It was reported last week by Qianjiang Evening News that a woman surnamed Zhang in the northeast city of Harbin had discovered that her daughter, aged about 15, had bought a robot to help her complete homework during the Lunar New Year holiday. She used it for exercises such as copying passages from a textbook and writing essays.
据《钱江晚报》上周报道，东北城市哈尔滨的一名张姓女子发现，她家年约15岁的女儿买了台机器人帮助自己在春节假期期间完成家庭作业。她用这台机器来做功课，比如抄写课本中的段落、写写作文。
Lunar New Year：农历新年；春节

Despite festivities and travelling leaving little time for the assignments, Zhang was amazed when her daughter finished all her text-copying in two days, with neat writing, the report said.
报道称，尽管在节日庆祝活动还有旅行后剩余的做功课的时间很少，但张女士发现她的女儿居然在两天里完成了所有的课文抄写作业，而且字迹很工整。
festivities：庆祝活动
assignment：功课；作业
neat writing：字迹工整

But while cleaning the girl's room, Zhang found the device – a metal frame and pen, with packaging claiming it could "imitate all sorts of handwriting".
但在打扫女儿的房间时，张女士发现了这个装置——一个金属框加上一支笔，包装上写着它能“模仿各种字迹”。
imitate：模仿
handwriting：字迹

It turned out that her daughter had spent more than 800 yuan (about $173) to buy it online using her lai see – the packet of money given during the new year for luck.
事实证明，她的女儿用了自己的利是（春节里派的幸运红包），花了800多元（约合173纽币）在网上买了这台机器。
lai see：利是

Angered by a demonstration she watched on how the robot could copy homework, Zhang smashed the appliance.
看到这个机器人如何抄写作业的演示后，她生气不已，打坏了这个装置。
demonstration ：示范；演示
appliance：装置

"It can help you with homework, but can it help you on tests?" Zhang was quoted as saying.
“它可以帮你做作业，但是它可以帮你考试吗？”张女士说。

Requiring children to copy text – such as vocabulary, textbook passages or poems – hundreds of times is common practice in Chinese schools.
要求孩子抄课文 - 如词汇、课文段落或诗歌数百次是中国学校的常见做法。
vocabulary：词汇

However, most of the comments on the newspaper report's social media posts enthused about the robot. Some said they wished they had owned such an item when they were younger, while others compared the girl's short cut to their own, including tieing three or four pens in a row so they could write multiple words at once.
然而，这篇报纸报道的社交媒体帖子收到的大多数评论都是网友在表达对这个机器人的热爱。有些人说他们希望自己在年轻时就拥有这样的东西，其他人则将女孩走的这条捷径与他们自己的招术相比较，包括把三到四支笔绑成一排，这样一次就能写出多个字。
enthuse about：热衷于；热爱

The South China Morning Post searched for "copying robot" on e-commerce platform Taobao and found numerous entries, with prices varying from 200 to more than 1000 yuan ($43 to $216). One specialist robot shop, named LichTech, featured a video explaining how its robot works.
《南华早报》记者在电子商务平台淘宝网上搜索“抄写机器人”后，发现了大量产品，价格从200元到1000多元不等（43纽币到216纽币）。一家名为LichTech的专业机器人店铺还放了一个解释其机器人如何工作的视频。
e-commerce：电子商务
numerous：许多的；很多的

There is a variety of fonts to choose from and it even allows the user to create their own handwriting, by using an app to write 6,000 Chinese characters once each to enable the robot to learn them.
有多种字体可供选择，它甚至允许用户创建自己的笔迹，通过使用应用程序把6000个汉字每个写一遍，就可以让机器人学会这个笔迹。
font：字体
Chinese character：汉字

A shop assistant surnamed Wang said the company had been operating for three years but had a surge of inquiries recently. "The robot can write for eight hours a day and last for two or three years," she said.
一位姓王的店员表示，该公司已经运营了三年，但最近询问[产品]的人急剧增加。 “这个机器人每天可以写8小时，可以持续两到三年，”她说。
inquiries：询问；打听

继续学习啊：

【读新闻学英语】男子威胁要起诉新婚妻子，因为她在网上爆了他的小秘密

【读新闻学英语】4岁小女孩羞于戴眼镜，网友们的回应爱心满满

【读新闻学英语】为看大鱼，四名男子竟上演翻船事故

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