Like many other five-year-olds, Jeanie Low of Houston, Texas, would use a stool (凳子) to help her reach the bathroom sink. However, the plastic step-stool she had at home was unstable and messed up the small bathroom shared by her whole family. After learning of an invention contest held by her school that year, Jeanie resolved to enter the contest by creating a stool that would be a permanent fixture in the bathroom, and yet could be kept out of the way when not in use.
Jeanie decided to make a stool attached to the bathroom cabinet door under the sink. She cut a board of wood into two pieces, each about two feet wide and one foot long. Using metal hinges (铰链), Jeanie attached one piece of the wood to the front of the cabinet door, and the second piece to the first. The first piece was set just high enough so that when it swung out horizontally from the cabinet door, the second piece would swing down from the first, just touching the ground, and so serving as a support for the first piece of the wood. This created a convenient, strong platform for any person too short to reach the sink. When not in use, the hinges allowed the two pieces of wood to fold back up tightly against the cabinet, where they were held in place by magnets (磁铁). Jeanie called her invention “the Kiddie Stool”.
Jeanie’s Kiddie Stool won first place in her school’s contest. Two years later, it was awarded first prize again at Houston’s first annual Invention Fair. As a result, Jeanie was invited to make a number of public appearances with her Kiddie Stool, and was featured on local TV as well as in newspapers. Many people found the story of the Kiddie Stool inspiring because it showed that with a pair of observant eyes, anyone can be an inventor.
1. What are the characteristics of Jeanie’s Kiddie Stool?| A．Permanent and foldable. | B．Fragile and disposable. |
| C．Conventional and portable. | D．Convenient and recyclable. |
| A．Failure is the mother of success. |
| B．Necessity is the mother of invention. |
| C．Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. |
| D．Invention requires both disciplines and wild imagination. |
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【推荐1】By using positive reinforcement (强化), an approach familiar to anyone who’s used treats to change a dog’s behavior, a team dramatically improved a robot’s skills and did it quickly enough to make training robots for real-world work a more workable enterprise. The findings are newly published in a paper called, “Good Robot!”
Unlike humans and animals that are born with highly intuitive (有直觉力的) brains, robots are blank slates (写字板) and must learn everything from scratch. But true learning is often accomplished by trial and error, and roboticists are still figuring out how robots can learn efficiently from their mistakes.
With an effort the team accomplished that by designing a reward system that works for a robot in the way treats work for a dog. Where a dog might get a cookie for a job well done, the robot got an incentive too.
Andrew Hundt, lead author of the study, recalled how he once taught his puppy named Leah the command “Leave it”, so she could ignore squirrels on walks. He used two types of treats, ordinary trainer treats and something even better, like cheese. When Leah was excited and sniffing around the treats, she got nothing. But when she calmed down and looked away, she got the good stuff. “That’s when I gave her the cheese and said, ‘Leave it! Good Leah!’” He later decided to try that method on robots.
Similarly, to stack (码放整齐) blocks, Spot, the robot, needed to learn how to focus on constructive actions. As the robot explored the blocks, it quickly learned that correct behaviors for stacking earned high points, but incorrect ones earned nothing. Reach out but don’t grasp a block? No points. Knock over a stack? Definitely no points. Spot earned the most by placing the last block on top of a four-block stack.
“The robot wants the higher score,“ Hundt said. ”It quickly learns the right behavior to get the best reward. In fact, it used to take a month of practice for the robot to achieve 100% accuracy. We were able to do it in two days.”
