There have been many performances of traditional Japanese dances over the centuries, butthis one is unique,because it is performed not by human dancers but by robots. And theperformance takes place not in a dance studio but in a laboratory of Sony Corp.'sEntertainment Robot Co. in Shinagawa, Japan, where Kuroki isgeneral manager. He is themastermind behind a series of even more capable humanoid entertainment robots,startingwith the Sony Dream Robot, or SDR, in 1997, up to the current QRIO in 2003.

　　These delightful machines are only 58 cm tall, about the size of a newborn infant, weigh about7 kg, and move with 38 degrees of freedom, each with its own servomotor(輔助馬達).

　　QRIO's predecessor, the SDR4X, announced in 2002, can walk, dance, sing, speak,recognize faces, and understand continuous speech. Each robot has two charge-coupled-device cameras to detect color and position andcan locate a colored ball, move toward it, andkick it into a goal. It also has contact sensors in severaljoints to avoid pinching real humanfingers. Seeing the robot perform, it is difficult to remember that there is no sentience(知覺)behind those glass eyes.

　　練習題：

　　Choose correct answers to the question:

　　1.Which of the following is the most suitable title of this passage?

　　A.New Entertainment Robots Produced in Japan.

　　B.QRIO the Robot Dancers.

　　C.Robots Man's Best Friend.

　　D.An Extraordinary Performance in Sony's Lab.

　　2.Yoshihiro Kuroki ______.

　　A.is excited when the robots are performing a traditional Japanese dance

　　B.keeps silent because he is a little unsatisfied with the new product

　　C.witnesses the creation of a series of entertainment robots

　　D.is an executive manager of Sony Corp.

　　3.Which aspect of the robots is NOT mentioned in the passage?

　　A.The vividness of their motion.

　　B.Their pleasant appearance.

　　C.Their smart designing principles.

　　D.Their communicative ability.

　　4.The Sony Dream Robot was___

　　A.the first human-like entertainment robot developed by the Sony Corp

　　B.as capable as the QRIO of speaking,dancing,singing and walking

　　C.largest among all the entertainment robot developed by the Sony Corp

　　D.the first entertainment robot sold at the market by the Sony Corp

　　5.The robot can locate colored balls by mens of ____

　　A.a charge-coupled device

　　B.two cameras

　　C.two contacts sensors

　　D.a digital detector

　　1.[A] 主旨大意題。標題需要既全面又突出地概括文章的主題。本文先是描述“舞蹈演員”，然后揭曉這是些“機器人”(第2段第1句)，接著對Sony公司的一些機器人產品進行詳細介紹。選項A比較全面地概括了文章內容。選項B、D只是涉及細節，不能全面地概括本文的內容。而C又過于籠統，不具有針對性。

　　2.[C] 事實細節題。選項C符合第2段最后一句“He is the mastermind behind a series of... robots...”。仔細閱讀有關的細節信息會發現,第1段第3句可幫助否定選項A。第1段最后兩句可幫助否定選項B。另外，根據第2段倒數第2句可否定選項D。

　　3.[D] 事實細節題。全文分四段，分別討論機器人三方面的特點：第1段和第2段描述機器人舞蹈演員栩栩如生的表演，即選項A;第3段描寫它們的外表，即選項B;第4段介紹它們巧妙的設計，即選項C;只有選項D是沒有提到的，故為答案。

　　4.[A] 推理判斷題。該句中的分詞結構“starting with...”表明the Sony Dream Robot是第一個人形娛樂機器人，因此選項A正確。文章在最后一段的第1句提到兩種能說話、跳舞的機器人，但沒有提到SDR是否和它們一樣，由此可否定選項B。在第3段討論機器人大小的時候也沒有提到SDR體型最大，因此選項C不正確。選項D在文中沒有討論到。

　　5.[B] 事實細節題。該句中“two…cameras to...”的結構表明這兩個攝像頭可以用于定位，所以選項B正確。選項A在該句中也有提到，但它只是攝像機的工作機制，而不是用于定位的裝置。選項C在下一句提到，但與題干提到的定位功能無關。選項D在文中并未提及。

