British scientists have been given £ 1 million by the European Commission to find out if a robot (机器人) can safely be employed to stir (搅拌) soup.The research, based at the Bristol Robotics Lab (BRL), will look at the problems of a human and a robot working together in the same space; for example, in a kitchen where the service robot is performing a task such as stirring soup while you add cream.Professor Chris Melhuish explained, "When we work with other humans, we are trying to understand facial expression, body movements, quality of voice, as well as sharing a goal and understanding and following spoken instructions. ""For example, in the soup situation, not only does the robot need to know what the goal is ( making the soup) but he also needs to know how hard to stir the soup, what it means when you hold up your hand to say enough, to understand the look of pain on your face if you accidentally get wet with hot soup, and to stop stirring when told. The research aims to develop the rules we need to introduce this level of cleverness into service robots who are working closely with people. "Professor Melhuish, of the BRL, said robots working in factories at present are kept behind gates for safety reasons--a measure that is not practical in the kitchen.The research is a joint effort between robotic engineers and scientists from West of England and Bristol universities. According to Professor Melhuish, a service robot should be able to ().
A. understand human instructions
B. show feelings by the looks on its face
C. follow the thoughts in its master’s mind
D. express itself through body movements
I was in my third year of teaching writing at Ralph High School in New York, when one of my students, 15-year-old Mikey, gave me a note from his mother. It explained his absence (缺席) from class the day before:"Dear Mr. McCort, Mikey’s grandmother, who is eighty years of age, fell down the stairs from too much coffee and I kept Mikey at home to take care of her and his baby sister so I could go to my job. Please excuse Mikey and he’ll do his best in the future. P.S. His grandmother is OK. "I had seen Mikey writing the note at his desk. I said nothing. Most parental-excuse notes I received were penned by my students. If I were to deal with them, I’d be busy 24 hours a day. The writers of those notes didn’t realize that honest excuse notes were usually dull : "Peter was late because the alarm clock didn’t go off. "The students always said it was bard putting 200 words together on any subject, but when they produced excuse notes, they were excellent. So I decided to type out a dozen excuse notes and gave them to my classes. I said, "They’re supposed to be written by parents, but actually they are not. True, Mikey" The students looked at me nervously."Now, this will be the first class to study the art of the excuse note -the first class, ever, to practice writing them. " Everyone smiled as I went on, "Today I’d like you to write An Excuse Note from Adam to God’ or ’ An Excuse Note from Eve to God’. " Heads went down. Pens raced across paper. For the first time ever I saw students so immersed (专心的) in their writing, they had to be asked to go to lunch by their friends.The next day everyone had excuse notes. Heated discussions followed. But suddenly I saw the headmaster at the door. He entered the classroom and walked up and down, looking at papers, and then said, "I’d like you to see me in my office. " My heart sank.When I stepped into his office, he came to shake my hand and said, "I just want to tell you that that lesson, that task, whatever the hell you were doing, was great. Those kids were writing on the college level. Thank you. \ What did the headmaster think of the author’s way of teaching ?()
A. Effective.
B. Difficult.
C. Misleading.
D. Reasonable.