Three armed robbers stole two Pablo Picasso prints from an art museum in downtown Sao

Paulo on Thursday, which was the city’s second high-profile art theft in less than a year. The bandits also took two oil paintings by well-know Brazilian artists Emiliano Di Cavalcanti and Lasar Segall, said Carla Regina, a spokeswoman for the Pinacoteca do Estado museum.

The Picasso prints stolen were "The Painter and the Model" from 1963 and "Minotaur, Drinker and Women" from 1933, according to a statement from the Sao Paulo Secretary of State for Culture, which oversees the museum. The prints and paintings have a combined value of $612,000, the statement and a museum official said.

About noon, three armed men paid the $2.45 entrance fee and immediately went to the second-floor gallery where the works were being exhibited, bypassing more valuable pieces, authorities said. "This indicates to us that they probably received an order" to take those specific works, Youssef Abou Chain, head of Sao Paulo's organized crime unit, told reporters at a news conference. The assailants overpowered three unarmed museum guards and grabbed the works, officials said. The robbery took about 10 minutes and the museum was nearly empty at the time. The assailants took the pieces — frames and all — out of the museum in two bags. The institution has no metal detectors.

In December, Picasso's "Portrait of Suzanne Bloch" and "O Lavrador de Cafe" by Candido Portinari, an influential Brazilian artist, were stolen from the Sao Paulo Museum of Art by three men who used a crowbar（铁撬棍）and car jack to force open one of the museum's steel doors. The framed paintings were found Jan. 8, covered in plastic and leaning against a wall in a house on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, South America's largest city. One of the suspects in that robbery — a former TV chef — turned himself over to police in January, who already had two suspects in custody（监禁）.

1.What did the armed men steal on Thursday?

         A．Two prints by Pablo Picasso

        B．Two oil painting by Brazilian artists

        C．Two prints by Pablo Picasso and two oil paintings by two Brazilian artists.

        D．Two prints by two Brazilian artists and two oil paintings by Picasso Pablo.

2.Why didn't the thieves take other more valuable works?

        A．Because they didn't know that the other pieces were worth more.

        B．Probably because they had received an order for the prints that they took.

        C．Because they didn't have enough time. [来源:Zxxk.Com]

        D．Because they were in such a hurry that they couldn’t get them all.

3.How many people were in the museum during the robbery?

        A．A lot. The museum was crowded.

        B．Not too many. It was almost empty.

        C．There were a lot of people outside the museum.

        D．Only three of them.

4.According to the passage, which of the followings is TRUE?

        A．In December, "Portrait of Suzanne Bloch" and "O Lavrador de Cafe" painted by Candido

Portinari were stolen.

        B．There are steel doors and no detectors in Sao Paulo Museum of Art.

        C．Three robbers defeated three armed museum guards and took away the works on Thursday.

        D．Three suspects in the first high-profile art theft in less than a year were arrested.

Three armed robbers stole two Pablo Picasso prints from an art museum in downtown Sao Paulo on Thursday, which was the city’s second high-profile art theft in less than a year. The bandits also took two oil paintings by well-know Brazilian artists Emiliano Di Cavalcanti and Lasar Segall, said Carla Regina, a spokeswoman for the Pinacoteca do Estado museum.

The Picasso prints stolen were "The Painter and the Model" from 1963 and "Minotaur, Drinker and Women" from 1933, according to a statement from the Sao Paulo Secretary of State for Culture, which oversees the museum. The prints and paintings have a combined value of $612,000, the statement and a museum official said.

About noon, three armed men paid the $2.45 entrance fee and immediately went to the second-floor gallery where the works were being exhibited, bypassing more valuable pieces, authorities said. "This indicates to us that they probably received an order" to take those specific works, Youssef Abou Chain, head of Sao Paulo's organized crime unit, told reporters at a news conference. The assailants overpowered three unarmed museum guards and grabbed the works, officials said. The robbery took about 10 minutes and the museum was nearly empty at the time. The assailants took the pieces — frames and all — out of the museum in two bags. The institution has no metal detectors.

In December, Picasso's "Portrait of Suzanne Bloch" and "O Lavrador de Cafe" by Candido Portinari, an influential Brazilian artist, were stolen from the Sao Paulo Museum of Art by three men who used a crowbar（铁撬棍）and car jack to force open one of the museum's steel doors. The framed paintings were found Jan. 8, covered in plastic and leaning against a wall in a house on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, South America's largest city. One of the suspects in that robbery — a former TV chef — turned himself over to police in January, who already had two suspects in custody（监禁）.

1．What did the armed men steal on Thursday?

       A．Two prints by Pablo Picasso

      B．Two oil painting by Brazilian artists

      C．Two prints by Pablo Picasso and two oil paintings by two Brazilian artists.

      D．Two prints by two Brazilian artists and two oil paintings by Picasso Pablo.

