The deep-sea oil and gas industry has vast and costly facilities to maintain. Wells, other equipment, and thousands of kilometers of pipelines must be inspected and repaired.
Now, cutting-edge underwater drones (无人机) and robots are being developed that could make the work safer and cheaper. Among them is Eelume, a six-meter-long, snake-like robot equipped with sensors and a camera at each end. It can be kept at a station at depths of up to half a kilometer for six months, without being brought back to the surface. The robot can travel up to 20 kilometers before needing to return to its station to recharge.
Maintenance work at many deep-water wells and pipeline systems is already carried out by unmanned vehicles. But these vehicles typically need to be transported to the offshore site on a fully crewed ship and then remotely operated from onboard the surface ship. That can cost up to $100,000 per day, according to Pål Liljebäck, chief technology officer with Eelume Subsea Intervention, which developed the robot. Liljebäck says that by “enabling the robot to become a subsea resident living at a station, it can be mobilized at any time to do inspections, thereby reducing the need for costly surface ships”.
Eelume can work autonomously on tasks assigned from a control room onshore, and send back video and data. Its snake-like design allows it to work in small spaces and wriggle (扭动) its body to stay in place in strong currents. By staying under the sea, it can carry out tasks whatever the conditions on the surface of the ocean.
The global underwater robotics market is expected to be worth around $7 billion in 2025, according to analysts, and other companies are in the process of commercializing new deep-sea drone and robot technology. Eelume Subsea Intervention will carry out final testing on the seabed later this year at the Åsgard oil and gas field. It expects to put its first snake robots into use next year and hopes to have up to 50 in oceans around the world by 2027.
1. What is one feature of Eelume?| A．It can travel nearly 40 kilometers before recharging. |
| B．It can dive as deep as 500 meters. |
| C．It works mainly around the station. |
| D．It works for 6 months on one charge. |
| A．They are too costly to maintain. |
| B．They are hard to operate remotely. |
| C．They require transportation to and from work. |
| D．They have to work on a fully crewed ship all the time. |
| A．It will require no further tests. |
| B．It will be worth around $ 7 billion. |
| C．It will be put on the market in 2027. |
| D．It will face a lot of competitors. |
| A．A snake robot is on its way for underwater tasks. |
| B．Eelume is the new choice for constructing pipelines. |
| C．Maintenance work on the ocean floor is a risky job. |
| D．Unmanned vehicles marketing has seen strong growth. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】For top students from low-income families，the challenge of applying to colleges is particularly difficult. 1 in 4 deal with all of that—the writing，the studying，the researching and applying—completely on their own. One approach to make this whole process easier? Pair students up with an adviser.
That’s the idea behind CollegePoint，an initiative to help gifted students go to schools that match their intellectual(智力的)ability. When a high school student takes a standardized test—the PSAT，SAT or ACT——and they score in the 90th percentile，and their families make less than$80，000 a year，they get an email from the program offering them a free adviser. The advisers listen，guide and answer students’questions.
Connor Rechtzigel，an adviser in Minnesota，sees the importance of his role，for research shows that low-income students are far more likely to undermatch because they don’t think they have what it takes to get in and because many don’t even know what schools are out there. He helped high school senior Justice Benjamin，the first in his family to apply to college，think about what his ideal learning experience was. Finally，Justice narrowed in on smaller schools where he could study environmental science and made his final choice：Skidmore College in New York. He felt empowered by the process.
Figuring out how to pay for college is a major part of what，CollegePoint advisers do. Nakhle，an adviser in North Carolina，is working with Hensley，an Ohio high school senior who can’t get extra financial help from her family. They spent a lot of time comparing and analyzing her financial-aid award letters，which made her decision much clearer. Finally，the Ohio State University offered an option where she would pay nothing. Staying in-state wasn’t her first choice，but it was the best option for her.
1. What is the second paragraph mainly about?| A．How CollegePoint works. | B．The goal of CollegePoint. |
| C．Ways to apply for a free adviser. | D．The challenge of choosing colleges. |
| A．Overestimating their abilities. | B．Knowing little about colleges. |
| C．Lack of enough learning experience. | D．Failure to get support from their families. |
| A．She didn’t want to stay far from home. |
| B．Her favorite major was provided there. |
| C．She would show her talents to the full. |
| D．The university met her financial needs. |
| A．How to Be a Financial Adviser |
| B．Steps for Top Students to Select Ideal Colleges |
| C．Advisers Help Poor Students Apply to Suitable Colleges |
| D．CollegePoint—a Program Helping Students Score High |
【推荐2】Feel the Music
We’ve all heard of smart phones, but how about smart clothing? The CuteCircuit company has stepped up the technology beat and invented the SoundShirt, which was designed specifically for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. How does this incredible shirt work?
