閱讀理解

　　How can you hear you friends’ voices when they are far away and you can’t make a longdistance call?Beside the web camera system with your computer, we have a new hige-tech way to solve the problem and ease your pain of missing them．

　　The Japanese company Combiwith created a system-“talking picture”．It makes people in pictures speak!

　　The“talking picture”has a special pen．It is actually a pen-shaped scanner．It can scan information yhin special-made pictures．A connected player will then play the information out loud．

　　First, you need to take a picture and record what you want to say with the company．The will then make special barcodes(條形碼)onto your picture(you can’t see those codes)．Those codes are your voice and your words．When you hold up the pen to scna your piture with barcodes．a(chǎn) player connected to the pen will start to play．It plays things you’ve recorded．That way the invention makes the“you”in the picture speak!

　　Do you want your friends and families talking out of pictures?Have them make pictures like that, and yu can hear them whernever you want, only with the“talking picture”system．The systm can play messages fo rup to 12minutes．

　　“The pictures would be useful for those who hope to hear the voice of someone living far away,”said Mayumi Fuji, a spokeswoman for the company．“Grandparents, for example．longing to kow about their grandchildren would be happy to hear their voices when they see the picture．”Fuji said．

　　But it si troublesome to go to the company for taking a special pilcture first, And, it is much more expensive than using a telephone．The phote with barcodes costs between 17,040 and 17,990(日元)(160and 169dollars)．The larger picture you want, the more you pay．

　　Now．just raise a finger, lonely people can have their loved ones speak put of pictures, But, whether the“talking picture”is practical or not, let’s wait and see．

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閱讀理解

　　When asked about happiness, we usually think of something extraordinary, an absolute delight, which seems to get rarer the older we get．

　　For kids, happiness has a magical quality．Their delight at winning a race or getting a new bike is unreserved(毫不掩飾的)．

　　In the teenage years the concept of happiness changes．Suddenly it's conditional on such things as excitement, love and popularity．I can still recall the excitement of being invited to dance with the most attractive boy at the school party．

　　In adulthood the things that bring deep joy-love, marriage, birth-also bring responsibility and the risk of loss．For adults, happiness is complicated(復(fù)雜的)

　　My definition fo happiness is “the capacity for enjoyment”．The more we can enjoy what we have, the happier we are．It's easy to overlook the pleasure we get from the company of friends, the freedom to live where we please, and even goo health．

　　I experienced my little moments of pleasure yesterday．First I was overjoyed when I shut the last lunch-box and had the house to myself．Then I spent an uninterrupted morning writing, which I love．When the kids and my husband came home, I enjoyed their noise after the quiet of the day．

　　Psychologists tell us that to be happy we need a mix of enjoyable leisure time and satisfying work．I don't think that my grandmother, who raised 14 children, had much of either．She did have a network of close friends and family, and maybe this is what satisfied her．

　　We, however, with so many choices and such pressure to succeed in every area, have turned happiness into one more thing we’ve got to have．We’ve so self-conscious about our “right” to it that it's making us miserable．So we chase it and equal it with wealth and success, without noticing that the people who have those things aren't necessarily happier

　　Happiness isn't about what happens to us-it's about how we see what happens to us．It's the skillful way of finding a positive for every negative．It's not wishing for what we don't have, but enjoying what we do possess．

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閱讀理解

　　Why do human beings still risk their lives under ground and doing one of the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs in this world?A small group of emgineers and robotics experts picture a day in the not-too-distant future when robots and other technology do most of the dangerous mining work．

　　One of the first mining robots was developed five years ago at Carnegie-Mdllon University’s Robotics Institute．It was called Groundhog and it looked like a golf cart,．It used lasers(激光)to“see”in the dark and map given up mines-some of the most dangerous work in the business．

　　The latest model is called Cave Crawler, It’s a bit smaller than grouondhog．a(chǎn)nd even more Advanced．It can take photos and videos and has sensors that can discover the presence of dangerrous gasses．Amazingly．the robot has a real sense of logic(邏輯性)．If it comes acorss something difficult, it gets monentarily punded．It has to think about what to do and where to go next．Sometimes it throws a fit just like a real person．

　　Myles and his colleagues hope that robots like Cove Crawler will one day be used in rescue(營救)operations“A robot could speed up the rescue process by doing discovery(偵察),”says Chuck Whittaker, a roboties engineer at Carnegie-Mellon．“The robot can go ahead and, with its sensors, report what it has found and whether jit is safe for humans to proceed．”

　　Using robots in rescue operations, though, is probliematic, The lasers that guide the robots don’t work in smoky environments so the engineers at Carnegie Mellon have experimnted with sonar(聲納)and radar guidance systems, and with some success．

　　Some experts predict that robots do the most repetitive and dangerous jobs, but won't get rid fo the need for human workers．

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