1. What did the team want to achieve by creating the new approach?| A．To reduce the error rate of robots performing tasks. |
| B．To develop a robot able to learn by itself. |
| C．To figure out robots’ way of learning. |
| D．To help improve robots’ learning efficiency. |
| A．Won an award. | B．Had a special talent. |
| C．Raised an interest. | D．Experienced some mistakes. |
| A．To help us better understand their findings. |
| B．To make the text more attractive to animal lovers. |
| C．To show dogs are actually very clever. |
| D．To explain how he got inspiration for the study. |
| A．The process of training Spot to stack blocks. |
| B．The possibility of a robot’s earning high points. |
| C．The superiority of Spot as a newly developed robot. |
| D．The significance of having robots work with blocks. |
【推荐2】Although most empty plastic bottles are thrown, there are actually many other ways you can reuse them other than drinking.
When making biscuits, did you just realize you didn’t have any tools to cut them? You just need a small or large plastic bottle depending on your needs. First cut the bottle into half.
Do you find it challenging to separate eggs?
Want to remove flies in your garden safely? Use plastic bottles. Cut the bottle into half and place a sweet syrup (糖浆) at the bottom. Then place the top in the bottom so that the bottle mouth faces down. The fly will be attracted to the smell and fly into the bottle hole. Once in the bottle, the fly will climb through a narrow opening without thinking about how to get out and eventually dies.
Air conditionerSometimes, the fan removes hot air and does not cool the room but now we have a solution!
| A．The trap |
| B．The harm of flies |
| C．Pour the water out from the large bottles |
| D．You can solve this problem with plastic bottles |
| E．Fill two large bottles with water and turn into ice |
| F．And then you just take one of two parts to cut the cookies |
| G．They allow you to recycle creatively for a variety of purposes |
【推荐3】Amazing Scientists Who happen to Be Teenagers
We’ve got a list of teen scientists from a variety of fields.
Jack Andraka
Jack Andraka created a bio-sensor for cancer that he says is 168 times faster, 26,667 times less expensive and 400 times more sensitive than technology nowadays. He is the youngest person to have spoken in front of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Taylor Wilson
Taylor Wilson was the youngest person to achieve nuclear fusion. He was inspired by The Radioactive Boy Scout, a novel in which a kid tries and fails to build a nuclear reactor.
Taylor thought he could do better. Long story short, he wanted to build a mall nuclear reactor. And he did it at the age of fourteen. He received a Thiel Fellowship, which gave him $100,000 to work on his own research.
Sara Volz
Sara Volz performed experiments in which she grew algae based on their oil output for the purpose of growing them as biofuel. This research is especially important as the world continues to search for a way to lessen our dependence on non-renewable energy. She won the top prize of $100,000 in the Intel Science Talent Search.
Daniel Burd
Plastic usually takes thousands of years to decompose, but this high school student Daniel Burd managed to do it in three months.
In an experiment, he mixed plastic bags and a special kind of dirt together, and found that they did decompose faster. He then performed tests to find the bacteria responsible for decomposing the plastics.
His solution only produces water and small amounts of carbon dioxide. He says it could easily be used elsewhere.
1. Who designed a medical instrument?| A．Jack Andraka. | B．Taylor Wilson. | C．Sara Volz. | D．Daniel Burd. |
| A．Plastic pollution. | B．A story book. | C．Energy shortage. | D．A prize of $100,000. |
| A．It was completed in three months. | B．It won him a prize of $100,000. |
| C．It is environmentally friendly. | D．It is widely used in everyday waste. |
Doctor Strong first became famous almost fifty years ago when his first children’s book was published. Since then, he has written forty-five books that have sold more than one hundred million copies around the world.
Doctor Strong’s books are known for their easy use of words and colorful, hand-drawn pictures. These drawings bring life to his imaginary creatures. The Cat in the Hat, Horton the Elephant, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, and hundreds of others.
The San Diego Museum, in California, organized the art show. It included about three hundred Doctor Strong’s original(最早的) drawings and some of his writings.
Most of Doctor Strong’s books, although written in a funny way, have serious messages. For example, in Mc Elligot’s Pool, he describes the danger of pollution. He discusses the arms race in The Butter Battle Book, written in 1984.
