Hiro walked up to the mike. He looked out at the huge crowd ... and felt a heaviness in the pit of his stomach. They were all staring at him, waiting.

 

"Uh, hi," Hiro said into the mike, which screeched¹ with feedback. For a moment, his mind went blank. Then he saw Tadashi's face in the audience as his brother moved to stand next to Aunt Cass. He was smiling and giving Hiro a thumbs-up.

 

Hiro smiled back and took a breath. "Sorry. My name is Hiro Hamada, and I've been working on something I think is pretty cool. I hope you like it."

 

Hiro put on a headset and reached into his hoodie. He took out a small object no bigger than a paper clip. "This is a microbot." The small object in his palm took a bow. "It doesn't look like much," Hiro continued, "but when it links up with the rest of its pals², things get a little more interesting."

 

The crowd didn't seem impressed. Then a murmur³ rose as the startled audience noticed waves of tiny microbots slithering across the floor. The single microbot flew from Hiro's hand and joined a towering column of microbots that had now formed onstage.

 

Hiro smiled and tapped his headset. "The microbots are controlled with this neural⁴ transmitter." He took the headset off and the microbots collapsed⁵ to the floor. They re-formed into a column as soon as Hiro put the headset back on.

 

"I think of what I want them to do," Hiro said, "and they do it!" The microbots took the shape of a hand waving. Everyone in the audience smiled and waved back. "The applications for this tech are limitless. Take construction."

 

Hiro stared at the microbots, and with a wave of his hand, they picked up cinder⁶ blocks and assembled them into a tower. "What used to take teams of people working by hand for months or years can now be accomplished⁷ by one person!"

 

Then the microbots lifted Hiro and placed him on top of the tower. In the audience, billionaire tech mogul Alistair Krei was very impressed.

 

"And that's just the beginning," Hiro said as he leaped off the tower. Everyone gasped⁸, thinking he was about to fall, but the microbots rose and caught him midair. Hiro smiled. He could see Tadashi giving him another thumbs-up.

 

"How about transportation?" Hiro asked. The microbots transformed into a set of legs that walked Hiro through the audience. "Microbots can move anything, anywhere, with ease."

 

As they approached the stage, the microbots formed a set of stairs so Hiro could climb back up to it. "If you can think it, the microbots can do it!" Hiro said.

 

The audience was with him now. The moment belonged to Hiro, and he was on a roll. "The only limit is your imagination! Microbots!" he exclaimed, and the audience burst into applause.

 

Hiro jumped off the stage and found Tadashi. The two high-fived as Aunt Cass shouted enthusiastically, "That's my nephew! Whoo! My family! I love my family!"

 

小宏走向麦克风。他望了一眼黑压压的人群……感觉心里一阵沉重。人们都凝视着他，等待着。

 

“呃，大家好。”小宏对着麦克风说道，麦克风发出了尖锐刺耳的声音。这一刻，他头脑一片空白。随后他看见泰迪的脸出现在观众中，他走到卡斯阿姨旁边站定。他微笑着，竖起大拇指给他鼓励。

 

小宏回视一笑，做了一个深呼吸：“抱歉，我叫滨田宏，我做了一些我认为超棒的设计,希望大家能够喜欢。”

 

小宏戴上一个头戴式耳机，把手插进连帽衫里。他拿出一个和曲别针差不多大小的东西。“这是个微型机器人。”那个小东西在他手掌里鞠了一下躬。“它看起来不起眼，”小宏继续说道，“但当它和其他的微型机器人连接在一起时，就会变得有点意思了。”

 

观众似乎没有被吸引。可当观众吃惊地发现大量的微型机器人一拥而入滑过地板的时候，他们开始不时地低语。小宏手中的微型机器人从他手中滑落，与其他的微型机器人一起在台上组成了一个高耸的圆柱体。

 

小宏微笑着敲了敲他的头戴式耳机。“微型机器人是由这个神经传导器控制的。”他把头戴式耳机一摘掉，微型机器人就散落在了地板上。小宏把头戴式耳机一戴回头上，微型机器人就又重新组合了起来。

 

“我想让它们做什么，”小宏说道，“它们就做什么。”微型机器人组成一个手的形状挥动着。所有的观众都微笑着挥着手回应。“这项科技的应用领域是无穷无尽的。以建筑工程为例!”

 

小宏看着微型机器人一挥手，它们就毫不费力地分解并重新组合成一座塔。“以前需要大量人力耗费数月甚至数年的时间去完成的项目，现在只需要一个人就能够完成!”

 

这时，微型机器人将小宏举起，把他放在了塔的顶端。作为观众的一员，亿万富翁兼科技大亨阿利斯泰·格利非常感兴趣。

 

“这只是个开始，”小宏说着猛地从塔上跳下。所有人都为之倒吸了一口气，以为他会从上面摔下来，但微型机器人升了起来，在半空中将他接住。小宏笑了。他看到泰迪又对他竖起了大拇指。

 

“把它运用到交通上又会怎么样呢?”小宏问道。微型机器人变成一双腿的形状，使小宏能够在观众中间随意穿行。“微型机器人能轻易地运输任何东西到任何地方。”

 

当它们接近讲台时，微型机器人变成了一组楼梯，让小宏能够从上面走回讲台。“只要你能想得到的，微型机器人就能做得到!”小宏说道。

 

现在观众都被他的作品吸引住了。此刻是属于小宏的，他的发挥异常顺利。“想象力才是你唯一需要突破的屏障!微型机器人!”他大声宣布着，观众爆发出了热烈的掌声。

 

小宏跳下讲台找到了泰迪。两人击掌庆祝时，卡斯阿姨兴奋地喊道：“那是我的侄子!哇哦!是我的家人!我爱我的家人!”

点击收听单词发音