　　Henry III didn't know much about biology. He went through six wives back in the 1500s, lookingfor one whocould bear him a son. Scientists now know that it's the father's sperm, not themother's egg, which determines whether a baby is a boy or a girl. And last week researchers atthe Genetics and IVF Institute, a private fertility(生育能力)center in Virginia, announced a newtechnique that will allow parents to choose the sex of their baby-to-be, before it has evenbeen conceived. The scientist used a tiny laser detector to measure the DNA in millions ofsperm cells as they pass single file through a narrow tube, like cattle being herded through acorral(牲口欄). In a study published last week, "girl sperm," which has more DNA—the geneticmaterial— in each cell, was collected, while "boy sperm" was discarded. And when purified girlsperm was used to impregnate(使受孕)a group of mothers, 15 of 17 resulting babies turned outto be girls.

　　The researchers say that "sex selection" can also double a mother's chance of having a son andcan be usedto avoid genetic diseases that affect only one gender, such as hemophilia(血友病). But some experts, like New York University fertility specialist Dr. Jamie Grifo, worry thatsex selection could lead to a kind ofin uteri(子宮)discrimination, especially in cultures wheresons are considered superior to daughters. "It's valuing one gender' over another," Grifo says. "I don't think that's something we should be doing." So far, patients at the institute have beenasking for both boys and girls, in order to "balance" their families. And some ethics experts saythat's fine, as long as parents are just looking for a little gender variety. "If you have threeboys, and you want a girl," says University of Texas reproductive-law professor JohnRobertson, "that's not gender bias at all."

　　練習題：

　　Choose correct answers to the question:

　　1.The DNA in the sperm cells can be measured ______.

　　A.in the same way how the cattle are herded

　　B.when they pass through a tube one behind the other

　　C.after they pass through a laser tube

　　D.when they are scanned by a laser detector all at a time

　　2.The gender of the baby is decided by ______.

　　A.the father's DNA

　　B.the mother's DNA

　　C.the father's sperm

　　D.the mother's egg

　　3.According to this passage, the practice of "sex selection" ______.

　　A.can help to prevent all genetic problems

　　B.is totally unacceptable to ethics experts

　　C.was already realized five hundred years ago

　　D.will benefit families with certain inheritable diseases

　　4.Girl sperm was preferred to boy sperm in the research most probably because____

　　A.girl sperm contains more genetic material

　　B.more mother want to have girl babies

　　C.girl sperm is healthier and more active

　　D.girl sperm is more easily purified

　　5.It can be concluded from the passage that author’s toward”sex selection”is____

　　A.negative

　　B.positive

　　C.neutral

　　D.favorable

　　1.[B] 推理判斷題。解答本題的關鍵在于推斷single file的意思。該句把精子通過試管的情形與牛群被趕入牲口圈的情形作對比，結合single一詞本身的意思，可以推斷single file是“一個接一個”的意思，只有選項B能表達這個意思，由此也可否定選項D。選項A最具干擾性，原句是把精子通過試管的情形比作牛群被趕人牲口圈的情形，而選項A說的是測定精子內DNA的方法與放牧的方法相同，顯然選項A只是引用了原文的某些詞語，但表達的意思與原文卻截然不同。

　　2.[C] 事實細節題。第1段第3句which引導的非限制性定語從句修飾的是the father's sperm，而不是插入語the mother’s egg,因此選項C正確。

　　3.[D] 推理判斷題。第2段第1句中的genetic暗示有些疾病是遺傳的，即如選項D所述。第2段第1句同時表明選項A的說法是不全面的。選項B與第2段最后兩句正好相反。第1段前兩句說明選項C是錯誤的。

　　4.[A] 事實細節題。第1段倒數第2句中的由which引導的定語從句表明選項A的敘述正確。

　　5.[C] 觀點態度題。文章第2段中作者給出了一些反對者和贊成者的觀點，但是沒有加以評論，可以看出作者的態度是中立的，故選項C正確。