Predictions of many robots in industry have yet come true. For ten years or more, manufacturers of big robots have explained how their machines can make industry more competitive and productive. The maker for (21) robots is over-supplied now, and the driving force of the robotics revolution is (22) to be with makers of machines that handle a few kilos at most."Heavy-robot manufacturers are in some difficulty (23) finding customers. They are offering big (24) just to get in the door. There has been a (25) growth everywhere in the numbers of robots, so we admit we are either deceiving (26) or that the market is slowly growing." said John Reekie, chairman of Colen Robotics. "The following things must happen (27) the robotics revolution to occur. We must achieve widespread robot literacy, (28) there has been a computer (29) program. There must be a robot policy. Finally, some kind of (30) intelligence needs to be (31) ."Colen makes educational robots and machine tools. It is small (32) with companies like ASEA or Fujitsu Fanuc. But Galen with others and departments in universities such as Surrey, Manchester, and Durham possess an advantage (33) the giants. The big companies sell very expensive (34) to businesses with expert knowledge in automation. The (35) companies make robots for teaching people, and now they have realized that there is a need for small. (36) robots that they can meet.The little companies either bring their educational machines (37) an industrial standard or design from the start. One technique that they all adopt is to choose (38) components where possible. The major cost of making (39) their models is the electronics, which will fall in price. There is (40) scope for reductions in mechanical costs. The sue of standard parts, which are easily replaced, should give these robots a mechanical life of something in the order of five years. 25().
A. exciting
B. encouraging
C. despairing
D. disappointing
The promise of finding long-term technological solutions to the problem of world food shortages seems difficult to fulfill Many innovations that were once heavily supported and publicized have since fallen by the wayside. The proposals themselves were technically feasible, but they proved to be economically unenviable and to yield food products culturally unacceptable to their consumers.One characteristic common to unsuccessful food innovations has been that, even with extensive government support, they often have not been technologically adapted or culturally acceptable to the people for whom they had been developed. A successful new technology, therefore, must fit the entire sociocultural system in which it is to find a place Security of crop yield, practicality of storage, and costs are much more significant than what had previously been realized by the advocates of new technologies.The adoption of new food technologies depends on more than these technical and cultural considerations; economic factors and governmental policies also strongly influence the ultimate success of any innovation. Economists in the Anglo-American tradition have taken the lead in investigating the economics of technological innovation. Although they exaggerate in claiming that profitability is the key factor guiding technical change -- they completely disregard the substantial effects of culture—they are correct in stressing the importance of profits. Most technological innovations in agriculture can be fully used only by large landowners and are only adopted if these profit-oriented business people believe that the innovation will increase their incomes, Thus innovations that carry high rewards for big agribusiness groups will be adopted even if they harm segments of the population and reduce the availability of food in a country. Further, should s new technology promise to alter substantially the profits and losses associated with any production system, those with economic power will strive to maintain and improve their own positions. Therefore, although technical advances in food production and processing will perhaps be needed to ensure food availability, meeting food needs will depend much more on equalizing economic power among the various segments of the populations within the developing countries themselves. We learn from the third paragraph that ().
A. economists in the Anglo-American tradition hold the opinion that profitability is the key factor guiding technical change
B. the theory of the economists in the Anglo-American tradition is substantially wrong
C. innovations that carry high rewards for big agribusiness groups will harm segments of the population and reduce the availability of food in a country
D. most technological innovations in agriculture can be fully used by large landowners if the innovation will increase their incomes
M: Hi, Claire. How does it feel to be back on campusW: Hi, Gee. Well, to tell you the truth, I have mixed feelings.M: Oh, whyW: I have this great summer job that I really hated to leave I worked at the wild life research center in Maryland.M: That makes sense for a genetic major. What did you do Clean the cagesW: This is a wild life center, not a zoo. This place breeds endangered species and tries to prepare them for life in the wild.M: You mean the endangered species like the tiger and the pandaW: Well, endangered species, yes. But not tigers or pandas. I work with whooping cranes and sandhill cranes. I taught the baby crane how to eat and drink, and I help the vets to give medical check-ups.M: I can see it was hard to leave that job. But how did you teach a bird how to eat and drinkW: We covered ourselves up with cloth and used puppets made out of stuffed crones to show the baby chicks what to do. Then the chicks copied what the puppets did.M: Cloth Puppets Sounds like fun.W: It was. The cloth and puppets are the key tools. We all covered ourselves up, the scientists, the vets, the junior staff, everybody. You see, baby cranes will become attached to their caretakers.M: So if the caretaker is a person, the crane will stay in places where people are.W: Yeah. And their chances for survival aren’t very good. But by covering ourselves and using cloth and puppets the chicks are more likely to seek out other birds rather than people. And their transition to the wild has a better chance of being successful.M: A chance of being successful Hasn’t this been done beforeW: It’s been done with sandhill cranes and everyone is optimistic about its work with whooping cranes too.M: If this works, it should increase the number of cranes in the wild.W: Yeah. It’s exciting, isn’t it What was the woman’s job()
A. Counting wildlife.
B. Cleaning cages.
C. Training baby birds.
D. Making puppets.
If I look back now and size up honestly the situation I was in at the time, I have to conclude that in the West, in a free society, I probably would not have been able to write the novel known by readers today as Fateless, the novel singled out by the Swedish Academy for the highest honor. No, I probably would have aimed at something different. Which is not to say that I would not have tried to get at the truth, but perhaps at a different kind of truth. In the free marketplace of books and ideas, I, too, might have wanted to produce a showier fiction. For example, I might have tried to break up time in my novel, and narrate only the most powerful scenes. But the hero of my novel does not live his own time in the concentration camps, for neither his time nor his language, not even his own person, is really his. He doesn’t remember; he exists. So he has to languish, poor boy, in the dreary trap of linearity, and cannot shake off the painful details. Instead of a spectacular series of great and tragic moments, he has to live through everything, which is oppressive and offers little variety, like life itself.