The dancers stand motionless at their position and the room grows silent. But as the music starts, they began to move, bending, turning and waving their fans gracefully as they perform. a traditional Japanese dance. Yoshihiro Kuroki watches in silence, occasionally making notes. But as the dance ends, he beams with happiness. The performance has been flawless.

There have been many performances of traditional Japanese dances over the centuries, but this one is unique,because it is performed not by human dancers but by robots. And the performance takes place not in a dance studio but in a laboratory of Sony Corp.'s Entertainment Robot Co. in Shinagawa, Japan, where Kuroki isgeneral manager. He is the mastermind behind a series of even more capable humanoid entertainment robots,starting with the Sony Dream Robot, or SDR, in 1997, up to the current QRIO in 2003.

These delightful machines are only 58 cm tall, about the size of a newborn infant, weigh about 7 kg, and move with 38 degrees of freedom, each with its own servomotor(辅助马达).

QRIO's predecessor, the SDR4X, announced in 2002, can walk, dance, sing, speak, recognize faces, and understand continuous speech. Each robot has two charge-coupled-device cameras to detect color and position andcan locate a colored ball, move toward it, and kick it into a goal. It also has contact sensors in severaljoints to avoid pinching real human fingers. Seeing the robot perform, it is difficult to remember that there is no sentience(知觉)behind those glass eyes.

练习题：

Choose correct answers to the question:

1.Which of the following is the most suitable title of this passage?

A.New Entertainment Robots Produced in Japan.

B.QRIO the Robot Dancers.

C.Robots Man's Best Friend.

D.An Extraordinary Performance in Sony's Lab.

2.Yoshihiro Kuroki ______.

A.is excited when the robots are performing a traditional Japanese dance

B.keeps silent because he is a little unsatisfied with the new product

C.witnesses the creation of a series of entertainment robots

D.is an executive manager of Sony Corp.

3.Which aspect of the robots is NOT mentioned in the passage?

A.The vividness of their motion.

B.Their pleasant appearance.

C.Their smart designing principles.

D.Their communicative ability.

4.The Sony Dream Robot was___

A.the first human-like entertainment robot developed by the Sony Corp

B.as capable as the QRIO of speaking,dancing,singing and walking

C.largest among all the entertainment robot developed by the Sony Corp

D.the first entertainment robot sold at the market by the Sony Corp英语四级成绩查询入口

5.The robot can locate colored balls by mens of ____

A.a charge-coupled device

B.two cameras

C.two contacts sensors

D.a digital detector

1.[A] 主旨大意题。标题需要既全面又突出地概括文章的主题。本文先是描述“舞蹈演员”，然后揭晓这是些“机器人”(第2段第1句)，接着对Sony公司的一些机器人产品进行详细介绍。选项A比较全面地概括了文章内容。选项B、D只是涉及细节，不能全面地概括本文的内容。而C又过于笼统，不具有针对性。

2.[C] 事实细节题。选项C符合第2段最后一句“He is the mastermind behind a series of... robots...”。仔细阅读有关的细节信息会发现,第1段第3句可帮助否定选项A。第1段最后两句可帮助否定选项B。另外，根据第2段倒数第2句可否定选项D。

3.[D] 事实细节题。全文分四段，分别讨论机器人三方面的特点：第1段和第2段描述机器人舞蹈演员栩栩如生的表演，即选项A;第3段描写它们的外表，即选项B;第4段介绍它们巧妙的设计，即选项C;只有选项D是没有提到的，故为答案。

4.[A] 推理判断题。该句中的分词结构“starting with...”表明the Sony Dream Robot是第一个人形娱乐机器人，因此选项A正确。文章在最后一段的第1句提到两种能说话、跳舞的机器人，但没有提到SDR是否和它们一样，由此可否定选项B。在第3段讨论机器人大小的时候也没有提到SDR体型最大，因此选项C不正确。选项D在文中没有讨论到。

5.[B] 事实细节题。该句中“two…cameras to...”的结构表明这两个摄像头可以用于定位，所以选项B正确。选项A在该句中也有提到，但它只是摄像机的工作机制，而不是用于定位的装置。选项C在下一句提到，但与题干提到的定位功能无关。选项D在文中并未提及。