First, let’s talk about a little science. People who have either all or some hearing loss don’t actually listen to music the way that hearing people do, but they can feel it. Sound is made up of vibrations, called sound waves, which hearing people can hear through their ears with the help of the brain. What’s really cool is that deaf people sense vibrations in the part of the brain that others use for hearing!
So how is this remarkable technology able to function? First, CuteCircuit had to figure out a way to send signals to the body, kind of like how you can feel when your phone vibrates in silent mode. Those connections the body can feel are called haptics, a use of technology that simulates the senses of touch and motion. The SoundShirt has tiny sensors woven into the shirt to pick up sound and transfer signals to the brain and body.
To test this music-to-shirt-to-wearer’s brain connection, CuteCircuit set microphones around the stage of a symphony orchestra. The shirt’s computer system digitally received the sounds coming from the instruments. Then the sensors, working like little motors, changed the signals into vibrations and the shirt wearer’s brain did the rest.
The SoundShirt lets people who are deaf or hard of hearing enjoy music in a unique way. The very deep musical sound, or pitch, of instruments like drums and basses vibrates in the lower part of the shirt. Higher pitched sounds from instruments like the flute or violin vibrate higher, around the neck and arms. As the music plays, the sensations combine while the brain gets to work putting together all the different vibrations, allowing the wearer to “hear” the concert.
You might think this innovation would look like something out of a science fiction movie, but in fact, these shirts are wireless! And the decorative laser-lined design on the shirt looks like an image of sound waves.
Technology’s purpose is to help people and make life better. Think of all the amazing things designers, engineers, and producers of wearable tech will be able to do for humankind.
1. What’s the passage mainly about?| A．Wearable technology like the SoundShirt is the wave of the future. |
| B．CuteCircut tested the SoundShirt with a symphony orchestra. |
| C．The SoundShirt lets people who are deaf or hard of hearing enjoy music. |
| D．Deep musical sounds from drums vibrate in the lower part of the SoundShirt. |
| A．Tiny sensors in the SoundShirt change sound signals into vibrations. |
| B．Those who have hearing loss are able to sense sound vibrations. |
| C．Deep musical sounds vibrate in the lower part of the SoundShirt. |
| D．It’s amazing that the SoundShirt is made without any wires. |
| A．Before the SoundShirt, deaf people had no way of feeling sound. |
| B．The SoundShirt doesn’t work without the power of the human brain. |
| C．The SoundShirt works when the wearer is listening to a symphony orchestra. |
| D．CuteCircuit is giving away its SoundShirts to those deaf or hard of hearing. |
| A．advise that companies should focus on applying wearable technology |
| B．advocate that technology can be used to create products that help others |
| C．prove that the design of wearable technology is a rewarding industry in future |
| D．exemplify that musical instruments can be used to change technology for the better |
【推荐3】During spring in the Pacific Northwest, meltwater rushes down rivers and the wind often blows hard. These forces spin the region’s many power turbines (涡轮机) and generate electricity at a time of mild temperatures and relatively low energy demand. But much of this seasonal extra electricity—which could power air conditioners in summer—is lost because batteries cannot store it long enough.
Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), a Department of Energy National Laboratory in Richland, Wash, are developing a battery that might solve this problem. In a recent paper published in Cell Reports Physical Science, they demonstrated how freezing and unfreezing a molten salt solution (熔盐溶液) creates a rechargeable battery that can store energy cheaply and efficiently for weeks or months at a time. This will be an outcome that is significant toward renewable energy.
Most conventional batteries store energy as chemical reactions waiting to happen. When the battery is connected to a circuit, electrons travel from one side of the battery to the other, generating electricity. To compensate for the change, charged ions (离子) move through the solid material that separates the two sides of the battery. But even when the battery is not in use, the ions gradually move across this material. As that happens, the battery loses energy. Some rechargeable batteries can lose a third of their stored charge in a single month.
“In our battery, we try to stop this condition.” says PNNL researcher Guosheng Li, “The material inside the battery is made of a salt solution that is solid at normal temperatures but becomes liquid when heated to 180℃. When the material is solid, ions are locked in place, preventing self—discharge. Only when the material becomes liquid can ions flow through the battery, allowing it to charge or discharge.”
