Hidden in the trees, behind the leaves, look closely and you’ll see eyes staring back at you. This is SlothBot, a robot inspired by the famously slow animal-sloth (树獭).
For the next several months, visitors to the Atlanta Botanical Garden will be able to observe the testing of the new high-tech tool in the battle to save some of the world’s most endangered species. Researchers are testing the SlothBot near the Garden’s popular Canopy Walk.
Built to take advantage of the low-energy lifestyle of real sloths, SlothBot demonstrates how being slow can be ideal for certain applications. Powered by solar panels and using innovative power management technology, SlothBot moves along a cable strung between two large trees as it monitors temperature, weather, carbon dioxide levels, and other information in the Garden’s 30-acre midtown Atlanta forest.
“Slowness is a design principle of SlothBot,” says Magnus Egerstedt, professor and chair in the Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “That is not how robots are typically designed today, but being slow and energy-efficient will allow SlothBot to stay in the environment to observe things we can only see by being present continuously for months, or even years.”
About three feet long, SlothBot’s imaginative 3D-printed shell helps protect its motors, gearing, batteries and sensing equipment from the weather. The robot is programmed to move only when necessary, and will locate sunlight when its batteries need recharging.
“The most exciting goal we’ll demonstrate with SlothBot is the union of robotics and technology with conservation,” says Emily Coffey, vice president for conservation and research at the Garden. “We do conservation research on endangered plants and ecosystems around the world, and SlothBot will help us find new and exciting ways to advance our research and conservation goals.”
“SlothBot could do some of our research remotely and help us understand what’s happening with pollinators(传粉者), interactions between plants and animals, and other phenomena that are difficult to observe otherwise," Coffey adds.
1. What do the researchers expect SlothBot to do?| A．Guard the garden. | B．Attract visitors. |
| C．Protect real sloths. | D．Help endangered species. |
| A．SlothBot. | B．Slowness |
| C．A design principle. | D．A low-energy style. |
| A．It always stays still. | B．It can pollinate the plants. |
| C．Its shell provides protection for itself. | D．Its design will be used to study the ocean. |
| A．A Slow-moving Sloth Begins Life in a Garden |
| B．A New Robot Helps Raise Endangered Animals |
| C．A New Study Aids Conservation Efforts in Atlanta |
| D．A Conservation Robot Slowly Monitors Endangered Species |
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【推荐1】The white rhinoceros (白犀牛) is near-threatened due to massive illegal hunting; the mountain gorilla is classed as endangered due to great habitat destruction. If no action is taken, these amazing creatures will undoubtedly be extinct before the end of the century. But scientists are working hard to stop this with some pretty cool drone (无人机) tech.
One of the biggest dangers to endangered animals in the modern day comes from illegal hunting, which claims the lives of hundreds of white rhinos every year. While regular patrols (巡逻队) can drive hunters away from certain areas, hunters are often well-armed and unafraid to fire upon those hoping to protect the rhinos. This is where drones come in. If researchers and patrols work in these areas, there would be a real danger of coming into contact with the hunters. By having drones collect data, movement patterns and numbers of animals, researchers and patrols can get away from such dangers.
Drones can also be sent into the skies above difficult-to-reach areas to get data that would otherwise be tough to collect. For example, mountain gorillas are usually found in deep jungle, and organizing an exploration can be expensive and demanding. Researchers can send drones over the forest to gather data about the habitat of the animals, and even take high quality images. This information can be priceless when it comes to an on-foot exploration, as researchers can get up-to-date information. In this situation, human-led surveys will still offer better results, but drones can play a huge part.
The downside presently is the cost, which can run into tens, if not thousands, of dollars. However, drone tech is still becoming a more favorable choice in the fight against wildlife extinction.
1. Why has the mountain gorilla become endangered?| A．Because of illegal hunting. | B．Because of the loss of habitats. |
| C．Because of natural disasters. | D．Because of industrial pollution. |
| A．They can protect themselves from harm. |
| B．They can beat and punish illegal hunters. |
| C．They can reduce the cost of explorations. |
| D．They can increase the rhino’s population. |
| A．It can process important data. | B．It can gather useful information. |
| C．It can drive away illegal hunters. | D．It can replace human-led surveys. |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Positive. | C．Concerned. | D．Doubtful. |
【推荐2】Top Scientific Breakthroughs in 2023
The pace of innovation never slows, and the impact of the breakthroughs will redefine the way we live, work and connect with the world.
A New Era for Space Exploration
Space exploration is one of the core missions in many countries. Recently, the newest mission to the moon was launched as NASA’s Artemis Program, which would pave the way for a future mission to Mars. This new era of space exploration will drive technological advancements in fields beyond astronautics and stimulate progress in real-world applications like materials, food science, and modern industry.
