Jehdi and Hassan were businessmen and good friends.

    One day they found themselves in a forest. They were tired so they sat down and Jehdi fell asleep.

    As Jehdi slept, Hassan saw a wasp (黄蜂) coming from his friend's nose. It flew toward a pine tree (松树), circled it three times, and then returned to Jehdi's nose.

    When Jehdi woke he said, “Hassan, What a dream! Imagine a big pine tree, like that one there. A wasp flies around it and its buzz (嗡嗡叫) seems to say,

    ‘You must dig here.' I dig and I find a big box of gold.”

    “Yes, a strange dream,” replied Hassan. “Why don't you dig around that tree and see if it's true?”

    “My friend, it was just a dream and anyway it's too hot to dig.”

    Hassan said, “If you do not want to dig, I will. Sell your dream to me.”

    “How much will you pay?” asked Jehdi.

    Hassan agreed to pay 300 coins.

    “Never have I made such a business deal. How naïve (天真的) you are, Hassan!”

    The two friends then went to the pine tree Jehdi had dreamed about. Jehdi stood there with a smile on his face to see Hassan start digging. But he laughed on the other side of his face when Hassan dug up a huge box of gold.

    After this, Hassan had so much gold that he lived a rich life until his death. Jehdi often visited him. He would say, “Well, Hassan, how are you? I have come to see my dream.” They would pat(轻拍) each other on the back and laugh. But each time Jehdi went home sadly. He could never buy back his dream.

    One evening Mr Black was driving his car around the country. He wanted to find a small hotel. Then he saw an old man at the side of the road. He stopped his car and said to the old man, "I want to go to the Sun Hotel. Do you know it?" "Yes, "the old man answered. "I'll show you the way."

    He got into Mr Black's car, and they drove about 12 miles. When they came to a small house, the old man said, "Stop here."

    Mr Black stopped and looked at the house. "But this isn't the hotel, "he said to the old man.

    "No," the old man answered. "This is my house. And I'll show you the way to the Sun Hotel. Turn around and go back nine miles. Then you'll see the Sun Hotel on the left."

    In about 1503, during Christopher Columbus's fourth and final trip to America, his ship was seriously damaged in a storm. Columbus and his men had to live on a small island for several months while they tried to repair their ship and return to Spain.

    At first, the local people on the island were very kind to the European visitors, giving them all the food and clothes they needed to survive. However, as the months passed, the local people became more and more unhappy with their guests, who were tricking and stealing from them. Finally the locals decided to stop helping. Without food or any way to leave the island, Columbus's group was soon in serious trouble.

    Luckily for Columbus, he had a book about the stars and planets on his ship. It described the movements of all the objects in the night sky. The book, written by a well-known German scientist, said there would be a total lunar eclipse(月食)and how long it would last.

    Columbus worked out the difference in time between Germany and North America. He then had a meeting with the local leaders just before the eclipse would take place. In this meeting, Columbus told them his god was angry because the local people were no longer giving food. So his god would take away the Moon to punish them. At the moment Columbus finished talking, just as he had planned, the Moon began disappearing.

    The local leaders grew frightened and quickly agreed to provide Columbus with food and anything else he wanted. But first, Columbus's god had to return the Moon. Columbus told them he would have to discuss the idea with his god on his ship. Knowing the Moon would stay completely hidden for about 48 minutes, Columbus returned just before the Moon began to reappear. From that day on, until they finally left, Columbus and his men no longer had any trouble getting the food they needed.

Do you think rabbits are cute? If you ask {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Australian this question, he will shake his head. For Australians, rabbits are {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(danger) animals because they have almost destroyed (毁坏) the nature of Australia. 

In the 18th century,{#blank#}3{#/blank#}(Europe) came to Australia. They took the first rabbit to Australia. After that, the number of rabbits increased {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(quick). One of the {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(reason) is that there were no foxes or wolves in Australia at that time. Another reason is that the natural situation of Australia was good for rabbits {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (live). As a result, the rabbits could dig holes (挖洞) {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (easy) here than anywhere else. Some of them were as deep (深的) as 1.5 metres. There was delicious grass everywhere,{#blank#}8{#/blank#} the rabbits could get enough food. By the time of 1926, there were about 10 billion rabbits in Australia. 

James is a farmer in Australia. He used to have a very large field. But there were so many rabbits eating the grass.{#blank#}9{#/blank#} grass, the ground quickly became dry. Then many sheep and horses {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(fall) into the rabbits' homes. Luckily, things got better soon. 

①Google's company, DeepMind, recently announced that their research team has created a ping-pong robot. This robot can play at the same level as human amateur (业余) players.

②The research team wrote about their work on a website called arXiv. A team member said, "This is the first learning robot that can play ping-pong as well as human amateurs. " The robot has a six-axis robotic arm that can move back and forth and side to side on a rail at the bottom.

③In 29 games against human players, the robot won 13 times, which is a win rate of 45%. The human players were all new to the robot, and their skill levels ranged from beginners to advanced players. The researchers said, "The robot lost all the games against high-level players but won all the games against beginners and 55% of the games against intermediate players."

④To make the robot play at a human level, the team used a layered and modular strategy(分层和模块化的策略).This means the robot can do basic skills like forehand topspin and backhand blocks. It also has a high-level controller that acts like a brain. During a game, it can choose the best moves based on the game situation, the robot's abilities, and the opponent's skills. After the game, the robot can analyze (分析) the data and improve its skills.

⑤The researchers noted that the robot still has some weaknesses. For example, it is not very good at backhand shots and has trouble with fast, high, low, or strongly spinning balls. They plan to improve the robot by making better control algorithms(算法)and better hardware.