“Creating a battery that can resist repeated cycles of heating and cooling is no small task. However, we want to go through it and see how far we can take them to commercialization.” says Guosheng Li.
1. Why do the researchers develop the new battery?| A．To extend the duration time. | B．To protect the environment. |
| C．To cut the cost of the battery. | D．To generate more electricity. |
| A．Its complex design. | B．Its required temperature. |
| C．Its major advantage. | D．Its potential market. |
| A．Confident. | B．Cautious. | C．Conservative. | D．Skeptical. |
| A．Exploring the Future of Rechargeable Batteries. |
| B．Researching Ways to Promote Rechargeable Batteries. |
| C．New Technology Replaces Conventional Batteries in the Market. |
| D．Rechargeable Salt Battery Freezes Energy for Longer Storage. |
【推荐1】Digital assistants such as Siri are increasingly common on phones and computers. Developing an emotional relationship with a piece of software can, however, bring discomfort to some people.
As a study published in Psychological Science by Park Daeun, of Chungbuk National University in South Korea, and her colleagues, shows, one emotion sometimes involved in machine-human interaction is embarrassment.
Dr Park and her team recruited 187 participants into their study. To start with, each was presented with a series of statements like “you have a certain amount of intelligence, and you can’t really do much to change it”, and “you can always substantially change how intelligent you are”. Participants rated their responses to these statements on a six-point scale, on which one meant “strongly disagree” and six meant “strongly agree”. The reason for this initial test was that Dr. Park knew from previous work that, in academic settings, those who believe intelligence to be changeable are comfortable asking for assistance while those who believe it to be fixed often feel ashamed to do so.
The initial test done, the researchers presented their volunteers with a second test, which involved looking at 16 sets of three words and trying to think of a fourth word that linked them. For example, when offered “room, blood, salts” , a correct answer would be “bath”. Sometimes the first three words were accompanied by an unrequested hint (in the example given, this was “tub”). Sometimes they were not.
Hints appeared as the written form of the word in question,accompanied bya computer-shaped icon (图形). For half of participants this icon had a humanlike face, and the hint was placed inside a speech bubble originating from that face, thus anthropomorphising (赋予人性) the presentation to some degree. For the other half the icon lacked a face and there was no speech bubble. After the final set of words had been displayed, participants were asked to agree or disagree with follow-up statements about their experience, such as “it was embarrassing to receive help during the task”, and “others might think I am incompetent (无能的) because I received help during the task.” This time, they quantified their feelings on a seven-point scale, with high scores representing greater feelings of unease.
The researchers found that participants who believed intelligence to be unchangeable (the top sixth of the sample) felt more embarrassed and more incompetent after the tests. They averaged 3.2 when measured for feelings of shame and embarrassment if the computer icons they had seen giving the hints had had faces and speech bubbles. But only 2.7 if not. In contrast, people who strongly believed that intelligence could be changed over time (the bottom sixth of the sample) felt the same level of discomfort (around 2.5) whether or not the icons had been anthropomorphised.
1. The initial test is meant to classify the participants according to ________.| A．how intelligent they are in academic settings |
| B．how familiar they are with previous research |
| C．how much they agree with Dr Park’s viewpoint |
| D．how much they believe intelligence is unchangeable |
| A．request a useful hint at a proper time |
| B．link the four words given with a key word |
| C．tell computer-shaped icons from face-shaped ones |
| D．answer whether they feel comfortable to receive help |
| A．Those who believe intelligence can change are more likely to refuse computers’ assistance. |
| B．Those regarding intelligence as fixed may feel less at ease when turning to computers. |
| C．Those regarding intelligence as fixed are more likely to feel embarrassed in real life. |
| D．Those who believe intelligence can change are more capable than those who don’t. |
| A．How machine-human interaction will develop remains to be seen. |
| B．People need to change their understanding of artificial intelligence. |
| C．Sometimes, computer programs seem too human for their own good. |
| D．So far, the digital assistants have not taken human emotion into account. |
【推荐2】Clearing the air in class saw significant boosts to reading and math achievement of students, according to a New York University study, even though the outdoor pollution didn’t prove to be a problem. The findings suggest improving air quality may also help disadvantaged students who often live in more polluted areas and attend class in older buildings.
Michael Gilraine, study author at New York University, analyzed both the air quality and the math and reading test scores at the 18 schools. In schools that received the new air filters, students improved by 0.18 of a standard deviation(标准偏差) in reading and 0.2 of a standard deviation in math, compared to students’ performance in the schools that did not receive air filters. To put that in perspective, those gains are about equal to the learning benefits from reducing class sizes or providing intensive tutoring. Students sustained those math and reading gains the next year, particularly if they attended the same school or another that had installed new filters in the following year. “In fact, given the large test-score increases they generate, installing air filters actually outperforms other education reforms such as class-size reduction on a cost-benefit basis,” Gilraine said.