A Milestone in AI Predictions
For decades, the scientific community has chased a greater understanding of relationships between protein functions and 3D structures. In July 2023, Deep Mind revealed that the folded 3D structure of a protein molecule (分子), which reduced the number of human proteins with unknown structural data from 4,800 to just 29. While there will always be challenges with AI, the ability to predict protein structures in biology has implications across all life sciences.
Greener Fertilizer Production
Every year, billions of people depend on fertilizers for the ongoing production of food, and reducing the carbon footprint and expenses in fertilizer production would reshape the impact agriculture has on emissions. To reduce energy requirements, researchers from Tokyo Tech have developed a noble-metal-free catalyst (催化剂), which is much more environmentally friendly and safer to the agricultural produces.
Supercomputer—Exascale
Exascale computers, which can perform a mind-boggling quintillion (1018) mathematical operations per second, finally arrived in 2023. They’ve already helped refine weather forecasts and design new materials, and new ones will be coming online soon. The world’s most powerful supercomputers, operating at the far frontier of speed known as the exascale, have now begun to boom. These results from exascale machines coming online in the next few years promise to open a new window into materials, climate science, and medicine.
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1. What do the Space Exploration and Fertilizer Production have in common?| A．They take a lot of time. | B．They make influence on the food. |
| C．They need government cooperation. | D．They cost a big sum of money to maintain. |
| A．A New Era for Space Exploration. | B．A Milestone in AI Predictions. |
| C．Greener Fertilizer Production. | D．Supercomputers—Exascale. |
| A．A textbook. | B．An exam paper. | C．A magazine. | D．A science fiction. |
【推荐3】According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term “couch potato” first appeared in print in a December, 1979 edition of the Los Angeles Times. Since then, has become a familiar term for a person who spends a lot of time sitting, and little time exercising. Although there does not seem to be any particular reason why the term “couch potato” is used rather than “couch tomato” , a person may become a “couch potato” because living this way is said to make you round like a potato. The term is also said to have something to do with the high-calorie (卡路里) food like potato chips.
People now would say “couch potato” whenever they talk about overweight and obesity (肥胖). Indeed, “couch potatoes” are believed to have heart disease risks, which can be avoided by regular exercise.
It is true that technology and modern life in general make us sick, fat, lazy and physically/mentally soft. The more time people spend using technology, particularly televisions and computers, the less time they will spend being physically active.
“Couch potato” kids are a particular concern. Media reports repeatedly claim that children today are fatter than their elder generations, but less athletically skilled, less interested in physical activities and more addicted (上瘾的) to “junk food” and technology such as televisions and computers. The message is clear: today’s children are fat because they are lazy and eat too much. Moreover, because technology is becoming more sophisticated (复杂的), children are less able to resist (抵抗，忍得住) technology’s attraction, and are more likely to spend more time using technology, less time doing physical activities and，therefore, more likely to be fat.
1. The first paragraph is mainly about ________.| A．why “couch potato” is used as a term for a person |
| B．when “couch potato” is used as a term for a person |
| C．how “couch potato” is different from “couch tomato” |
| D．what kind of person looks like a potato |
| A．we are more likely to have heart disease risks in modern life |
| B．we spend less time doing exercise |
| C．we needn’t do many things by ourselves any more |
| D．we spend all our time watching TV and playing computer games |
| A．food | B．study |
| C．health | D．hobby |
| A．scientists should stop their technology research |
| B．parents should take better care of their children |
| C．kids should be stopped from using new technology |
| D．people should spend less time using technology |
【推荐1】Dreams, according to Carl Jung, reveal a certain amount of reality hidden during waking . consciousness:-In Jung’s philosophy, the conflict and chaos experienced in dreams finally bring order to our lives. While Jung’s mysterious theories are debatable, he was not mistaken about the importance of dreaming. A growing number of reports show that a continuous lack of dreaming is damaging our waking hours in many ways.
This trend is causing damage to our immune and metabolic (新陈代谢的) systems, let alone the electronic products that keep us up late at night. Devices like smart phones are ruining our sleep patterns, which has long-term consequences on our memory system. One study showed that not allowing mice to have adequate amounts of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, the stage in which we dream, the mice couldn’t strengthen memories.
You might think this is just a sleep problem, but dreaming is inseparable from our nighttime rest. We sleep in cycles (周期), each lasting about 90 minutes; in a sleep cycle, we go through non-REM sleep before hitting REM. The longer we sleep, the more time we spend in REM, which is why we are often dreaming when we wake up in the morning. If we sleep less than seven hours, however, it becomes harder to achieve this level of REM.
The combination of sleeping and dreaming acts as an emotional stabilizer. We recover from emotional hurt faster when we sleep and dream properly. However, we’re not getting enough sleep to cycle through the stages to take advantage of this natural antidepressant(抗抑郁剂) —— dreams. Instead, we get depressed and turn to alcohol or medicines to get to sleep, which only makes things worse because even one drink leads to late REM while man-made antidepressants ‘promote deep sleep by reducing the time for REM:
We’re paying for this lack of dreaming in many ways. Studies show that volunteers who experienced more REM sleep were better equipped for solving problems requiring creative solutions.