2．Why didn't the thieves take other more valuable works?

      A．Because they didn't know that the other pieces were worth more.

      B．Probably because they had received an order for the prints that they took.

      C．Because they didn't have enough time.

      D．Because they were in such a hurry that they couldn’t get them all.

3．How many people were in the museum during the robbery?

      A．A lot. The museum was crowded.

      B．Not too many. It was almost empty.

      C．There were a lot of people outside the museum.

      D．Only three of them.

4．According to the passage, which of the followings is TRUE?

      A．In December, "Portrait of Suzanne Bloch" and "O Lavrador de Cafe" painted by Candido Portinari were stolen.

      B．There are steel doors and no detectors in Sao Paulo Museum of Art.

      C．Three robbers defeated three armed museum guards and took away the works on Thursday.

      D．Three suspects in the first high-profile art theft in less than a year were arrested.

Deception (骗术）is something that people do all the time ,and it plays an important role in military (军事的)strategy. Now some researchers are trying to figure out how to get robots to do it, by looking at the behavior of squirrels and birds.
At Georgia Tech, a team led by Ronald Arkin , a professor at the School of interactive Computing, studied the literature on squirrels hiding their acorns (橡果）.Squirrels will hide their food m a certain place, but when they see other squirrels trying to steal from them, they attempt to fool the thieves by running to a fake location.
Ronald Arkin and his Ph. D. student Jaeeun Shim used that as a model for robot behavior. They programmed the robot into tricking a “predator (捕食者）” machine by doing what εi squirrel does： showing the enemy a false location for an important resource.
The team also looked at how other animals in this case，a species of bird called Arabian babbler~ drive off predators. A babbler will make an alarm call when they see a predator and other babblers will join the bird and make more calls. They then surround the predator, all the while flapping (拍打）wings and making noises. The babblers don’t ever actually fight the animal they want to drive off； they just make enough noises and flaps around enough so that it seems that attacking a babbler isn’t worth it
They found that the deception works when the group reaches a certain size—essentially, when enough birds arrive to convince the enemy that it’s best to back off . Davis modeled that behavior in software using a military scene and found that it worked even if the group didn’t have the firepower to confront the enemy directly.
The military is interested in this because a robot that can fool an opponent is a valuable tool. It could lead an enemy down a fake trail or make itself look more dangerous than it actually is.
【小题1】Why does the military want to take advantage of squirrels’trick?

Deception (骗术）is something that people do all the time ,and it plays an important role in military (军事的)strategy. Now some researchers are trying to figure out how to get robots to do it, by looking at the behavior of squirrels and birds.
At Georgia Tech, a team led by Ronald Arkin , a professor at the School of interactive Computing, studied the literature on squirrels hiding their acorns (橡果）.Squirrels will hide their food m a certain place, but when they see other squirrels trying to steal from them, they attempt to fool the thieves by running to a fake location.
Ronald Arkin and his Ph. D. student Jaeeun Shim used that as a model for robot behavior. They programmed the robot into tricking a “predator (捕食者）” machine by doing what εi squirrel does： showing the enemy a false location for an important resource.
The team also looked at how other animals in this case，a species of bird called Arabian babbler~ drive off predators. A babbler will make an alarm call when they see a predator and other babblers will join the bird and make more calls. They then surround the predator, all the while flapping (拍打）wings and making noises. The babblers don’t ever actually fight the animal they want to drive off； they just make enough noises and flaps around enough so that it seems that attacking a babbler isn’t worth it
They found that the deception works when the group reaches a certain size—essentially, when enough birds arrive to convince the enemy that it’s best to back off . Davis modeled that behavior in software using a military scene and found that it worked even if the group didn’t have the firepower to confront the enemy directly.
The military is interested in this because a robot that can fool an opponent is a valuable tool. It could lead an enemy down a fake trail or make itself look more dangerous than it actually is

1. 1.

   Why does the military want to take advantage of squirrels’trick?

   1. A.
      It can reduce the use of firepower to confront the enemy
   2. B.
      It can fool the enemy into believing it is more dangerous
   3. C.
      It can lead the enemy in a wrong direction to avoid losing resources
   4. D.
      It can scare the enemy away who wants to destroy the acorns
2. 2.

   Which of the following is NOT the way Arabian babblers drive off predators?

   1. A.
      One bird makes an alarm call and other birds will join it
   2. B.
      They fight the enemy bravely face to face
   3. C.
      They make noises and flaps around the predator
   4. D.
      They force the predator aware that it isn't worthwhile to attack
3. 3.

   What is the main idea of the passage?

   1. A.
      Animals' behaviors are researched to be applied to the study of military robots
   2. B.
      Robots, fooling tricks are applied to the study of animals’behaviors
   3. C.
      Birds and squirrels are the animals that are good at deception
   4. D.
      Researchers are interested m animals’military-related behaviors