A team of engineers at Harvard University has been inspired by Nature to create the first robotic fly. The mechanical fly has become a platform for a series of new high-tech integrated systems. Designed to do what a fly does naturally, the tiny machine is the size of a fat housefly. Its mini wings allow it to stay in the air and perform controlled flight tasks.
“It’s extremely important for us to think about this as a whole system and not just the sum of a bunch of individual components (元件),” said Robert Wood, the Harvard engineering professor who has been working on the robotic fly project for over a decade. A few years ago, his team got the go-ahead to start piecing together the components. “The added difficulty with a project like this is that actually none of those components are off the shelf and so we have to develop them all on our own,” he said.
They engineered a series of systems to start and drive the robotic fly. “The seemingly simple system which just moves the wings has a number of interdependencies on the individual components, each of which individually has to perform well, but then has to be matched well to everything it’s connected to,” said Wood. The flight device was built into a set of power, computation, sensing and control systems. Wood says the success of the project proves that the flying robot with these tiny components can be built and manufactured.
While this first robotic flyer is linked to a small, off-board power source, the goal is eventually to equip it with a built-in power source, so that it might someday perform data-gathering work at rescue sites, in farmers’ fields or on the battlefield. “Basically it should be able to take off, land and fly around,” he said.
Wood says the design offers a new way to study flight mechanics and control at insect-scale. Yet, the power, sensing and computation technologies on board could have much broader applications. “You can start thinking about using them to answer open scientific questions, you know, to study biology in ways that would be difficult with the animals, but using these robots instead,” he said. “So there are a lot of technologies and open interesting scientific questions that are really what drives us on a day to day basis.”
【小题1】The difficulty the team of engineers met with while making the robotic fly was that __________.

A．they had no model in their mind

B．they did not have sufficient time

C．they had no ready-made components

D．they could not assemble the components

【小题2】It can be inferred from paragraphs 3 and 4 that the robotic fly __________.

A．consists of a flight device and a control system

B．can just fly in limited areas at the present time

C．can collect information from many sources

D．has been put into wide application

【小题3】Which of the following can be learned from the passage?

A．The robotic flyer is designed to learn about insects.

B．Animals are not allowed in biological experiments.

C．There used to be few ways to study how insects fly.

D．Wood’s design can replace animals in some experiments.

【小题4】Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?

A．Father of Robotic Fly

B．Inspiration from Engineering Science

C．Robotic Fly Imitates Real Life Insect

D．Harvard Breaks Through in Insect Study

   Technological innovation（创新）may not give you a warm feeling. 【小题1】 Messaging apps are examples of technology that is helping bring people together. It’s ready to continue improving our lives as innovation allows technology to really understand how we live.

【小题2】

Some of the most popular and widely adopted innovations make things we’re already doing easier. A well-designed piece of technology can transform something that consumes time into a worry-free touch of your finger, giving you more time to spend with friends and family.

Proving that you really are you

Developers keep finding new and brilliant ways to prove our identities online. With fingerprints and voice recognition, technology keeps getting better at proving we are who we say we are. 【小题3】 .The more trust we have, the easier it will be to fully welcome the aspects of fintech（金融科技）and have control of our financial data.

Helping make good ideas a reality

Crowdfunding（众筹）technology keeps breaking down walls that may have previously kept good ideas from being realized. Here’s how it works: You throw your project to people through an online platform. 【小题4】 . By connecting dreamers and inventors to a new type of capital, technology is giving more creative ideas the opportunity to become a reality.

Adding even more quality to quality time

As technology continues improving, it becomes easier to build and keep a connection with someone who isn’t in the same location as you. 【小题5】 . And think about how great it will be when you can communicate with your friends and relatives in virtual reality. It will be the next best thing to be together in person.

A．Sparing some time to make friends

B．Freeing up more time for friends and family

C．However, when at its best, it opens our eyes to many things

D．Actually, it can do wonders to deepen our interpersonal connections

E．Think about how much easier it is to have a video meeting than before

F．This can make it easier to trust the connections we make online

G．If they are interested in your project, they donate money to fund your project

   Leon，12，was born without fingers on his left hand. That didn't stop him from being able to do many tasks. But Leon could not grasp more than one object at a time. So Leon's father，Paul，created a prosthesis（义肢），using a3-D printer. Now Leon has fingers that can open and close. "It was a do-it-yourself，father and son adventure，" says Paul.

When Leon was a baby，his doctor advised his parents not to give him a prosthetic hand until he was in his early teens. "The doctor said Leon should first learn to get full use of the hand he was born with，"says Paul. As Leon got older，his father considered buying a prosthetic hand，which can cost as much as $30，000. Then Paul found a more affordable solution.

