Why do human beings still risk their lives under ground and doing one of the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs in the world? It is an increasingly urgent question, given the recent mining accidents in Sago, W. Va and Huntington, Utah. A small group of engineers and robotics experts look forward to a day in the not-too-distant future when robots and other technology do most of the dangerous mining work.
Robotic technology, in particular, holds much promise, McAteer says, especially when it comes to mapping mines and rescuing trapped miners — the special operations of the mining industry.
One of the first mining robots was developed five years ago at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute. It was called Groundhog. It used lasers(激光器) to “see” in dark tunnels and map abandoned mines—some of the most dangerous work in the business.
The latest design is called Cave Crawler. It’s a bit smaller than Groundhog, and even more advanced. It can take photos and videos and has more sensors that can detect the presence of dangerous gases. Incredibly, the robot has a real sense of logic. If it comes across an obstacle it gets momentarily confused. It has to think about what to do and where to go next. Sometimes it throws a fit just like a real person.
The greatest problem, though, is cost. The money of the earliest research project was provided by the government, but that money had dried up, and it’s not clear where future money will come from. Partly for that reason, and partly because of advances in safety, mining is not nearly as dangerous as it was in the past. Since 1990, fatalities(致命性) have declined by 67% and injuries by 51% , according to the National Mining Association.
Some experts predict that robots in mines will serve much of the same function that they do in the automotive industry. The robots do the most boring and dangerous jobs，but won’t get rid of the need for human workers.
1.The latest robot is more advanced than Groundhog, mainly because ________.
A. it can map abandoned mines
B. it has a real sense of logic
C. it can see in the dark tunnels
D. it’s smaller than Groundhog
2.The underlined phrase “throws a fit” in paragraph 4 probably means“________”.
A. gets sickB. gets angry
C. becomes hungryD. becomes cheerful
3.We can infer from the last paragraph that ________.
A. the mine robots will have a very bright future
B. robots in mines will serve much in the automotive industry
C. there will be no need for human workers in mines
D. robots in mines only do some simple jobs now
4.We can infer from the text that ________.
A. robots cannot do dangerous work in dark areas
B. the mining robots do most of the mining work at present
C. groundhog can discover the presence of dangerous gases
D. experts are trying to make robots help miners with dangerous work
假如你是李华，请根据下图中围绕“拒为低头族”(stop phubbing)这个话题写一篇150词左右的英语短文。
词汇：phubbing(低头族) = phone(手机) + snubbing(snub冷落的进行时态)
内容包括：
1.你身边有“低头族”吗？他们的表现；
2.“低头族”给学习和生活带来的影响；
3.就如何“拒为低头族”提1-2点建议。
要求：
1.文章开头已给出，不计入总词数；
2.可以使用亲身经历或虚构的故事；
3.文中不得出现真实姓名和学校名称。
Nowadays, many people are addicted to their phones. __________________________
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请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。
The back-to-school season is upon us, and once again, parents across the country have loaded their kids’ backpacks up with snack packs and school supplies. It’s a good moment to reflect on what else we should be giving our kids as they head off to school.
American parents are feeling particularly anxious about that question this year. The educational process feels more than ever like a race, one that starts in pre-school and doesn’t end until your child is admitted to the perfect college. Most parents are more worried than they need to be about their children’s grades, test scores and IQ. And what we don’t think about enough is how to help our children build their character—how to help them develop skills like perseverance, optimism, responsibility, and self-control, which together do more to determine success than S.A.T. scores or I.Q.
There is growing evidence that our anxiety about our children’s school performance may actually be holding them back from learning some of these valuable skills. If you’re concerned only with a child’s G.P.A., then you will likely choose to minimize the challenges the child faces in school. With real challenge comes the risk of real failure. And in a competitive academic environment, the idea of failure can be very scary, to students and parents alike.
But experiencing failure is a critical part of building character. Recent research by a team of psychologists found that adults who had experienced little or no failure growing up were actually less happy and confident than those who had experienced a few significant setbacks in childhood. “Overcoming those obstacles,” the researchers assumed, “could teach effective coping skills, help engage social support networks, create a sense of mastery over past adversity, and foster beliefs in the ability to cope successfully in the future.”
By contrast, when we protect our children from every possible failure—when we call their teachers to get an extension on a paper; when we urge them to choose only those subjects they’re good at—we are denying them those same character-building experiences. As the psychologists Madeline Levine and Dan Kindlon have written, that can lead to difficulties in adolescence and young adulthood, when overprotected young people finally confront real problems on their own and don’t know how to overcome them.
In the classroom and outside of it, American parents need to encourage children to take chances, to challenge themselves, to risk failure. In the meantime, giving our kids room to fail may be one of the best ways we can help them succeed.
Back to School: Why Perseverance Is More Important than Good Grades? | |
Common phenomena | Parents throughout America 1.______ their kids’ backpacks up with snacks and school supplies. |
Many American parents don’t 2._______ enough importance to their kids’ character building. | |
The writer’s 3._________ | Parents should pay more attention to their kids’ character building. |
Evidence and 4._____ findings | Parents’ anxiety about their kids’ performance may 5. them from learning some valuable skills. |
Parents concerned only with a kid’s G.P.A. have a 6. to minimize the challenges the child faces. | |
Adults who have experienced a few significant setbacks in childhood are 7. and more confident than those who haven’t. | |
Denying kids character-building experiences can 8. in difficulties in adolescence and young adulthood. | |
The writer’s suggestions | 9.________ kids to be risk-takers. |
Give kids room to experience 10.____________. | |
动词填空
1.If only he ______________ (tell) me the news! I needn’t have been so busy then.
