| Robot | |
March 2, 2014
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| In this society, the government's budget was very tight. The main reason was that the medical service costs for elderly people. Old people tend not to go outside as much; and have only a few chances to talk to other people and become sick. So, the government made child-shaped robots and gave the robots to the elderly people, especially to those who lived alone. The robots were well-made (the outside appearance of the robots was just the same as humans; but, of course, the inside was made of metal) and people could communicate with them efficiently. At first, the old people who received the
A couple of years ago this particular robot was given to an old woman who had just lost her husband. The old woman said to the boy-shaped robot, "You look tired today." The robot replied, "No robots get tired." The woman sighed, "I knew that, of course." The robot tilted his head a little and asked, "Do you want me to be tired?" The old woman sighed, "I only wanted to take care of you." The robot said, "In that case, should I pretend to be tired?" The old woman laughed, "You are an honest boy. I should be more patient, you are not a human." Several months passed. One day the robot came to the old woman and said, "I'm tired today." The woman laughed, "Are you pretending? You said that robots didn't get tired." But the robot looked in bad shape. So the woman made the robot lie down on her bed and called a mechanic. While waiting, the old woman stroked the robot's arm. Soon the mechanic came and inspected the robot and said that some rust was found inside of the robot and he had removed it. On another occasion, the robot came to her and said, "I have a headache." The old woman was surprised, "I didn't think any robots would suffer from headaches, because you robots don't worry like us human." The robot said nothing. But, he asked for her not to call a mechanic this time. The woman wondered why he said so, but agreed and let the robot lie on her bed and stroked his arm. She sang a lullaby this time. This type of thing began to happen often. And every time the robot asked her not to call a mechanic, and the woman would nurse him instead. Time passed. The old woman became older. One day she said to the robot, "Soon I will have to go to the other world." The robot said, "Me too." The woman weakly laughed, "No robots die. If they are broken, mechanics will fix it or replace some parts." The robot said nothing. A couple of months had passed. One morning, the old woman didn't appear as usual. The robot went to her bedroom and checked on the old woman who was still on the bed. The robot immediately knew that this person wasn't alive. He was programmed to call the police, and he did so. Soon a policeman came with a mechanic. The policeman checked the woman and the mechanic checked the robot because when they came to the house the robot was still next to the old woman; the robot's power was dead. The mechanic said to the police officer after checking, "Strange. The inside of this robot rusted a lot, so bad that we can't fix it." The policeman asked, "Did some moisture enter from the outside?" The mechanic denied, "I don't think so. The body is completely moisture-proof. I doubt that somebody opened the body and poured water into it." They looked at each other mysteriously. |
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*pretend :to behave in a particular way in order to make other peolpe believe sth that is not true (O)
*occasion :a time when something happens (C)
*lullaby :a song which you sing to children to make them sleep (C)
*-poof :protecting against or not damaged by (C)