It can greet people, show DVDs and hand out balloons. “Ubiko”, a robot-on –wheels with a catlike face, is joining the crew of temporary workers supplied by a Japanese job-referral company, Ubiquitous Exchange, to stores, events and even weddings. Next month, the 44-inch tall robot will be selling mobile phones at a store.
Ubiko can be hired as a temporary worker for two hours for 105,000 yen, or $890.
“We see this as serious business. There are jobs that robots are better at,” Akiko Sakurai said “people do develop a relation with the robot, and it’s lovable.”
The $255,000 robot, which is equipped with a camera and sensors, greets customers with a nasal electronic voice, shows DVDs with a projector in its head and hands out balloons and other goods with wireless remote-controllable arms.
Ubiko sounds like a Japanese female name, which often ends with “ko”.
Tmsuk, the Japanese company that makes the robot, sold three last month to hospital, where they are working as full-time, rather than temporary, receptionists and guides. One of the hospital’s robots serves as a receptionist and has been programmed to greet visitors. It also has a touch-panel(控制板) on its body, and visitors can use it to get directions for where they want to go. 
“Just give it electricity, and a robot can work for long hours, even do repetitive work, and you don’t have to worry about labor laws,” Sudo said.
Japan’s lower birth rate means that in the coming years it could face a labor shortage, and some experts believe robots could be part of the key to that problem. Robots are very popular in Japan partly because of the popularity of cartoons that describe robots as friends and assistants to humans.
【小题1】The news report is mainly to _________________.

下面段文中共有10处语言错误，错误涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。

增加：在此处加一个漏字符号(∧)，并在其下面写出修改的词。

删除：把多余的词用斜线(＼)划掉。[来源:学#科#网Z#X#X#K]

修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在其下面写出修改后的词。

注意：1.每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；

2．只允许修改10处，多者（从十一处起）不计分。

On January 5th, students in our school visited Robot World, which we saw a great diversity of robots. It was amazed to find those robots could do a great number of things just as real people do, included playing chess, playing the piano and draw pictures. Besides, the robots were in different kinds and shapes, which makes us delighted. However, that excited me most was the show given by a group of robots. They danced even if they were dancers on the stage. By visiting Robot World, I have learned a lot of about robots, especially about their functions. The great human wisdom is so powerfully that it makes us feel more comfortable live in the world.

ScienceDaily (May 28, 2010) --- Researchers at Oregon State University (OSU) have made important progress in work that should lead toward robots that can not only walk and run very well, but use little energy at the same time.
Studies are moving closer to designing robots that could do dangerous work, create prosthetic limbs（假肢）for humans that work much better than in the past, or even help some people who use wheelchairs to get “walking” abilities.
“Researchers have been working toward robot movement for a long time,” said Jonathan Hurst, a professor at OSU. “What we’ve done is to study what behavior is really possible for a robot.”
The movement of humans and other animals is difficult to copy. Using little energy, they can move easily over hard areas, and enjoy balance from muscles（肌肉）. They have different ways to deal with forces, such as holding something hard in place rigidly（牢牢地）, like the act of holding a cup of coffee level during a car ride. In their recent studies, the OSU researchers proved that these two abilities are mutually exclusive（相互排斥的）. Humans deal with this problem by using pairs of muscles. For a robot, the more it’s able to do one of these tasks, the less able it is to do the other.
Presently, robots that can walk and run must be as rigid as possible while walking. But this way uses a lot of energy. The OSU researchers are working toward something that has similar or better performance, but uses far less energy, and is closer to the abilities of animals.
“So there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to build robots with good movement ability,” Hurst said. “Clearly this might be useful in highly dangerous situations. But I could also see great improvements possible with prosthetic limbs that work much better than present technology. ”
72. 【小题1】The robots being studied by researchers at OSU ______.

There are robots all around us. Some do very complicated jobs like flying airplanes and driving subway trains. and some do one simple job. When an automatic washing machine is switched on, water pours in. The machine waits until the water is warm enough for washing clothes. It does this by “feedback”(反馈). Information about what is happening is feedback into the robot to tell what to do next. Our eyes, ears and other senses are our feedback. They tell us what is going on around us. So robots are like human beings in two ways.

They work and they have feedback.

In some ways robots are better than human beings. They work quickly and do not make mistakes. They do not get bored doing the same job over and over again. And they never get tired. So robots are very useful in factories. They can be taught to do many different jobs. First their electronic brain must be shown how the job is done. A person moves the robot’s “arms” and “hands” through each part of the job.

The most intelligent robots can move and see. Their eyes are cameras. Their fingers can feel shapes and sizes of the objects. These robots have computer brains linked to their eyes and fingers, which control their actions. The expensive robots are used in scientific research. They do such job as handling radioactive materials.

In this passage the author tells us that ________.

A. robots are very popular

B. there are various kinds of robots

C. we see robots only at certain times

D. robots can be easily controlled

What does the author seem to inform you about robots?

A. They should be greatly improved.

B. They will probably take over in the future.

C. They are very helpful and useful to humans.

D. They are machines that break down a lot.

The author says that in industry ________.

A. robots break down a lot    

B. robots can do many jobs

C. robots only get in the way

D. robots sometimes cause troubles

The fact that a robot never gets bored doing the same job means that _______.

A. it is very much like human beings

B. it can do boring jobs for people

C. it will never bore people

D. it will work much better than human beings

The robots used for scientific research _______.

A. are not very clever     

B. are very cheap

C. are very big

D. are very costly

　　What comes into your mind when you think about robots? Do you imagine armies of evil metal monsters planning to take over the world? Or, perhaps of mechanical men who have been created as guards or soldiers by a mad genius? Or maybe you think of man- like robots who act, think, and look like human beings. In fact robots like these have more to do with science fiction films than with real life. In the real world robots are machines that do jobs which otherwise have to be done by people. Robots either operate by themselves or under the control of a person.
　　In a car factory, for example, robot machinery can put together and paint car bodies. On the sea bed remotecontrolled（遥控）underwater machines with mechanical arms can perform tasks too difficult for divers. Robot spacecraft can explore the solar system and send back information about planets and stars.
　　Many robots have computer brains. Some robots are fitted with cameras , sensors, and microphones which enable them to see, to feel, and to hear. And some robots can even produce electronic speech.
　　All this does not mean that a robot can think and behave like a human being. Present day robots have to be programmed with a good deal of information before they can carry out even simple tasks.
　44．Robots in real life________.
　　A. can behave like human beings   B. have the ability to control the world
　　C. can think by themselves        D. can help us with a lot of work
　45．According to this article, which of the following is not true about robots in the real world?
　　A. Some robots are as creative as artists.     B. Some robots can help manufacture cars.
　　C. Some robots can see and hear.       D. Some robots can explore outer space.
　46．Robots can perform many tasks for man because________.
　　A. they have intelligence    B. they are supplied with computer programs
　　C. they can imitate human beings    D. they have the ability to learn new things
　47．The robots in science fiction films and those in real life differ mainly in________.
　　A. mentality　　 B. appearance　　 C. material　　　 D. size