Unit 13《William Shakespeare》教案和練習

blind people like the kurzweil machine because they can “read” anything with it: newspapers, magazines, books, even typed letters. many libraries now have kurzweil machine for blind people to use. the kurzweil machine can also help shortsighted children learn to read.
( ) 35. what can kurzweil reading machine do?
a. solve many problems at the same time.  b. play computer games with people.
c. help people learn language.    d. read the words on the paper.
( ) 36. the underlined word “it” (in paragraph 2) refers to _____.
a. the book     b. the scanner
c. the kurzweil machine     d. the blind
( ) 37. what is the main idea of the second paragraph?
a. how computers work.      
b. how to use a kurzweil machine.
c. how to use the scanner.     
d. the kurzweil machine can read in two voices.
( ) 38. which of the following is true?
a. computers can solve all the problems people can’t do.
b. calculators are used for solving many problems at the same time.
c. when using the kurzweil machine, a blind man needn’t do anything.
d. the kurzweil machine can help not only the blind people but also the shortsighted children.

b
when i was growing up, i had an old neighbor, dr. gibbs. he didn't look like any doctor i'd ever known. he never invited us to play in his yard, but he was a very kind person.
when dr. gibbs wasn't saving lives, he was planting trees. he owned a large field and wanted to make it a forest.
the good doctor had some interesting ideas about planting trees. he never watered his new trees. once i asked why. he said that watering plants spoiled them, and that if you watered them, each baby tree would grow weaker and weaker, so you had to make things difficult for them and pick out the weaker trees early on.
he talked about how watering trees made for shallow roots, and how trees that weren't watered had to grow deep roots in search of water under the earth by themselves. deep roots were very important.
so he never watered his trees. he'd planted an oak and, instead of watering it every morning, he beat it with a rolled-up newspaper. i asked him why he did that, and he said it was to get the tree's attention.
dr. gibbs died several years after i left home. every now and then, i walked by his house and looked at the trees that i watched him plant about twenty-five years ago. they're very big and strong now. i planted some trees a few years back and carried water to them for a whole summer. after two years of caring too much, whenever a cold wind blows in, they shake a lot.