Issac Asimov (1920-1992) was an American author, best known for his books on popular science and science fiction. Asimov's most famous work is the Foundation series. His other major works are the Galactic Empire series and the Robot series. 

1. through with the book - finished reading the book
2. attic - a space or room just below the roof of a house 
3. scornful - showing that you think something is stupid or not good enough
4. robot - a machine that is made to look like a human and that can do things that a human can
5. dails - round parts of machines, and so on, that show the speed, time, temperature of something
6. punch code - a special type of code where a piece of paper is punched in a certain way where each punched hole represents a particualar answer
7. in no time - very quickly
8. sector - area, here, the portion of the robot that needed updating
9. blanked out - stopped working completely
10. dispute - argue
11. squealed - shrieked
12. adjusted - tuned, in order to work more efficiently
13. indifferently - uncaringly
14. tucked - here, pushed the book under his arm so that it stayed safe