AJapanesetoymakersaysthatthey’vedevelopedagadget（小器具...

问题详情：

    A Japanese toy maker says that they’ve developed a gadget （小器具）that translates dog barks（吠）into human languages and plan to begin selling the gadgets-under the name of Bowlingual-in the US pet stores and present shops this summer.

    People laughed when the Japanese toy maker Takara company made the world’s first dog-human translation machine last year. But about 300,000 of them have been sold since it was on sale in Japan last year. Far bigger sales will be expected once an English language translation machine for dogs comes to America in August. The United States is home to about 67 million dogs, more than six times the number in Japan.

    “We know that the Americans love their dogs so much, so we don’t think they’ll mind spending $ 120 on this gadget”, the Takara marketing manager said before the journalists at a meeting in Atlanta. Bowlingual, one of US Time magazine’s coolest inventions of 2002, has two parts. A microphone is tied to the dog’s collar（项圈）and sends out sound information to the gadget held by the owner. Then the translation is done in the gadget by a database（数据库）with every kind of barks. Those barks show six feelings－happiness, sadness, disappointment, anger, declaration and desire. Each of the feelings is then translated into words like “Let’s play. ”“Look at me! ”or “Spend more time with me. ”

    Takara says it has spent millions of dollars developing the gadget. One thing that seems certain is that the markets for animal translation machine will probably be a dog’s world since Takara has no plans to develop such a gadget for cats. “They are too unpredictable（反复无常）, ”the marketing manager said.

  1. The first three paragraphs of the passage mainly tell us that Bowlingual ______.

    A. was invented in Japan     B. has developed quickly

    C. will be sold in America     D. sells well for its price

  2. The underlined word “they”in the last sentence refers to _____.

    A. markets     B. dogs     C. plans     D. cats

  3. When was this passage most probably written?

    A. In the winter of 2002.     B. In the spring of 2003.

    C. In the summer of 2002.     D. In the autumn of 2003.

  4. From the passage, we can see that Takara is ______ the sale of its new gadget in the US.

    A. proud of     B. pleased with     C. confident of     D. worried about

【回答】

1. C 2. D      3. B       4. C

知识点：人物传记 故事阅读类

题型：阅读理解