Helping Paws

Craig Cook has a very special service partner—a twenty-five-year-old female capuchin monkey named Minnie. In 2012, when he was thirty years old, Craig was in a car _______ that left him a quadriplegic, someone whose arms and legs don’t work properly. For several years, Craig needed help from other people for such basic needs _______ getting a drink of water. Then Minnie came to Craig through the Helping Hands Organization.

Minnie was born at Southwick’s Zoo in New York. As part of the special Helping Hands program, while she was a baby, she was given to a foster (寄养) family _______ cared for her and helped her learn to live with people. She learned basic _______ such as turning off lights and fetching on command.

Next, Minnie _______ the Helping Hands Monkey College for two years. At the college, she learned tasks that would help a(n) _______ person. These included taking food out of a refrigerator, turning pages in a book one at a time, and picking up objects that had been dropped. It is a long _______ process, but capuchin monkeys can live to be forty-five years old. So they can be _______ to provide service for many years.

Craig said, “Living with Minnie is like living with a good friend. And since she’s been with me, Minnie’s learned _______ more neat things to do, like making popcorn in the microwave (微波炉). Thanks to Minnie, I can live ________ with caregivers only coming in for a short time each day. And, when I go out, instead of being seen as the guy in the wheelchair, I’m now the guy with the monkey.”

The British must have really high standards. I was part of a student exchange programme between a university in England and my university in China. I had spent days in     11     (prepare) for my first English paper. I knew I did a good job and was looking forward     12     getting a positive comment. When I got the paper back, I found that my teacher     13     (write) the comment “Not bad!” Not bad? But there weren’t any     14     (mistake) in my paper.

The college entrance examination is just around the corner. Homework and tests will keep many of you up late at night, and you may plan to make up for your lost sleep during the weekends.     15     is it useful? A study published in the journal Current Biology completely has changed     16     people used to think. It shows that the habit of sleeping in on weekends doesn’t fix the damage done by a lack of sleep during the week. Even     17     (bad), it may damage your health.

The International Day of Families, which     18     (name) by the United Nations in 1993, is held on May 15^th every year. The day celebrates the     19     (important) of families. It aims     20     (develop) people’s understanding of issues that are related to families. With a different theme each year, the day is observed with a wide range of events that are organized at local, national and international levels.

Don’t you think robots are a part of your life? In factories, robots put together everything from toys to cars. Some homes have robots that sweep floors or mow the lawn(剪草坪). And more robots are soon to come.

	Like a Human Robots don’t expect any thanks for all the work they do for us. After all, they don’t have feelings. But that may be changing with Nexi, a robot created by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Nexi can move its face to show anger, happiness, or sadness. It can also raise its eyebrows to show surprise.
	24 How would you like a robot to help clean up your toys, or one that plays hide-and-seek with you? Nao can be programmed to do both those activities, and more. A two- foot-tall robot, Nao was designed by a company in France to be a helper and companion. It can talk, walk and even remember faces, voices, and places. Also, it can be programmed to assist with daily tasks, such as checking e-mails.
	Robots at Work Need a lift out of bed? RIBA, short for “Robot for Interactive Body Assistance”, will lend its helpful arms! Some patients at hospitals and nursing homes have a hard time getting in and out of bed. RIBA can gently lift a patient out of bed and help him or her into a wheelchair. The robot can safely pick up and carry people weighing 135 pounds.
	Water Bots Robots that work in water—and look like familiar sea creatures—are making news lately. One of them is a robotic fish. Researchers built the robo-fish to swim in water to detect pollution. There’s even a robotic penguin called the AP, which uses flippers(鱼鳍) to paddle and can move in all directions.

Experts predict that by 2025 we could have robots in every household! You might be living or working with one of them every day!