While the novel coronavirus is dangerous for everyone, it is particularly so for the first respond-ere who are being exposed to the illness daily. In the US alone, almost 5,500 nurses, doctors, and other healthcare professionals have been infected with COVID-19. Unfortunately, of these, dozens have succumbed to the disease. Now, hospital workers worldwide may get some relief thanks to Spot, a semi-autonomous four-legged robot developed by Waltham, Massachusetts-based robotics company, Boston Dynamics.
“Starting in early March, Boston Dynamics started receiving inquiries from hospitals asking if our robots could help minimize their staff ’s exposure to COVID-19,” the company writes in a blog post. In response, the company reconfigured (改装）the 3-foot tall robot to operate as a mobile telemedicine platform, enabling healthcare providers to determine a patient’s condition remotely.
The first four-legged robot“dog” was working in the Brigham and Women’s Hospital of Harvard University on April 9, 2020. Equipped with an iPad “face” and a two-way radio that allows for real-time conversation, Spot helps doctors to speak to patients without coming in contact with them.
“With current practice at local hospitals, patients suspected to have COVID-19 are asked to line up in tents outside to answer questions and get initial assessments for temperature. This process requires up to five medical staff, placing those individuals at high risk of being exposed to the virus,”Boston Dynamics explains.“With the use of a mobile robot, hospitals are able to reduce the number of necessary medical staff at the scene and conserve their limited PPE (personal protective equipment) supply.” The company says the doctors can even use Spot to talk to patients from the safety of their own homes.
Though Spot has already proved extremely helpful, the robotics manufacturer believes it can be even more so. The engineers are currently working on“teaching” the robot to perform tasks like temperature checks. The company is also developing new technology that will allow Spot to aid in the disinfection (消毒)of hospitals as well as other public areas.
1.What does the underlined phrase“succumbed to” probably mean in the first paragraph?
A.Suffered from. B.Recovered from.
C.Died from. D.Resulted from.
2.What will happen with the help of the robot?
A.No medical workers will be needed at the scene.
B.Medical workers will become much safer.
C.Suspected patients needn’t line up in tents.
D.Medical workers won’t be infected with viruses.
3.What can Spot do at present?
A.Communicating with the suspected patients.
B.Checking a person’s temperature in the clinic.
C.Assisting people in the disinfection of hospitals.
D.Showing people how to wear protective masks.
4.Which of the following is the best title of the passage?
A.Boston Dynamics Developed A Robot Dog
B.A Robot Was Developed to Assist Doctors
C.COVID -19 Virus Endangers Medical Workers
D.Robot Dog Joins The Fight Against COVID-19
In 1972, Richard Sears, a young American from the state of Tennessee, began learning Chinese because of his fascination with traditional Chinese culture.
“Chinese characters are the only ancient script now still in use in the world and it’s a miracle of human history,” said Sears in fluent Chinese.
As a primitive form of Chinese characters and the oldest fully developed characters in China, Jiaguwen, or oracle bone inscriptions, were first discovered in 1899 and aimed for their inscriptions on tortoise shells and animal bones.
Drawn to the ancient language, Sears often went back and forth between China and the US. In 1994, he made a decision to make the ancient Chinese characters available online. Taking advantage of his professional skill，Sears started programming and building a database of oracle bone inscriptions on his own. It took him seven years just to scan the characters in Chinese ancient books. In 2002, the Jiaguwen enthusiast’s website was launched, though with only a few page views per day in the beginning. However, it surged to 600,000 per day in 2011 after a blogger recommended the site on Chinese social media platform Weibo. “I became a web celebrity overnight and was given a nickname ‘Uncle Hanzi’,” Sears said with a smile. Hanzi means Chinese characters.
During the past 26 years, he has accumulated a great deal of information on his website-more than 96,000 ancient Chinese character forms from archeological sources. Up till now, the web site has been continuously updated, giving lovers of the ancient language from all over the world free access to browse at their leisure. In order to reveal the mystery behind the ancient characters, he spent a great deal of money and time buying and going through dozens of books, living on a shoestring.
Since last year, Sears has been working with a Chinese technology company on a smartphone application for children to learn about how the characters evolved. The app is expected to be launched next year.
1.Which of the following is true of oracle bone inscriptions?
A.They used to spread to other countries in Europe.
B.It is over 100 years since they were first discovered.
C.They are the only ancient language still in use today.