2.It’s natural that the kid ______________ (do) something wrong; you cannot blame him excessively.
3.Jim must have read the novel; otherwise he ______________ (not know) all the answers to these questions.
4.With the incomes ______________ (rise) continuously, some people now can afford expensive clothing of the fastest fashion.
5.If I’ve got nothing to share, I may leave my micro-blog ______________ (untouch) for weeks.
6.His brother, who ______________ (serve) in the army for five years, is now running a farm in our village.
7.Sam is going to talk about the history of his country, but I’d rather he ______________ (focus) more on its culture.
8.The boy is always studying very hard, ______________ (aim) to be admitted to Fudan University.
9.Tom was familiar with every street in the town as if he ______________ (live) there.
10.In my opinion, earning a large sum of money isn’t equal to ______________ (live) a happy life.
请根据所给汉语或首字母写出空缺处单词的适当形式，使句子完整，语法正确，每空只填一个单词。
1.It’s the company’s policy to s_________ short-term profits for the sake of long-term growth.
2.The Red Cross is trying to get more young people involved in doing v________ work.
3.Without food, many of the victims in the disaster died of s________.
4.They have v__________ reasons for refusing to do it.
5.It is the building t_________ of a Gothic church.
6.The public remain _____________(持怀疑态度) of the claim that the local government has made great efforts to prevent water pollution.
7.Because of damage to their homes, many people had to stay in ___________(临时的) shelters for a few months.
8.The electronic dictionary is ____________ (优雅地) shaped like a pen.
9.He is one of those who are not satisfied with the _________________(招待，接待).
10.The exhibition was held to break down the cultural ___________(障碍) between the two countries.
When I was eight or nine years old, I wrote my first poem.
My mother read the little poem and began to cry. “Buddy, you didn’t really write this beautiful, beautiful poem!” Shyly, I said that I had. My mother poured out her welcome praise. Why, this poem was nothing short of genius!
What time will Father be home?” I asked. I could hardly wait to show him what I had accomplished. My mother said she hoped he would be home around 7. I spent the best part of that afternoon preparing for his arrival. First, I wrote the poem out in my finest handwriting. Then I used colored pens to draw a border around it. Then I confidently placed it right on my father’s plate on the dining table. But my father did not return at 7, Seven-fifteen, Seven-thirty. My father had begun his motion-picture career as a writer. He would be able to appreciate my poem even more than my mother.
It was almost 8 o’clock when my father burst in. He was an hour late, but he could not sit down. I can see him now, a big Havana cigar in one hand, the rapidly disappearing drink in the other, calling down bitter words on his employees.
Suddenly, he paused and glared at his plate. There was a silence. He was reaching for my poem. I lowered my head and stared down into my plate.
“What is this?” I heard him say.
“Ben, a wonderful thing has happened,” my mother said. “Buddy has written his first poem. And it’s beautiful, absolutely amazing”.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to decide that for myself,” Father said.
I kept my face lowered to my plate. It was only 10 lines long. But it seemed to take hours. I remember wondering why it was taking so long. I could hear him dropping the poem back on the table again. Now was the moment of decision.
“I think it’s bad,” my father said.
I couldn’t look up. My eyes were getting wet.
“Ben, sometimes I don’t understand you,” my mother was saying. “This is just a little boy. You’re not in your studio now. These are the first lines of poetry he’s ever written. He need encouragement.”
“I don’t know why,” my father held his ground. “Isn’t there enough bad poetry in the world already? No law says Buddy has to become a poet.”
I couldn’t stand it another second. I ran from the dining room, threw myself on the bed and cried.
That may have been the end of the anecdote(轶事) — but not of its significance for me.
A few years later I took a second look at that first poem, and unwillingly I had to agree with my father’s tough judgment. It was a pretty bad poem. After a while, I worked up the courage to show him something new, a short story. My father thought it was overwritten but not hopeless. I was learning to rewrite. And my mother was learning that she could disapprove of me without ruining me. You might say we were all learning. I was going on 12.
As I worked my way into other books and plays and films, it became clearer and clearer to me how fortunate I had been to have had a mother who said, “Buddy, it’s wonderful!” and a father who shook his head no and drove me to tears with his, “I think it’s bad.” In fact all of us in life need that mother force, the loving force from which all creation flows; and yet the mother force alone is incomplete, even misleading, finally damaging, without the father force to caution, “Watch. Listen. Review. Improve.” Between the two poles of affirmation (肯定) and doubt, both in the name of love, I try to follow my true course.
1.What did the mother think of the Buddy’s poem?
A. She was so moved that she cried.
B. She believed Buddy needed advice from his father.
C. She considered Buddy had no talent for poetry.
D. She thought the poem was well written.
2.Which underlined word in the following sentences best reflects Buddy’s eagerness to show his father the poem?
A. Then I confidently placed it right on my father’s place on the dining table.
B. He would be able to appreciate my poem even more than my mother.
C. I wrote the poem out in my finest handwriting.
D. I could hardly wait to show him what I had accomplished.
3.The underlined sentence “My father held his ground” could best be replaced by ________.
A. My father began to explain his reasons
B. My father thought his comment is unreasonable
C. My father refused to change his opinion
D. My father got so angry that he rose to his feet
4.From the passage, we can infer that the father can be best described as ________.
A. cruel and stubbornB. loving and matter-of-fact
C. bad-tempered and rudeD. cautious and strict
5.Which of the following statements do you think the author might agree with?
A. The incident helped the writer work his work further as a writer.
B. The author only realized the significance of the incident after becoming a writer.
C. After the incident, the author stopped writing but tried his luck in plays and films.
D. The incident completely changed the author’s course of life.
