1 . Scientists from Georgia Tech have developed a new robot named ESTHER (Experimental Sport Tennis Wheelchair Robot), which can move around the court and even return human serves.

The team believes the robot could serve as a training partner (搭档) for professional players in the future, lowering the pressure of training with another human.

The robot is the brainchild of Georgia Tech’s Matthew Gombolay, professor of robotics in the School of Interactive Computing. He wanted to develop a better training challenge than a ball feeder that stays in one place, one that would act like an always on-call partner or even team up with someone in doubles matches. The result is ESTHER, an adapted wheelchair tennis chair that can race to balls at ten metres per second and probably outplay a human.

Mr Gombolay explains: “The wheelchair has the ability to rapidly move around the court and get into position (恰当位置) to hit a ground stroke (击落地球). ESTHER can move up to two metres after a ball is struck to hit a successful return, which is comparable to the longest distance moved by human players for 80 per cent of shots (击球).”

The robot was named in homage to well-known wheelchair tennis player Esther Vergeer, who held the world No. 1 position in women’s wheelchair tennis for almost 13 years straight.

The team placed a network of cameras around a tennis court and used computer vision algorithms (视觉算法) to help ESTHER recognise an incoming tennis ball. Using cameras from different positions, they could know where the ball is in the air and feed this information to ESTHER. The team reached a breakthrough when they successfully and continually programmed ESTHER to track the tennis ball coming toward it and to hit a return.

ESTHER will now be developed to act as a highly-skilled tennis player.

Delayed by a year because of COVID-19, the 19th Asian Games was held in Hangzhou, the Zhejiang provincial capital. By the end of last year, China     1    (host) two Asian Games in Beijing and Guangzhou respectively. However, as President Xi Jinping     2    (declare) it open, over 50,000 spectators burst into cheers,     3    (make) Hangzhou the third Chinese city to host the continental sporting gala.

Hangzhou made great efforts so as     4    (follow) the principle of delivering the     5    (green) Games of all time. The opening ceremony     6     drew inspiration from traditional Chinese culture and relied on the power of technological     7    (innovative) was a feast for the senses. The atmosphere at the opening ceremony reached a highlight     8     the digital torchbearer lighted the main cauldron (主火盆). Most     9    (amazing) of all, a “digital human” firstly participated in the torch-lighting ceremony. As a result, The opening ceremony held     10    special place in the heart of all participants and wowed the world.

8 . Having experienced life as both an overweight and now a skinny woman, I have personally seen the differences in the reactions of others towards heavier people. People generally are nicer and less________thin people, and________those who are overweight at first.

Recently I was up north celebrating my 25th birthday in Muskoka, Ontario. We went into a little____and they had lots of clothing, house decorations and novelty items. I overheard a lady laughing and saying to her husband “George, these napkins (餐巾纸) say ‘Every time I hear that ________word exercise I wash my mouth out with wine’.” I walked over and there were other quotes on goods putting down________.

My first________when I saw these novelty items was also to________but as a few minutes went by that saying was still________me. Exercise is one of the most________activities you can do to improve yourself. Nobody should ever put a(n)________value on any type of exercise.

When I was heavier, I got________at friends who would rather go to the gym than sit on the sofa and watch TV with me. Now after my________, I see it from the________view. People who actually enjoy working out are focusing on themselves, which is so________for the overall health. People should stop making negative humour about exercising and start________it.