One day，Paul discovered a video on the Internet about Robohand，a prosthesis created by a 3--D printer. He downloaded the free instructions and called Robohand's creators for advice. They told him all he needed was a 3-D printer-which costs around $2，000 and some materials.

Luckily，Leon's school had recently bought a 3-D printer and it offered to help Paul build the hand for Leon. "We used a soccer shin pad（护胫），cardboard，and tape. They cost about $10，"says Paul.

With his new hand，Leon can do things better. "I can help my mom more，because now I can carry two grocery bags，"he says.

Leon's father has already built several hands for Leon. Leon helps design each one. He says there's one thing in particular that he wants to do with a future prosthesis. "The goal，"he tells the reporter from the local evening paper，"is to be able to tie my shoelaces（鞋带）".

【小题1】Why did Leon's doctor disapprove of his using a prosthesis in his childhood?

A．The prosthetic technology was underdeveloped then.

B．A prosthesis was very expensive at that time.

C．To learn to use the disabled hand was important.

D．The original hand could do many tasks.

【小题2】Leon's father managed to get Leon a new hand by _________.

A．collecting money on the Internet

B．buying a prosthetic hand

C．buying a 3-D printer

D．printing a hand

【小题3】The materials used for Leon's hand can be described as _______.

A．cheap and common

B．strange and valuable

C．personal and lovely

D．basic and solid

【小题4】What is the best title for the passage？

A．A DIY Enthusiast	B．A Helping Hand
C．A Great Adventure	D．A Lucky Escape

   Nature has its own way of balancing itself out，but when we humans get involved，we tend to throw things out of control. Forests and oceans are natural carbon sinks that absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but since we’ve been pumping too much into the air, those sinks can’t keep up. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for the Advancement of Science in Germany, led by biologist Tobias Erb，have figured out a way to supercharge plants to make them better at absorbing carbon dioxide, which could be a key defense against climate change.

Erb and his team figured out a way to make plants more efficient（效率高的）at absorbing carbon, so that they consumed more carbon in a shorter amount of time. “If you think about plants, they are efficient carbon dioxide -fixing filters, but they are not fast,” Erb said. “I think there is a chance to improve existing biology with synthetic（人造的）biology.”

Erb’s team identified 17 enzymes（酶）from nine different organisms, re-engineering three of them, which had enlarged carbon consumption. When those enzymes worked together as a team, they worked better at not only plants’ natural enzymes, but also themselves individually.

Existing enzymes in plants consume about 5 to 10 molecules（分子）of carbon dioxide per second. The team of enzymes that Erb used consumed 80 molecules per second.

So far, these enzymes have only been tested in test tubes in the lab, but the next step is real world testing where the enzymes would be introduced into plants to see if the same result occurs. If those tests show that plants really can be supercharged, we will have a new tool in the fight against climate change where not only do we protect the amazing carbon-absorbing forests we have, but we also apply these super plants or an artificial leaf technology using the enzymes into other fields.

【小题1】Why can't forests and oceans balance nature nowadays?

A．Oceans and forests are getting smaller.

B．We human beings give off too much carbon dioxide.

C．A large number of forests are cut down.

D．There are too many creatures in the world.

【小题2】Which is the key defense against climate change according to Erb and his team?

A．To increase the plants' ability and efficiency to absorb carbon dioxide.

B．To make oceans and forests absorb more carbon dioxide quickly.

C．To reduce humans' activities giving off too much carbon dioxide.

D．To increase the number of plants in the world.

【小题3】What can we conclude from the last paragraph?

A．The enzymes have proved useful in the real world.

B．Erb’s team are confident about the technology.

C．The enzymes only work in the lab.

D．The technology may have a bright future.

【小题4】This passage is intended to ____.

A．introduce a possible way to better plants’ ability to absorb carbon dioxide

B．call on people to pay more attention to the balance of nature

C．analyze the cause and result of climate change related to plants

D．explore the possibility of using plants to fight against climate change

短文改错

Can you imagine wear a pretty sweater made from garbages? It could happen! A few companies across the country are making clothes from things that are being thrown away by people. For example, company makes sweaters of old plastic bottles. First, the bottles are cut into small pieces. The pieces are melted. Then the melting plastic is made into long and thin threads. The threads are used to make sweaters which feels very soft and light.

Believe it or not, these sweaters sell good in spite of the fact which they are not cheap at all. Many people thought that these recycled clothes can help us cut down on garbage.