1 . Seventeen-year-old Lindsey Stoefen loves to play tennis, softball and run until last October when a rare disorder paralyzed her legs and left her in a wheelchair. But in late April after becoming an in-patient at Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital in Chicago, the teen climbed into a specially designed exoskeleton (外骨骼) which supported her body and moved her legs.
“Yes, I'm gonna be a robot! And I was scared at first. Am I gonna like it? Is it gonna be okay? And then once I got into it, I loved it." Lauren Bularzik, Lindsey s physical therapist, says the exo robots help to accelerate the recovery process.
For someone who takes a lot of energy to only walk a few feet, exo can get them up and get them moving. Besides speeding up recovery time, these robotic skeletons are especially helpful for those with paralysis, from spinal cord injuries and strokes.
Using the machine can help some patients rewire their brains to use secondary muscles, so they can eventually walk again without the device. But Patrick Wensing, assistant professor at the University of Notre Dame says exoskeletons have one big drawback. While existing exoskeletons are very powerful, right now they don t understand what the user wants to do. So in order to switch between activities in daily life, you often have to press a button interface to tell the exoskeleton “I would like to stand up now".
Wensing and his team are cooperating with Ekso Bionics, a leading developer of wearable robots, to create a machine that can understand what its user wants to do without implanted sensors and complicated control panels.
Taylor Gambon has spent the last year analyzing data from exoskeleton users and comparing them to models of everyday walking. Later this year, the team will travel to Ekso Bionics' California headquarters, where they will work directly with exoskeletons to design programs that interact with users of various disabilities, so that more people like Lindsey Stoefen can get back on their feet again.
1. What's the purpose of the story about Stoefen in the first paragraph?| A．To prove Stoefen's bravery against disability. |
| B．To explain Stoefen's misfortune in life. |
| C．To introduce advanced medical skills in Chicago. |
| D．To introduce the topic of robotic skeleton. |
| A．They can improve the recovery speed. |
| B．They can replace the real person. |
| C．They can't understand the intention of users. |
| D．They can help patients do everything in life. |
| A．Disappointed. | B．Critical. |
| C．Indifferent. | D．Optimistic. |
| A．An advertisement. | B．A science fiction. |
| C．A product handbook. | D．A popular science magazine. |