Rowan Hooper, the managing editor at New Scientist, writes that dreams that include an “emotional core” appear to be a main function of REM sleep and that we should look at sleep patterns as seriously as we do diet and exercise habits.
1. What’s Carl Jung’s view about dreams?| A．They reveal secrets. | B．They mirror reality. |
| C．They cause conflict and chaos. | D．They damage the immune system. |
| A．To show a dream mainly occurs during REM sleep. |
| B．To prove the minimum sleep time should be seven hours. |
| C．To prove dream problems and sleep problems are associated. |
| D．To show people often dream when waking up in the morning. |
| A．Dreaming promotes creativity. |
| B．Dreaming helps fight depression. |
| C．The brain still receives new information during REM sleep. |
| D．The brain is paying the price for having more non-REM sleep. |
| A．The importance of sleep lies in dreams. |
| B．The absence of dreams is terrible for us. |
| C．Dreaming patterns are more important than we realize. |
| D．Dreaming has mystical power of strengthening memories. |
【推荐2】Vanessa Burchill, a 12-year-old Dartmouth, N. S. girl, is growing and giving away hundreds of young milkweed so endangered monarch butterflies have somewhere safe to land. Her plan to save the monarch butterflies began about three years ago when her aunt showed her a chrysalis from her garden. She watched in wonder as a butterfly appeared and made its wings dry.
She’s now given out about 1,000 baby milkweed plants to people in Halifax through her Downtown Dartmouth Monarch Project. Her first group of milkweed this spring went in a matter of hours.
Monarch butterflies can’t survive without milkweed because ifs the only plant where they can lay their eggs. Burchill grows wetland milkweed. It is far less controllable than common milkweed, its cousin. Common milkweed is considered a harmful weed in U.S. It is often killed by people with chemicals.
This year, Burchill’s growing season began in February with seeds from the Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute. Anyone can message her on Facebook to pick up a pot of milkweed for free. Each pot has four small plants that people are encouraged to put in a sunny place in their gardens.
“When the monarchs finally appear from the chrysalis they need to be able to dry out their wings in the sun and when the plant doesn’t have full sun they can’t do that.” Burchill said.
Burchill has also started growing a butterfly garden in the park across the street from her house with the help of parents and neighbors. “We’re very proud of her and she’s quite focused,” said her dad, Nick Burchill. ‘‘Hopefully, it will create a nice pathway for monarchs.”
Burchill has only seen a handful of monarchs visit her yard and she’s still waiting to see a caterpillar on the milkweed. But she knows what she did is paying off when she sees the endangered butterflies visiting gardens she helps grow.
1. What encouraged Burchill to save the monarch butterflies?| A．Her monarch project. | B．Her aunt’s suggestion. |
| C．Her research on the butterflies. | D．Her experience in her aunt’s garden. |
| A．Selling milkweed becomes a profitable business. |
| B．Milkweed baby plants grow very quickly in spring. |
| C．The project is widely welcomed by the local people. |
| D．Monarch butterflies can’t survive without milkweed. |
| A．It provides the butterfly with enough water. | B．It is much safer than common milkweed. |
| C．It is encouraged by the U.S. government. | D．It grows everywhere in her hometown. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Uninterested. | C．Doubtful. | D．Worried. |
【推荐3】The Smart Treat Chocolate lovers know that eating chocolate makes them happy. Now it turns out that eating chocolate may also make them smarter. Dr. Bryan Raudenbush recently conducted a study to see how eating chocolate affects people’s brains. The U.S. researchers knew that chocolate contained several stimulants. But he wasn’t sure how those stimulants actually affected chocolate eaters. To find out, Raudenbush had a group of volunteers eat 85 grams of milk chocolate. He asked another group to eat no chocolate at all. After 15 minutes, he tested their memory and their ability to solve problems. The group that ate milk chocolate had higher scores. They were able to remember more words and pictures than the group that did not eat chocolate. Raudenbush concluded that the stimulants in chocolate increased mental alertness. Of course, eating chocolate doesn’t guarantee you’ll pass every test. You’ll still need to study!
1. We can learn from the passage that ________.| A．chocolate can help people pass every test |
| B．chocolate lovers are smarter than those who don’t love chocolate |
| C．chocolate can make people happy and cleverer |
| D．chocolate is loved by all the people |
| A．Because chocolate contains several stimulants. |
| B．Because chocolate made him happy. |
| C．To make himself smarter by eating chocolate. |
| D．To find out how people’s brains are affected by eating chocolate. |
| A．medicine | B．vegetable | C．commercial | D．identification |
| A．chocolate is good for health |
| B．chocolate tastes better with milk |
| C．people’s performance can be improved by eating chocolate |
| D．nothing else can be more tasty and effective than chocolate |
