时间:2018-12-16 作者:英语课 分类:2015年VOA慢速英语(七)月


英语课

Robots Ready to Work in Restaurants 在餐馆工作的机器人


For many years, machines have been doing work that people once did, including some difficult jobs. Search and rescue operations in dangerous environments are often seen as the first areas that will employ high technology robots. But there is another area that may soon take jobs traditionally held by human beings: the restaurant industry.


Teams from around the world competed in early June at the DARPA Robotic Challenge Finals in California. A team from South Korea and its robot, called DRC-Hubo, won first place in the competition. The second and third place finishers were from the United States.


The robots were required to drive a vehicle, climb up steps and do mechanical work. Such activities are easy for humans to perform, but more difficult for machines.


Not all of the competitors were successful. The failures showed how difficult it is to design effective walking machines.


Recently, crowds gathered for the food machinery 1 and technology show in Tokyo, Japan. They witnessed a robotic chef preparing food. Other machines cooked, baked tasty pastries 2 and even made sushi.


Akihiro Suzuki works at Yaskawa Electric, a company that develops robots. He says robots cannot do everything a human can, but they are able to work without becoming tired.


He says robots cannot taste food, change heating levels or seasonings 3 to get the best flavor. But he says if a food can be easily prepared, a robot can repeat the same movement to reproduce 4 the same meal.


One Japanese woman who saw the robots working wanted to bring them home.


Masayo Mori says she would like to have a husband who could work like a robot.


Suzumo Machinery demonstrated its sushi maker 5 robot. It performs the often difficult work of wrapping the popular Japanese food. Hiroshi Monden is an official with the company.


He says people all over the world now eat sushi, but there are not enough skilled workers to prepare it. He says his machine can help anyone make sushi.         


Other robots have been created to help decorate cakes and cut and peel apples.


Words in This Story


pastry 6 – n. a small, baked sweet food


sushi – n. a Japanese dish of cold cooked rice shaped in small cakes and topped or wrapped with other ingredients (such as pieces of raw fish)


adjust – v. to change (something) in a minor 7 way


seasoning(s) – n. a substance (such as salt, pepper, a spice or an herb) that is used to add flavor to food


peel – v. to remove the skin from (a fruit or vegetable)



1 machinery
n.(总称)机械,机器;机构
  • Has the machinery been put up ready for the broadcast?广播器材安装完毕了吗?
  • Machinery ought to be well maintained all the time.机器应该随时注意维护。
2 pastries
n.面粉制的糕点
  • He gave a dry laugh, then sat down and started on the pastries. 杜新箨说着干笑一声,坐下去就吃点心。 来自子夜部分
  • Mike: So many! I like Xijiang raisins, beef jerky, and local pastries. 麦克:太多了。我最喜欢吃新疆葡萄干、牛肉干和风味点心。
3 seasonings
n.调味品,佐料( seasoning的名词复数 )
  • It emphasizes the use of seasonings, so no two dishes ever taste alike. 它对调味品十分讲究。因此,没有两个菜会有同样的味道。 来自地道口语脱口SHOW 高中超越版
  • The food made of flour and various seasonings is called moon cake. 中秋节的食品也是圆圆的,也象征着团圆,这种用面和各种作料做的食品叫月饼。 来自互联网
4 reproduce
v.生育,繁殖,复制,重做
  • The machine can reproduce a key in two minutes.这机器能在两分钟内复制一把钥匙。
  • The picture will reproduce well.这照片会印得很清楚。
5 maker
n.制造者,制造商
  • He is a trouble maker,You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼,你不要跟他在一起。
  • A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。
6 pastry
n.油酥面团,酥皮糕点
  • The cook pricked a few holes in the pastry.厨师在馅饼上戳了几个洞。
  • The pastry crust was always underdone.馅饼的壳皮常常烤得不透。
7 minor
adj.较小(少)的,较次要的;n.辅修学科;vi.辅修
  • The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
  • I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。
标签: VOA慢速英语
学英语单词
Abbadia San Salvatore
accommodation davit
aqueous jet scouring machine
assessor of the vice-chanceller
atlantoaxial subluxation
bae colwyn
ballsed up
bottled juice
braking controller
break-building
bubblings
butane tetracarboxylic acid
candlesticks
chaetomium gangligerum
chronometer record book
circular depolarization (ratio)
close agreement
compressive region
consonanted
convened
credit entries
cross hair
cycleadrine
disanchored
door louver
duty of care
dye receptor
education - isic
elfred
filmlike
flex-timest
for good reason
full shift capability
gasoline gel
giga-switches
giraffidaes
glareth
good cops
high-temperature reservoir
hippocampal fissure (or hippocampal sulcus)
hold the cards
hunger-relief
indium monoiodide
integral mode controller
kidney-shaped
lack of experience
lay edges
Lily Savage
load center
lobar atrophy
local entity
logarithmic convexity
main feedwater
man-to-man rating scale
marketability of product
Mexicana, Altiplanicie (Mexican Plat.)
Mickiewicz
non-essential bus
octopoteuthids
octopus bushes
opaqueness
opposite group
Oprep
ouretic
peritrates
petit mals
presuppositions
properties collection
provisioning
rake out information
reducing plane table equipment
regrouping switch
relevant departments
rescuees
seard meat
session management
settling curve
shank with square tang
short fibre reinforcement
sidemode
solution chromatography
source control
southern blue flag
special-use office building
specific consumption rate
spy hunter
square set and fill stoping
steel bar mechanical connecting
streels
strongly axiomatizable theory
superficialis
time limit relay
transfer station
trichohyalin
Uvernet-Fours
vertical-planer
water-aerobics
Weibull distribution
woodhams
working-hours method
wrens
yalloy