For many blind people, computers are inaccessible. It can cost $1,000 to purchase “screen reader” software, but two blind computer programmers from Australia have solved this problem.
Queensland University of Technology (QUT) graduate James Teh and business partner Michael Curran developed a free, open-source program, called NVDA, which provides a voice to read the words on a computer screen as the cursor(光标) moves over them. NVDA won the blind inventors an award in the grand final program of the ABC’s New Inventors, which aired on September 23. They took home the award for an invention that “might make a real difference to people’s lives or the environment.”
“A sighted person takes for granted that they can sit down at any computer and use it,” Mr Teh said. “We really are in the information age — everything is online these days. So access to computers for the blind is very important, which is why we wanted our software to be free.”
Mr Teh, who majored in software engineering at QUT, said blind students typically didn’t have the money to purchase “screen reader” technology, at the time in their life when they most needed it. Now NVDA could be downloaded on to anyone’s personal computer free of charge.
“It can also be copied to a USB stick, which can be used on any PC at school or university, with no installation required,” he said.
Mr Teh and Mr Curran have drawn on their own experience as blind computer users to develop a product which has some unique features. For example, as the mouse moves up and down the screen, a sound becomes higher and lower to let you know where the cursor is located.
NVDA has been translated into 27 languages, thanks to volunteer translators. To date, there have been over 50,000 downloads.
Mr Teh and Mr Curran have been working on the project since 2006. They worked on their product without any pay for two years. When Mozilla offered some funding in 2008, Mr Teh was able to quit his day job and work full-time developing NVDA.
【小题1】NVDA won an award in the program of the ABC’s New Inventors because it _____.

It was a quiet village in which there was a military camp. It was far from the towns and cities and there were some high mountains around. Of course it was a good place for training the new soldiers. But it was difficult for the young men to go outside. Mr. White, an officer of forty, was strict with them and he hardly let them leave the camp.
　　Once Mr. White was ill in bed. He couldn't work and a young officer, Mr. Hunt, began to train the new soldiers instead of him. He knew the young men well and let nine soldiers go to the nearest town to have a holiday. But night fell and none came back to the camp. He was worried about it and stood at the gate. It was five to twelve when Mr. Hunt decided to go to the town and see what was happening with the young men. He started the car quickly and set off. At that moment the nine soldiers came back. It seemed they were all drunk. Of course they found the officer was angry.
　　"I'm sorry, sir," said the first soldier. "I left the town on time. But something was wrong with my bus on my way here. I had to buy a horse and made it run fast. Bad luck! It died and I had to run back."
　　And the other seven soldiers said they were late for the same reasons. It was the last soldier's turn. He said, "I'm sorry, sir. I got on a bus on time, but…"
　　Having heard this, the officer became even angrier and stopped him at once. He called out, "If you say something was wrong with your bus, I'll punish you at once!"
　　"No, no, sir," said the young man. "My bus was all right, but the dead horses were in its way!"
【小题1】The military camp was built in the village to _______.

Mr. Smith was very disappointed to see the car he had had _____ went wrong again.

A. to be repaired     B. repaired      C. it repaired        D. it

【小题1】 ________
In 1973, Jimmy Carter, ex-president of the United States, saw a UFO—an Unidentified Flying Object. There were about 20 other people with him at the time, and they all watched the strange object for several minutes.
【小题2】 ________
Does this surprise you? It’s not unusual. About 15 million people all over the world think that they have seen a UFO, a recent report says.
【小题3】_______
UFOs have become very popular. There are books and films about UFOs, we can watch imaginary flying saucers and visitors from space on television, and there are stories in the newspapers about strange objects. Some of the stories are very silly. Clearly, some of these “UFOs” were aircraft, birds, the moon, lights on the clouds, and so on. But some people believe that spaceships come from other planets, and some of the reports aren’t easy to explain.
【小题4】 ______
In 1947 an American businessman was flying his own plane during the day. Mr. Arnold was a sensible man and a pilot with many years’ experience. That day, he saw a row of strange flying objects. He could see them clearly, and he watched them for some time. Later he said that they moved “like saucers over water.” The name “flying saucer” was invented. The newspapers loved the story, of course, and they all wrote long reports about it.
【小题5】 ______
During World War II, pilots had reported strange round flying objects. Sometimes these objects flew beside their planes and followed them. At first, the pilots were afraid: they thought these objects were a new weapon. But the “weapon” didn’t harm them. The officers said the pilots were imaging things. The pilots got used to the strange objects.

Dear editor,
I am writing to ask what has happened to our young people.They are not as polite or hard-working as my generation（一代人I will give you two examples.
Last Friday, I got on the underground at 9:15 a.m. It was very crowded so there was no free seat.There were some boys sitting on the seats near me.I didn't know why they were not at school.They were talking and laughing loudly. It was difficult for me to read my newspaper with all the noise.At the next stop, a pregnant（怀孕的）woman and her daughter got on with lots of shopping bags.I expected the boys to let them sit down.They saw the woman but they did nothing.I had to ask them to give the woman and her daughter seats.   They did so but gave me a rude look.
Last Saturday, I had dinner with my friend’s family.I was glad to see his children, who I hadn't seen for ten years.During the dinner, I started talking about world politics with the children.It soon became clear that they didn't know much about it.They couldn't tell me the name of the King of Spain or President of Italy.All they knew about was the Internet or which singers were the most beautiful.In my days, students knew the kings, the queens and the presidents of every country in Europe.
I worry about the future of Germany.How could these young people become good workers and parents? They sit around McDonald's after school instead of going to the library like I did at their age.Maybe they have too much money.Perhaps some readers can give us some ideas about what to do with this “lost generation”.
Yours sincerely,
Frantz Vogts.
【小题1】Mr. Vogts writes this letter to the editor to _______.