— Of course. After all, it has paid off.

    Qiang Shuping was so busy making cloth shoes {#blank#}1{#/blank#} she didn't even rest during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday. The woman from Baipu County, Jiangsu Province, {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (make) shoes since she was 19 years old, and this year marks her 3lst year making cloth shoes.

    She spends the entire day in her tiny studio, which {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(measure) less than 10 square meters altogether, filled with cloth shoes in {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(variety) stages of completion.

    Nowadays, many stores make cloth shoes {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(use) machines, but Qiang sticks to the technique of making shoes entirely {#blank#}6{#/blank#} hand. She say the shoes {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(produce) by machine are not of the same quality as handmade ones. The handmade cloth shoes are more durable（耐用的）and comfortable, {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (soft), and absorb sweat better.

    Some people buy cloth shoes out of nostalgia（怀旧）, while others trust {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(they) quality. Making shoes isn't a profitable job, but Qiang still insists as she wants to preserve the craft and pass it down to the younger generation.

    Handmade cloth shoes are also called qiancengdi (shoes with a thousand layers), {#blank#}10{#/blank#} can date back to the ancient Zhou Dynasty. In 2009, the making technique of qiancengdi was listed as the national intangible cultural heritage（非物质文化遗产）

    If a little humanlike robot begged you not to shut it off, would you show sympathy?

    In an experiment {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (intend) to find out how people treat robots when they act like humans, many participants struggled to power down a begging robot named Nao. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} experiment was conducted by researchers in Germany, whose findings {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (publish) in the scientific journal PLOSOne.

    Nao, {#blank#}4{#/blank#} was designed to beg about half of the participants not to switch it off but not the other half, was used {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (measure) if his begging affected how people reacted.

    In one previous experiment, researchers found that people preferred communicating with robots with complementary (互补的) personality characteristics to {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (they) own. And since robots can exhibit social characteristics either {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (speak) with human voices or taking the shape of a human body, the research suggests that people tend to react “{#blank#}8{#/blank#} (especial) social to them.”

    The researchers said a possible {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (explain) for their results was that people regarded Nao's begging {#blank#}10{#/blank#} “a sign of making its own decision.”

    It was getting dark when I got home. It was cold and I {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(wear) a coat. I walked up to the door and put my hand into my pocket {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(take) out my key {#blank#}3{#/blank#} I couldn't find it. I suddenly remembered that I {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(leave) it on my desk in the office. It really didn't make any difference. I knew my wife {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(be) at home and the children must have come back from school by now, so I {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(knock) at the door.

    There was no answer, so I knocked again. I continued knocking at the door for some time. I {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(get) angry. Then I remembered something the office boy had told me at noon. He said that my wife {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(phone) saying that she {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(go) shopping in the afternoon with the children.

    There was only one thing for me to do: I had to climb in {#blank#}10{#/blank#} a window.