Doctor Strong is almost eighty-four years old now. He says he never planned to write stories just for children. He says he writes stories that interest people of all ages. He says he uses easy words so that everyone, even a child, can understand.
1. Alfred Strong is a famous _______ in the United States.
| A．doctor | B．artist | C．writer | D．reader |
| A．his eighties when an art show was travelling around the United States |
| B．his fifties when his drawings and writings were published |
| C．1984 when his book Mc Elligot’s Pool was published |
| D．his thirties when his first book was published |
| A．they are stories about animals such as cats, elephants and so on |
| B．they are written in easy words with colorful pictures |
| C．he organized the art show in California |
| D．they are written in a funny way |
| A．to show his original pictures and drawings |
| B．to organize a special art show of his own |
| C．to make his readers laugh or smile when they read his books |
| D．not only to interest people but also to uncover some serious social problems |
【推荐2】Sam and Joe were spacemen. There was once a very dangerous trip and the more experienced spacemen knew there was only a small chance of coming back alive Sam and Joe, however, thought it would be full of excitement though a little dangerous.
“We’re the best men for the job,” they said to the boss. “There may be problems, but we can find the answers.”
“They’re the last people I’d trust,” thought the boss. “But all the other spacemen have refused to go.”
Once they were in space, Joe had to go outside to make some repairs. When the repairs were done, he tried to get back inside the spaceship. But the door was locked. He knocked but there was no answer. He knocked again, louder this time, and again no answer came. Then he hit the door as hard as he could and finally a voice said. “Who’s there?” “It’s me! Who else could it be?” shouted Joe. Sam let him in but you can imagine that Joe never asked to go on a trip with Sam again!
1. Why didn’t most of the spacemen want to go on the trip?| A．It wasn’t exciting enough | B．They weren’t experienced enough. |
| C．They thought they might get killed. | D．There was little chance of being selected |
| A．It would be exciting. | B．It would be long and tiring. |
| C．There wouldn’t be any danger. | D．There would be serious problems. |
| A．To make people think. | B．To make people laugh. |
| C．To show the funny side of the spacemen’s life. | D．To show the dangerous side of the spacemen’s life. |
【推荐3】A ten-year-old from Howell, Michigan is being praised as a hero thanks to his persistence (坚持) that led to saving the life of an elderly neighbor. The event happened late in an evening when Danny DiPietro was being driven home from hockey practice by his mom.
That’s when the young boy noticed an open garage (车库) and a figure (身影) that he believed was a dog outside an apartment building near his house. Given the freezing cold weather, the young boy got a feeling that something was not right. But instead of dismissing it like most kids his age would have, he insisted that his mother, Dawn, find out what was going on.Dawn tried to make Danny believe that no one would leave a dog out in such cold weather, but he refused to take no for an answer.
Dawn finally gave in and decided to drive to the area with the family dog and see if there was any truth to Danny’s hunch (直觉). Sure enough, as she got closer to the apartment building she noticed a garage that was wide open and someone waving madly for help. Upon getting there, she realized that it was not a dog the young boy had seen, but Kathleen St. Onge. The 80-year-old had fallen down on some ice in her garage and had been lying there for two hours, unable to get up.
Dawn rushed home to get her husband to help and called 911. The two then returned with some blankets to cover Ms. St. Onge, while they waited for the ambulance (救护车) to arrive. Though still in hospital, the elderly woman is recovering well and forever grateful to Danny, for following up on his hunch!
1. When seeing a figure in an open garage, Danny ________.| A．recognized it was an old man | B．thought it was a homeless dog |
| C．realized something was wrong | D．believed it was nothing important |
| A．Brave and patient. | B．Friendly and honest. |
| C．Considerate and optimistic. | D．Persistent and warm-hearted. |
| A．Always follow your hunch. |
| B．Be ready to help save the elderly. |
| C．Unknown hero brings love and hope. |
| D．10-year-old saves elderly neighbor’s life. |
