She is equipped with a camera to search for text.

       C．She is instructed by an engineer standing next to her.

       D．She makes contact with the shapes of the text with her stomach.

5．What can we infer from this passage?

       A．Cindy can learn exactly like a human.

       B．Cindy has much more human nature than Aibo.

       C．Cindy is the first doll that can see, think, and do as she’s told.

       D．Cindy has no ability to react to her environment.

As a senior, my future is always on my mind. To be exact, thoughts of the future have kept me up countless nights and made me worry enough to do poorly on more than one test. Because of this, words of wisdom are a source of comfort. Steve Jobs gave a speech to Stanford’s graduating class in 2005 and his words resound repeatedly in my mind whenever I think about my future.
It wasn’t always like that, though. It started when I became a junior, when college came into view. It’s the first big step to making your life your own. So when Jobs discussed his life as a student, some fears were eased. He, too, felt the need to attend college to make something of himself. He faced what many are extremely afraid of: uncertainty. His lack of understanding caused him to stop attending college and focus on what he felt was important. His story had a happy ending, of course, since he certainly turned out well.
This doesn’t mean that students shouldn’t attend college, but rather that they shouldn’t worry so much. You’ll get where you need to go, even if your path is a bit more winding（蜿蜒的）than you’d like.
Jobs talked about the hardships in his work. His love of his work helped him carry on and he got where he was meant to be, which restates the point: don’t panic.
One particular part of his speech stayed with me. Steve Jobs quoted（引用）the saying “Stay hungry, stay foolish” and it has become my motto. Staying foolish is realizing that you are still a fool, no matter how much you’ve learned or experienced. There is always more to explore. Staying hungry is wanting to find those things about which you are still uneducated.
Steve Jobs’s level of success is attainable, and I aim to prove that. With the will power to go into the world living every day like it’s my last and allowing the future to take care of itself, I will do great things. In the last moments of my life, I’ll be proud of what I have done and hope to have all the wisdom a person could wish for.
【小题1】The author felt worried when _________.

As I sit at home thinking about my upcoming adventure and the things I need to bring, it makes me even more excited to begin my travel. I will be making my way around the world.
The first places on the list are Andalusia and Africa in the book The Alchemist. I will need to pack a lot of things and make sure I have enough money to provide myself with food and enough to drink. The Sahara desert is always hot and requires plenty of water.
Next I will head to Mexico in the book Born to Run, where I will meet the Tarahumara Indian tribe(部落). I will need to get into shape and do some jogging(慢跑) if I want to keep up with them. I will have to pack my running shoes, though, because the Tarahumarans have mastered the art of running on the tough land.
After Mexico, my journey takes me to the Egyptian desert in the novelThe Paris Vendetta. There I hope to help uncover an ancient conspiracy (阴谋) that goes back centuries. Just like my trip to Andalusia, I will have to make sure I have plenty of water. Packing the Camelbak products seems like the best idea, so I will have enough on hand at all times. I expect this adventure to be quite interesting, and I am very excited about it.
Lastly, I will make my way back to America in the book Shattered: Struck Down, But Not Destroyed. This makes me feel excited because like the main character in the book, I also wanted to become a professional athlete when I was younger. For this trip, I will go with an open mind and hopefully meet some friends along the way.
I am ready to embark on my adventure of traveling, and I cannot wait any longer!
【小题1】How will the author go on adventure?

C
Handshaking, though a European practice, is often seen in big cities of China. Nobody knows exactly when the practice started in Europe. It is said that long long ago in Europe when people met, they showed their unarmed hands to each other as a sign of goodwill. As time went on and trade in cities grew rapidly, people in cities began to clap each other’s hands to make a deal or to reach an agreement, This practice was later changed into shaking hands among friends on meeting or leaving each other. “Let’s shake (hands) on it” sometimes means agreement reached.
Do the Europeans shake hands wherever they go and with whomever they meet? No. Sometimes the Chinese abroad reach out their hands too often to be polite. It is really very impolite to give your hand when the other party, especially when it is a woman, shows little interest in shaking hands with you and when the meeting does not mean anything to him or her. Even if, for politeness, he holds out his unwilling hand in answer to your uninvited hand, just touch it slightly. There is generally a misunderstanding among the Chinese that westerners are usually open and straightforward, while the Chinese are rather reserved (保守的) in manner. But in fact some people in western countries are more reserved than some Chinese today. So it is a good idea to shake hands with a westerner only when he shows interest in further relations with you.
63. The first paragraph mainly tells us___________
A. where handshaking was first practised.
B. how handshaking came about.
C. about the relationship between handshaking and trade.
D. about the practice of handshaking both in Europe and in China.
64. According to the text, which of the following statements is true?
A. Westerners are more reserved than the Chinese.
B. Westerners are unwilling to shake hands.
C. We should make a judgement before shaking hands.
D. We shouldn’t shake hands with European women.
65. The main purpose of the text is_______.
A. to tell us some differences between the East and the West
B. to offer us some important facts about handshaking
C. to introduce us to some different customs in the West.
D. to give us some advice before we travel abroad

If you are planning to study in the United States, you need to consider several factors. Everyone has different opinions about where is the best place to live in. Also, the best places to live are not always home to the best schools. Finally, many schools specialize in different areas of study. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for example, is a great school for computer science and technology-related fields of study. However, if you want to study oceanography（海洋学）, your interests may be better served by attending school in a place that is on a coastline or near the ocean.
Now I am sure that you know which schools are considered the best in the country. So I will tell you about which states I believe are the best to live in.
California is a nice state. Northern California specifically has very good weather. Los Angeles in Southern California is another story though. Life in Los Angeles is full of excitement and fast, and sometimes dangerous. As for me, I enjoy the time I spent in Massachusetts, Virginia and Maryland and these states have a lot of history and culture. The weather is not as perfect as California, but it is still quite nice. My favorite area of America is the Mid-west. Middle America, I think, is home to the true American sense of values. In addition, there are many good universities there.
Also, you need to think about your likes and dislikes and then research the various states. You like sunshine and hate snow? Then you probably won’t like the Midwest or even the Northeast. Open space, nature and peace and quiet? Then you probably should stay away from America’s large cities. Are you interested in government? Then Washington D.C. is the only place for you. Whatever you decide, put some thought into it. The place you live could be the difference between a great study-abroad experience and a state of great suffering on earth.
【小题1】From the first paragraph we can conclude （得出结论）that in the USA _______.