A Bad Robot

Who is EARL? 

• EARL is Bonnie’s robotics teacher. 
• EARL is Bonnie’s father. 
• EARL is the robot Bonnie built. 
• EARL is Bonnie’s best friend at school. 

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The main event in the story is when Bonnie brought EARL to school. What happens when Bonnie brought EARL to school? 

• Bonnie ran away when EARL ripped one of the lockers from its hinges. 
• Bonnie lost control of EARL when EARL began to malfunction. 
• EARL followed Bonnie’s directions and entertained her classmates. 
• Bonnie’s classmates attacked EARL. 

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EARL’s software still had bugs and needed to be reprogrammed even though Bonnie worked very hard on building EARL. What evidence from the text supports this conclusion? 

• EARL tore off a locker door and did not listen to Bonnie’s instructions. 
• Bonnie had to work on the robot for a long time. 
• Bonnie’s friends were frustrated that they had not hung out with her in so long. 
• EARL had slanting eyes and a mouthful of jagged teeth. 

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Read the following sentences from the text: “Bonnie felt like she might explode. Tears pouring, she bolted out of the classroom.” Based on the evidence in these sentences, how was Bonnie feeling? 

• Bonnie was happy and proud. 
• Bonnie was tired yet excited. 
• Bonnie was nervous and apprehensive. 
• Bonnie was frustrated and upset. 

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What is the theme of this story? 

• Robots are unreliable instruments that humans should not waste time building. 
• To succeed at something you must ignore your friends and other parts of your personal life. 
• Even when you work very hard, things don’t always work out as you hoped. 
• If you work hard at something, nothing will go wrong. 

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Read the following sentences:
“EARL is a tool, Bonnie’s mother kept reminding her, not a friend or a puppy. ‘Don’t anthropomorphize it, honey,’ Bonnie’s mom said one night after she found Bonnie dancing around her bedroom with the metal contraption. ‘It’s a walking blender. Never forget that.’”
As used in the passage, what does the word “anthropomorphize” mean? 

• to program a robot so that it acts in a robotic or unnatural way
• to give human characteristics to an object or animal 
• to make a human act more like an animal and less of a human 
• to program a robot so that it acts more like an animal

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Choose the answer that best completes the sentence below.
EARL demonstrated many problems in his programming, _____________, tearing a locker door off and acting as if it were a friend. 

• for example
• however
• instead
• before

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