B．My grandpa

　　C．The secret in the locker room

　　D．The pledge of loyalty

　　C

　　A delightful­looking robot called MEDi, or Medicine and Engineering Designing Intelligence, is being used to help make doctors' visits less painful.

　　The Alberta Children's Hospital in Canada purchased four of the MEDi robots earlier this year. The bionic (仿生学的) friends hang out with children in the waiting room and also accompany them during different procedures, according to RxRobots, the group that created MEDi. The MEDi's purpose is to help children cope with pain and reduce their stress. The robots have produced real results. According to a study done at the hospital, kids who interact with a MEDi robot reportedly experience 50 percent less pain during medical procedures than those who do not. "Parents told us that when they left the hospital, their children said almost nothing about the needle and told everyone about the robot，" Tanya Beran, founder and chief scientific officer at RxRobots, told CNBC of MEDi's success at the children's hospital.

　　The two­foot­tall robots can relieve patients' anxiety by telling stories or playing games with the kids. MEDi robots are also programmed to speak several different languages, and are equipped with facial recognition capabilities (能力). The robots can interact with the children during various types of procedures like blood tests. Not only do the robots comfort the children, but they also make the kids more willing to work with medical staff.

　　"Our research shows that when children interact with MEDi robots, they are more cooperative in the procedure，" Beran said. "This means that the procedure is completed more quickly, resulting in greater health care efficiency (效率)．" Beran said that MEDi robots are also a hit with parents. "Knowing that there is something out there that eases the stress, anxiety and sometimes traumatic (创伤的) experiences, is great，" Sheila Sousa, the mother of an 8­year­old patient said.

　　8．MEDi robots are mainly used to ________．

　　A．help foreign patients communicate with doctors

　　B．assist doctors in completing medical procedures

　　C．take kids to the hospital if their parents are busy

　　D．make kids feel less pain during medical procedures

　　9．The underlined word "relieve" in Paragraph 3 probably means "________"．

　　A．cause B．reduce

　　C．increase D．remove

　　10．We can learn from the passage that MEDi ________．

　　A．is bad­looking

　　B．is one foot tall

　　C．can recognize faces

　　D．can only speak English

　　11．Where does the passage probably come from?

　　A．A travel guide.

　　B．A science magazine.

　　C．A book review.

D．A storybook.