Christmas was coming, I was considering what present I should prepare for my father.My dad never wants anything, for he is a hard person to buy for . I pulled out my phone to read text message from my mom saying that we were leaving for Christmas shopping for him when I came across a message on my phone that I had locked. The message was from my father.My eyes fell on a photo of a flower taken in Wyoming，and underneath a poem by William Blake. The flower，a lone dandelion standing against the bright blue sky，inspired me. My dad had been reciting those words to me since I was a kid. That may even be the reason why I love writing. I decided that those words would be my gift to my father.

    I called back. I told my mom to go without me and that I already created my gift. I sent the photo of the cream ­colored flower to my computer and typed the poem on top of it. As I was arranging the details another poem came to mind .The poem was written by Edgar Allan Poe；my dad recited it as much as he did the other. I typed that out as well and searched online for a background to the words of it. The poem was focused around dreaming，and after searching I found the perfect picture. The image was painted with blues and greens and purples，twisting together to create the theme and wonder of a dream. As I watched both poems passing through the printer，the white paper coloring with words that shaped my childhood. I felt that this was a gift that my father would truly appreciate.

    Christmas soon arrived. The minute I saw the look on my dad's face as he unwrapped those swirling black letters carefully placed in a cheap frame，I knew I had given the perfect gift.

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案，并将选定答案的字母标号填在题前括号内。

    Robots and humans will soon be living in harmony(和睦).A singing robot is being taught to create jazz with a human in a project.

    Antonio Chella from Italy is working with a Telenoid robot. To start with, the Telenoid will be trained to follow the movements and simple sounds made by a human singer, and to connect music with different emotional states. Chella then plans to see if the robot can use these connections to create music.

    Intelligence is often regarded as the ability to find connections between the existing things. But Chella suggests that a conscious(有意识的) creature should be able to go a step further and introduce new connections that result in the creation of something new.

    Some jazz musicians say that they should have a mental library of musical phrases so that they are able to combine them in new ways. More importantly, however, this combination happens in a state that is similar in a sense to dreaming. Chella wants to copy these states in a machine.

    “This work raises interesting questions about the link between consciousness and music making,” says Philippe Pasquier, a musician and computer scientist. But he is skeptical about whether a robot musician needs a physical body.

    Pasquier argues that the robots are faced with two challenges(挑战). Software that can copy Bach has already been developed. But interpretation（演绎）includes human's different tastes and judgments. “What made the Beatles famous was not so much their works, but the fact that the interpretations of the works were wonderful,” he says.

    It is not yet clear how a robot would go about interpreting music in a new way. But by copying humans and then learning to sing, Chella's robot could provide clues.

    What seems to be important is that human composers often listen to lots of music made by others. So Chella's robot had better listen to those jazz standards first.

    Once there was an old man, who was completely broke (破产的), living in a tiny house. He had to live on a $105-a-month social security (保障) check.

    At 65 years of age, he decided things had to change. So he thought about what he had to offer. His friends thought highly of his chicken recipe (烹饪法). He decided that this was his best shot at making a change.

    He left Kentucky and traveled to different states to try to sell his recipe. He told restaurant owners that he had a mouth-watering chicken recipe. He offered the recipe to them for free, just asking for a small percentage (比例) on the items sold. Sounds like a good deal, right?

    Unfortunately, not to most of the restaurants. He heard "NO" over 1, 000 times, but he didn't give up. He believed his chicken recipe was something special. He got rejected (拒绝) 1,009 times before he heard his first yes.

    With that one success, the old man changed the way Americans eat chicken. Kentucky Fried Chicken, popularly known as KFC, was born. The old man was Colonel Harland Sanders, who was an American businessman, best known for founding fast food chicken restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken. His name and image (肖像) are still symbols of KFC now.

    My six-year-old son, Stephen, was in front of the TV and smiled. His favorite show was about to begin-a Phoenix Suns basketball game.

    "Ladies and gentlemen," the announcer's voice was heard, "here is your starting lineup (首发阵容)." The arena (球场) darkened and the lights flashed when the players ran into the court to sing their team song. Stephen clapped and danced around. My wife Lorrie and I laughed. Stephen had been performing this for months. "One day I'm going to take you to a game, son," I promised.

    About a year later, the construction company where I worked finished a project for a Suns player. One afternoon my boss called me. "The player has two extra tickets for tonight's game! Just pick them up at my office," he said. I picked up the tickets, but felt a little disappointed when I looked at the clock. Even if I had had a helicopter, we would never have gone to the arena in time for the player introductions. Stephen would miss his favorite part! I grabbed my key, got Stephen in my car and hit the road. "Lord," I prayed, "I'd love to see the joy on Stephen's face. Help us make it on time."

    When I drove, it began to rain heavily. Suddenly, lightning flashed right near the arena! I turned on the radio to listen to the game. The announcer said there'd been a power failure at America West Arena. Everyone was fine, but there would be a delay until they got everything running. Finally, I parked the car and we walked in hurriedly to take our seats. I hoped that we hadn't missed the introductions.

    The very moment we entered the arena, the lights darkened. The music started. "Ladies and gentlemen, here's your starting lineup!" Stephen's eyes grew wide. There wasn't enough space for him to dance around, but I could tell that his heart was leaping more than his body was able to. Thank heaven, he hadn't missed a thing. And neither had I.

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As the world struggles to deal with the climate crisis, some companies are working to remove polluting carbon dioxide from the air. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} But two US companies have recently made important progress. 

Scientists say large amounts of CO₂ must be removed from the CO₂ atmosphere and stored. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} But there's so much CO₂ in the atmosphere that just planting trees and protecting forests won't solve the problem. And, when plants and trees die, the carbon they've stored gets released again. 

That means humans need to come up with ways of removing carbon from the air and storing it. This is called Direct Air Capture (DAC). The science of removing carbon from the air is challenging, and it's still pretty new. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}So one puzzle for these companies is how to remove carbon without creating more pollution. 

A company called Heirloom has just opened the first DAC plant in the United States. The company heats up the limestone to separate out the CO₂, which is concrete. The process is extremely expensive. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}That's a tiny amount compared to how much carbon needs to be removed from the atmosphere, but the company says it hopes to remove a billion tons per year by 2035. 

 {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Some people worry that it will take too long for DAC technology to become powerful enough to make a difference. Others worry that focusing on removing carbon could take attention away from more important climate actions, like switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy. But experts say the decision isn't to do one or the other. The world needs to end fossil fuel use and pull carbon out of the air. 

A. Plants and trees do this naturally.
B. That's a huge and challenging goal.
C. Not everyone is excited about carbon removal.
D. Graphyte is another US company working on DAC.
E. The new plant can remove 1,000 tons of CO2 a year.
F. Most DAC processes require a large amount of energy.
G. As a matter of fact, CO₂ is just a small part of the gases that make up air.