D.They were named for their inscriptions on hard rocks.
2.What can we infer about Richard Sears?
A.He has a good command of the computer. B.He is promoting his website in the U. S. A.
C.He developed a smartphone app for adults. D.He has made a fortune from the website.
3.What happened to Sears’s website in 2011?
A.It was attacked by hackers. B.It declined gradually.
C.It boomed suddenly. D.It suffered a big loss.
4.What kind of life is Richard Sears leading now?
A.He is now leading a wealthy life. B.He is now leading a lonely life.
C.He is now leading a quiet life. D.He is now leading a plain life.
Local 10 Third EARTH Day Art Contest
Open only to Florida schools within the Monroe, Miami-Dade and Broward County viewing area.
Local 10 is inviting South Florida art teachers and students, from grades K-12, to participate in its third annual EARTH Day Art Contest.
In the last two years, the popular, environmentally-centered contest has recognized two schools, Air Base K-8 in Homestead and Lawton Chiles Middle School in Hialeah, for their winning entries and awarded a total of $9,000 to the schools’ art programs.
As part of a class project, art students are encouraged to create a work of art with an environmental theme. The entry must be novel and unique. To enter the class project into the contest, the art teacher representing their students and schools must go to www. loca110. com, click on the contest link to enter and submit a photo of the class’s innovative EARTH Day work of art. The art teacher must fill out an entry form, giving school name, teacher name and class, address, email address and phone number. Only paintings and sculptures are eligible. Special consideration will be given to works of art featuring materials taken from nature.
Local 10 will determine the ten finalists. The final winner will be chosen from among the finalists by viewer votes on the Internet. Photos and entry forms may be submitted online from February 3,2020，until 11:59 p.m. March 9,2020. The voting period is from March 23,2020，through April 13,2020. Only timely submitted entries will be eligible to win. The winning school will be announced on Earth Day, Wednesday, April 22 and will receive $4,500 in art supplies for their school’s art department.
For more information, click here. The Local 10 EARTH Day Art Contest is proudly sponsored by Publix, where every day is Earth Day.
1.According to the rule, the entry must be .
A.attractive B.original C.classic D.portable
2.What is the art teacher expected to do?
A.To complete an entry form. B.To create a work of art.
C.To submit his / her photo. D.To offer kids art supplies.
3.How will the final winner be determined?
A.By Local 10. B.By art teachers.
C.By the sponsor. D.By online voting.
假定你是李华，你的外国笔友Jeff得知你参加了你校学生会主办的“我最敬佩的科学家”故事分享会，写信询问有关情况。请你回复邮件，内容包括：
1. 感谢关注：
2. 你的分享；
3. 你的感想。
注意：
1. 词数100左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear Jeff,
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
假定英语课上要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中并有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划拟。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2. 只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
The day when we returned to school was impressive. Because the COVID-19 outbreak, we had to stay home during the three months’ “vacation”. I was touching when I stepped into the school, where remained clean and neat. The staff must have worked hard to keep everything tidy and safe but we could study in a comfortable environment. There were sign telling us to wash hands frequently and wearing masks. Mr. Chen, our headteacher, greeted us warm in the classroom. A mask was covered most of his face, but his eyes were shining. He said we had done his part to stop the disease spreading. What a unforgettable day!
阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式.
“Du Fu: China’s Greatest Poet,”a 58-minute documentary released recently on BBC, introduces Du Fu to the Western world for the first time1.the form of documentary. In the film, Michael Wood, one of BBC's most popular hosts, visited a number of Chinese2.(city) to retrace Du’s steps. The documentary invited well-known British actor Ian McKellen,3.played Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings movies,4.(read) 15 of Du’s poems that have been translated into English.
Born in 712, Du Fu lived through the violent fall of China’s brilliant Tang Dynasty. lie had the desire to serve his country, but his life5.(destroy) by the An Lushan Rebellion of 755. Of6.many poems he wrote, 500 have been preserved over the ages. For generations he7.(be) the guardian of the moral conscience（良知）of the nation.
The documentary compared Du to Shakespeare to help audiences8.(well) understand the poet’s great achievements in literature. It also highlighted Chinese poetry, noting that its 3000-year-old history makes9.the oldest living tradition of poetry in the world.
During an interview, the director even quoted a line from Du to encourage the people10.(suffer) under the COVID-19 pandemic（流行病).