Prior studies have found that better air quality can lead to fewer teacher and student absences, particularly for those with chronic asthma (慢性哮喘) or other respiratory illnesses. While schools with the new air filters installed did have lower student absenteeism, attendance alone didn’t seem to be driving the gains in math and reading achievement. Rather, he said, “you can get a lot just from being able to think clearly while you take a test. And then you also might be learning a bit better because you’re thinking clearer in class from day to day”.
Separate studies have found rising average temperatures likewise can increase indoor air pollution and reduce student achievement, particularly if students take tests on hot days.
“We’ve had a decade or more of research into the effects of lead. There’s been much less research on the effects of air quality We’re still in early days.” added Gilraine.
1. What did the study find?| A．Outdoor pollution does harm to students’ health. |
| B．Clean air promotes the students’ study achievement. |
| C．Air quality puts New York University at a disadvantage. |
| D．Polluted areas and old buildings have air problems. |
| A．By making analysis and comparison. |
| B．By giving examples and listing basic data. |
| C．By telling stories and doing experiments. |
| D．By demonstrating the causes and effects. |
| A．Fewer teacher and student absences. |
| B．Rising temperatures in class. |
| C．Clearer thinking in better air quality. |
| D．Taking a math and reading test everyday. |
| A．It will focus on the research of lead. | B．It gets off with a good start. |
| C．It gets lots of support from schools. | D．It still has a long way to go. |
【推荐3】An eclipse happens when one heavenly body such as a moon or planet passes into the shadow of another heavenly body. There are two types of eclipses on the Earth: lunar eclipses and solar eclipses.
The moon orbits (环绕) the Earth and, at the same time, the Earth orbits the sun. Sometimes the Earth moves between the sun and the moon. When this happens, the Earth blocks the light from the sun. This is an eclipse of the moon—a lunar eclipse. A lunar eclipse can occur only when the moon is full and can be seen from the Earth at night.
There are two types of lunar eclipses: total lunar eclipses and partial lunar eclipses.
A total lunar eclipse occurs when the moon and the sun are on exact opposite sides of the Earth. The moon is in the Earth’s shadow and the sunlight passes through the Earth's atmosphere, which causes the Earth’s atmosphere to filter or block out most of the blue light. However, a partial lunar eclipse happens when only a part of the moon enters the Earth's shadow. What people see from the Earth during a partial lunar eclipse depends on how the sun, the Earth and the moon are lined up.
A lunar eclipse usually lasts for a few hours. It is safe to look directly at a lunar eclipse although a pair of binoculars can certainly help the viewer appreciate the beauty of this phenomenon.
Sometimes when the moon orbits the Earth, it moves between the sun and the Earth. When this happens, the moon blocks the light of the sun from reaching the Earth. This causes an eclipse of the sun, or solar eclipse. During a solar eclipse, the moon casts a shadow onto the Earth.
There are three types of solar eclipses: total solar eclipses, partial solar eclipses and annular eclipses(日环食). During a solar eclipse, the moon casts two shadows on the Earth. Unlike lunar eclipses, solar eclipses only last for a few minutes.
It’s important to never look directly at the sun—the strong sunlight can damage your eyes forever! In fact, the only way to safely view a solar eclipse is by using speciallydesigned equipment.
1. What can be concluded from Paragraph 4?| A．People can see nothing when a lunar eclipse happens. |
| B．A lunar eclipse happens when the Earth and the sun are opposite. |
| C．The blue light in sunlight can be prevented from reaching the moon. |
| D．A partial lunar eclipse happens when every part of the moon enters the Earth’s shadow. |
| A．They both can last for a few hours. |
| B．They both have only two types in total. |
| C．They both happen when they are in the Earth’s shadow. |
| D．They both happen when the sunlight can’t reach the sun or the moon. |
| A．Sunlight is stronger than moonlight. |
| B．A solar eclipse lasts not as long as a lunar eclipse. |
| C．More advanced and safer equipment is used to watch a lunar eclipse. |
| D．The temperature is more pleasant when people watching a lunar eclipse. |
| A．The reasons for eclipses. |
| B．The consequences of eclipses. |
| C．The different ways of observing eclipses. |
| D．The introduction of lunar eclipses and solar eclipses. |
