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.

---- ________ you like the cell pone so much, why not buy it?

---- Well, I don’t have enough money.

A．In case           B．Now that          C．Even though       D．Only if

阅读理解

　　Becket not only traveled light, but also lived light. In all the world, he owned just the clothes he stood up in, a full suitcase and a bank account. Arriving anywhere with these possessions, he might just as easily put up for a month or a year as for a single night. For long stays, not less than a month, he might take a furnished flat, sometimes even a house. But whatever the length, he rarely needed anything he did not have with him. Becket had one occasional anxiety: the suspicion (怀疑) that he owned more than would fit comfortably into the case. The feeling, when it came, was the signal for him to throw something away or just leave it lying about. This was the automatic fate of his worn-out clothes for example. Having no use for choice or variety, he kept just a raincoat, a suit, a pair of shoes and a few shirts, socks (短袜) and so on; no more in the clothing line. He thought and read many books, and left them wherever he happened to he sitting when he finished them. They quickly found new owners.

　　Becket was a professional traveler, interested and interesting. He was not one to “do” a country in a week or a city in three days. He liked to get the feel of a place by living in it, reading its newspapers, watching its TV, discussing its affairs. He always tried to make a friend-if necessary even by stopping a suitable-looking person in the street and talking to him. It worked well in about one case in ten. Though Bechet's health gave him no cause for alarm (惊慌), he made a point of seeing a doctor as soon as he arrived anywhere. “A doctor knows a place and its people better than anyone,” he used to say. He never went to see a doctor; he always sent for one; that, he found, was the quickest way to confidences, which came out freely as soon as he mentioned that he was a writer. Becket was an artist as well. He painted pictures of his places and, when he had gathered enough information, he wrote about them. He sold his work, through an agent (经纪人), to newspapers and magazines. It was an agreeable sort of life for a good social mixer (与他人接触的人), lived nearly always in fine weather; and as Becket never stayed anywhere for long, he enjoyed the satisfying advantage of paying very little in tax.

1．What do you know about Becket's possessions?

[　　]

A．He had enough baggage to stay for one night.

B．He carried all of them around with him.

C．He had throw or given around with him.

D．He left most of his things at home when he traveled.

2．Becket might take over a flat when

[　　]

A．there were no suitable hotels

B．he meant to stay somewhere for several nights

C．he was sure of staying a year or more

D．he expected not to move on for a month at least

3．What was the usual result when Becket talked to strangers in the street.?

[　　]

A．People thought he was ill and sent for a doctor.

B．He made many new friends that way.

C．The people he spoke to felt annoyed with him.

D．The approach failed in its purpose.

4．It can be learned from the passage that Becket was

[　　]

A．a travel agent

B．a journalist

C．a spy

D．a social worker

5．How did Becket feel about taxation?

[　　]

A．It worried him, so he kept moving from place to place.

B．He hated it, so he broke the tax laws.

C．He was pleased that he could honestly avoid it.

D．He felt ashamed of not paying taxes.

——Look at those clouds!

——Don’t worry. _____ it rains, we’ll still have a great time.