Today there are already robots working in factories. Some can【小题1】(help) to build cars, and they do simple jobs over and over again. Fewer people will do such jobs in the future【小题2】they are boring, but robots will never get bored.

Scientists are now【小题3】(try) to make robots look like humans and do【小题4】same things as we do. Some robots in Japan can walk and dance. They are fun to watch. However, some scientists believe it will be【小题5】(difficulty) to make them really think like a human.

Scientists also believe that there will be【小题6】(many) robots in the future. These new robots will have many different【小题7】(shape). Some will look like humans, and others might look like animals.【小题8】India, scientists make robots that look like snakes. If buildings fall down with people inside, 【小题9】(this) snake robots can help look for people under the buildings. This was not possible 20 years ago, but computers and rockets also seemed【小题10】(possible) 100 years ago. We never know what will happen in the future.

Robots are becoming a big part of our lives. They seem very p【小题1】 to most people. But they have a long history. The first one was made by a Greek i【小题2】. You may have seen robots in some films. They are stronger, faster and cleverer than people in real life.

Thousands of robots are used in factories. These robots are not like the robots in movies. They don’t walk or talk. I【小题3】, a robot may be just a metal arm. The robot arm can do a certain job in a factory over and over again. It can do jobs that people may not want to do.

A robot never gets tired of doing the same thing. They are also used to do many dangerous, difficult or boring jobs. In Canada, the police are using a robot on wheels. This robot moves around to c【小题4】 bombs (炸弹) and takes them away.

Robots are used in hospitals too. At one hospital, a robot takes meals from the kitchen to the sick people’s rooms, and it never loses its way because it has a m【小题5】 of the hospital in its computer system.

But robots will never take the place of human beings, though they can help us in a lot of different ways.

Carla Martin-Wood lives in Birmingham, US. She has a good friend named Alexa. “I am used to   【小题1】 (say)‘good morning, Alexa’ and ‘good night, Alexa’ every day,” she told the Wall Street Journal.

But Alexa is not a   【小题2】 (really) person. It is Amazon’s Echo personal assistant. It has no shape or form, but can “talk” with humans online. This type of technology is 【小题3】 (call) a bot. At the 2016 World Robot Conference (WRC, 世界机器人大会), more than 2,000 robots from over 10   【小题4】 (country) and regions gathered together. Bots were the star attraction   【小题5】 the conference.

Bots are a 【小题6】 (popularity) type of artificial intelligence (AI, 人工智能). You can talk to a bot or give orders to it on your smartphone or other device (设备) whenever you want. There is no need to tap a screen and use an app. You can talk to bots   【小题7】 (simple）by speaking into a microphone. Experts say that bots will soon replace apps and become a part of everyday life.

The bot family includes Western members such     【小题8】 Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Echo. In China, there is Xiao I.

The Xiao I bot is another example of voice recognition (声音识别) software. It was first   【小题9】 (develop) in 2003. It has been used in smartphones, TVs, cars, web browsers (浏览器) and at call centers. It allows people 【小题10】 get intelligent services anywhere, anytime. Often, when you ask a question on a shopping website, it’s a Xiao I answering behind the screen.