When you think of robots, you might think of something to finish boring tasks, _________ engineers are making robots that can do much more interesting jobs.

Howie Choset at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh is a roboticist, a person _________ designs, builds or programs robots. When Choset was a kid, he was interested in anything that _________—cars, trains, animals. Later, in high school, he built mobile robots similar _________ small cars. Hoping to continue _________robots, he studied computer science in college. Some robots can move only forward, backward, left and right, _________ snakes can twist in many directions. “Snakes are far more interesting than the cars,” Choset said.

After he started working at Carnegie Mellon, Choset and his colleagues there began developing _________ own snake robots. A typical snake robot is made up of a lot of metal containers linked together, each with a motor and electronic parts _________. Choset’s team programmed robots to perform the same movements like real snakes. The robots also moved in ways that snakes _________ don’t, such as rolling. Choset’s snake robots could crawl __________ the grass, swim in a pond and even climb a flagpole.

We live in computer age(时代). People ________ scientists, teachers, writers and even students use computers to do all kinds of work. But more than 30 years ago, ________ couldn’t do much. They were very big and expensive. Very ________ people were interested in them and knew how to use them. Today computers are smaller and ________. But they can do a lot of work, many people like to use them. People ________ have them at home.

Computers become very important because they can work ________ than people and make fewer mistakes. Computers can ________ people do a lot of work. Writers now use computers to ________. Teachers use them to help teaching. Students use them to ________. Computers can also remember what you ________ them. Computers are very useful and helpful. They are our friends. Do you want to have a computer?