As civilization proceeds in the direction of technology, it passes the point of supplying all the basic essentials of life--food, shelter, clothes, and warmth. 46) Then we either raise our standard of living above the necessary for comfort and happiness or leave it at this level and work shorter hours. Mankind has probably chosen the latter alternative. Men will be working shorter and shorter hours in their paid employment. And the great majority of the housewives will wish to be relieved completely of the routine operations of the home such as washing the clothes or washing up.47) By far the most logical step to relieve the housewife of routine is to provide a robot slave which can be trained to meet the requirements of a particular home and can be programmed to carry out half a dozen or more standard operations, when so switched by the housewife. 48) It will be a machine having no more emotions than a car, but having a memory for instructions and a limited degree of instructed or built-in adaptability according to the positions in which it finds various types of objects. It will operate other more specialized machines, for example, the vacuum cleaner or clothes-washing machine.There are no problems in the production of such a domestic robot to which we do not have already the glimmering of a solution. When I have discussed this kind of device with housewives, some 90 percent of them have the immediate reaction, "How soon can I buy one" The other 10 percent have the reaction, "I would be terrified to have it moving about my house." 49) But when one explains to them that it could be switched off or unplugged or stopped without the slightest difficulty, or made to go and put itself away in a cupboard at any time, they quickly realize that it is a highly desirable object. 50) Now it is generally recognized that there is no greater pleasure than to go to bed in the evening and know that the washing up is being done downstairs after one is asleep. Most families are now delighted, no doubt, to have a robot slave doing all the downstairs housework after they were in bed at night. (376 words)Notes: glimmering 迹象。 50
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Look After Your VoiceOften speakers at a meeting experience dry mouths and ask for a glass of water. You can solve the problem by activating the saliva in your mouth. First gently bite the edges of your tongue with your teeth. Or, press your entire tongue to the bottom of your mouth and hold it there until the saliva flow. Or you can imagine that you are slicing a big juicy lemon and sucking the juice.Before you begin your talk, be kind to your voice. Avoid milk or creamy drinks that coat your throat. Keep your throat wet by drinking a little sweetened warm tea or diluted fruit juice.If you sense that you are losing your voice, stop talking completely. Save your voice for your speech. You may feel foolish using paper to write notes, but the best thing you can do is to rest your voice. If you need to see a doctor, perhaps you can get some advice from a professional singer In the meantime, do not even talk in a low voice.What about drinking alcohol to wet your throat I advice you not to touch alcohol before speaking. The problem with alcohol is that one drink gives you a little confidence. Two drinks gives you even more confidence. Finally you will feel all-powerful and you will feel you can do everything, but in fact your brain and your mouth do not work together properly. Save the alcohol until after you finish speaking.Perhaps you want to accept the advice, but you may wonder if you can change the habits of a lifetime. Of course you can. Goethe, who lived before indoor skating rinks or swimming pools, said, "we learn to skate in the summer and swim in the winter." Take this message to heart and give yourself time to develop your new habits. If you are willing to change, you will soon be able to say that you will never forget these techniques because they became a part of your body. The writer’s advice about alcohol before you make a speech is to take one or two drinks so as to give yourself some confidence.()
A. Right
B. Wrong
C. Not mentioned
A. Urgent Need for Both Donors and Funds B. Shortage of Donors C. Desperate Leukaemia Patients D. Seriousness of the Current Situation E. Shortage of Funds F. Comparison Between Mainland and Hong Kong and Taiwan Paragraph 5 ______.
When anyone opens a current account at a bank, he is lending the bank money. He may (1) the repayment of the money at any time, either (2) cash or by drawing a check in favor of another person. (3) , the banker-customer relationship is that of debtor and creditor who is (4) depending on whether the customer’s account is (5) credit or is overdrawn. But, in (6) to that basically simple concept, the bank and its customer (7) a large number of obligations to one another. Many of these obligations can give (8) to problems and complications but a bank customer, unlike, say, a buyer of goods, cannot complain that the law is (9) against him.The bank must (10) its customer’s instructions, and not those of anyone else. (11) , for example, a customer opens an account, he instructs the bank to debit his account only in (12) of checks drawn by himself. He gives the bank (13) of his signature, and there is a very firm rule that the bank has no right or (14) to pay out a customer’s money (15) a check on which its customer’s signature has been (16) It makes no difference that the forgery may have been a very (17) one: the bank must recognize its customer’s signature. For this reason there is no (18) to the customer in the practice, (19) by banks, of printing the customer’s name on his checks. If this (20) Forgery, it is the bank that will lose, not the customer. (254 words) 6()
A. support
B. contrast
C. regard
D. addition
Look After Your VoiceOften speakers at a meeting experience dry mouths and ask for a glass of water. You can solve the problem by activating the saliva in your mouth. First gently bite the edges of your tongue with your teeth. Or, press your entire tongue to the bottom of your mouth and hold it there until the saliva flow. Or you can imagine that you are slicing a big juicy lemon and sucking the juice.Before you begin your talk, be kind to your voice. Avoid milk or creamy drinks that coat your throat. Keep your throat wet by drinking a little sweetened warm tea or diluted fruit juice.If you sense that you are losing your voice, stop talking completely. Save your voice for your speech. You may feel foolish using paper to write notes, but the best thing you can do is to rest your voice. If you need to see a doctor, perhaps you can get some advice from a professional singer In the meantime, do not even talk in a low voice.What about drinking alcohol to wet your throat I advice you not to touch alcohol before speaking. The problem with alcohol is that one drink gives you a little confidence. Two drinks gives you even more confidence. Finally you will feel all-powerful and you will feel you can do everything, but in fact your brain and your mouth do not work together properly. Save the alcohol until after you finish speaking.Perhaps you want to accept the advice, but you may wonder if you can change the habits of a lifetime. Of course you can. Goethe, who lived before indoor skating rinks or swimming pools, said, "we learn to skate in the summer and swim in the winter." Take this message to heart and give yourself time to develop your new habits. If you are willing to change, you will soon be able to say that you will never forget these techniques because they became a part of your body. The first paragraph mentions three ways of activating the saliva in the mouth.()
A. Right
B. Wrong
C. Not mentioned