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题型:阅读理解-阅读单选 难度:0.4 引用次数:144 题号:6150732

There’s a revolution happening in the way that food is grown around the world. Vertical farming piles crops on top of one another in a climate controlled, indoor facility, and uses advanced technology to produce food in the most environmentally friendly way the world has ever seen.

At AeroFarms in Newark, New Jersey, crops are piled more than 30 feet high in a 30,000 square foot space. They use aeroponic(气雾栽培) technology, involving misting the roots of the plants, using an astonishing 95% less water than conventional farming methods. David Rosenberg, CEO of AeroFarms told Seeker, “Typically, in indoor growing, the roots sit in water. If we mist nutrition to the root structure, the roots have a better oxygenation(氧合作用).”

AeroFarms uses no pesticides. The plants are grown in a reusable cloth made from recycled plastic, so no soil is needed to grow them. They also use a system of specialized LED lighting instead of natural sunlight, reducing their energy footprint even further. “Many people say ‘Sunless? Wait. Plants need sun.’ Actually the plants don’t need yellow spectrum(光谱). So we reduce our energy footprint by doing things like reducing certain types of spectrum to make it function as sunlight,” Rosenberg said.

Dickson Despommier, an ecologist from Columbia University, was one of the first advocates of vertical farming. In 1999, he proposed that vertical farming could help feed our ever-growing, overpopulated cities, while using less water than current farming methods and reducing the need to transport food long-distances. Despommier likely imagined his idea would be taking shape on a global level, just 18 years later.

There are now vertical farms in Canada, Panama, Britain, and throughout America. AeroFarms is currently building another vertical farm facility in an old steel factory that’s larger than a football field. They expect it will grow up to 2 million pounds of greens every year.

Rosenberg believes that vertical farming is truly the way of the future. “It’s a tough business, but it’s one that’ll stay with a bigger and bigger impact.”

1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?
A.The development of farming.
B.A great agricultural principle.
C.The imagination of future agriculture.
D.A brief introduction of vertical farming.
2. What is special about AeroFarms according to Rosenberg?
A.It produces safe crops.
B.It plants more crops without water.
C.It saves more energy and labor.
D.It uses misted nutrition for a better oxygenation.
3. What is the AeroFarm’s specialized LED lighting like?
A.It is almost dark.
B.It is similar to sunlight.
C.It is actually natural light.
D.It adds some yellow spectrum.
4. What attitude does Rosenberg have to vertical farming’s future?
A.Skeptical.B.Positive.
C.Critical.D.Indifferent.
【知识点】 科学技术 环境保护

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【推荐1】Robby Pepper can answer questions in Italian, English and German. He is Italy’s first robot caretaker. He is employed at a hotel on the popular Lake Garda to help answer simple, usual questions from visitors. During one of Robby’s first days, Mihail Slanina, a guest from Moldova, congratulated the robot on his skills. “He’s like a real person; he’s really good,” she said. “He talked; he shook my hand.”

Japan’s Softbank Robotics created Robby. The Italian company Jampaa programmed the robot. It can provide hotel guests with information they need, like where to find a restaurant and its hours of operation. The use of robots is growing in service industries like tourism. Most of the robots serve mainly as novelties. But they are expected to become more useful as better artificial intelligence, or AI, is developed.

The International Federation of Robotics says about 79,000 professional service robots were sold last year. The Frankfurt, Germany-based organization expects up to 25 percent sales growth each year through 2020. These artificial intelligence machines include defense robots, cleaning robots, and medical robots. In 2016, 7, 200 public relations robots like Robby Pepper were sold—a 135 percent increase from 2015 sales.

Richard Windsor is a technology businessman in London. He says the use of robots is not yet common because artificial intelligence is not complex enough. He says the proof is that the companies responsible for the two best AI systems, Google Assist and Baidu’s DuerOS, do not make robots.

Public acceptance is important to the robot industry. Experts say people in the United States and Japan seem more welcoming to robots than people do in Europe. Shoppers at a store in Scotland got one robot, Softbank’s Fabio Pepper, dismissed. Customers were not willing to talk to the robot. And a security robot at an office complex in Washington, DC made news last year when it rolled itself into a fountain and would not get out.

1. Why does the author mention Robby Pepper in Paragraph 1?
A.To advertise Italy’s first robot caretaker.B.To tell us it can complete many tasks.
C.To tell us a well-developed robot.D.To introduce the topic and attract the readers.
2. What’s mainly discussed in Paragraph 2?
A.Robby can find restaurants.B.Robby are programmed in Italy.
C.Robots are becoming more useful.D.Robots are only useful in service industries.
3. What can be inferred from the data in Paragraph 3?
A.The use of robots is common.B.The producer gets great profits.
C.The robot industry has a promising future.D.Every country is increasing its robot industry.
4. What can we learn from the text?
A.Robby was made by Jampaa.
B.Robots can serve in every industry.
C.Google Assist and Baidu’s DuerOS make the best robots.
D.There is still a long way to go for the popularity of robots.
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【推荐2】In a company blog post on Monday, Apple announced that its Apple Music streaming service would give all users access to lossless and spatial audio (空间音频)in June, 2021. Those who have the service will get these features without needing to pay more money.

Lossless audio is probably the, bigger of the two, especially for music fans. Traditionally, turning songs into MP3s or other common audio formats usually reduces sound quality. Not every part of a recording is necessary for basic listenability, so corners are cut to make sure file sizes aren't massive. As the name suggests, lossless audio gives you a version closer to what was heard in the recording studio. Apple's lossless format starts at 16 bit at 44.1 kHz and goes all the way up to24 bit at 192 kHz. You'll be able to choose your preferred quality level in the Apple Music app's settings when this feature rolls out.

Spatial audio is a little more self-explanatory. Artists can make their music sound like it's happening all around the listener, as long as they're using new AirPods or Beats headphones or the most recent versions of iPads, Macs, and iPhones. This is free of Dolby Atmos, a high-tech surround-sound format that you can find everywhere from movie theaters to home audio equipment.

Assuming lossless and spatial audio deliver on those promises, Apple can claim victory over Spotify and Tidal on price alone. The $9.99 monthly fee won't increase, unlike Spotify's upcoming HiFi plan (which doesn't have a confirmed price yet) and Tidal's existing $ 19.99 monthly lossless plan. That's definitely a noteworthy blow in the music streaming war.

1. What can be learned about Apple's lossless audio?
A.It costs more money.
B.It has been in wide use.
C.It takes no storage space.
D.It offers high quality music.
2. What is mainly talked about in Paragraph 3?
A.Types of headphones.
B.Features of Spatial audio.
C.iPhones versions.
D.Audio equipment.
3. Why does the writer mention Spotify and Tidal?
A.To increase market competition.
B.To stress Apple's advantage.
C.To tell the importance of music.
D.To introduce Apple's new product.
4. What can be a suitable title for the text?
A.Apple Releases New iPhones
B.Music Platforms Fight Fairly
C.Music Lovers Feed Their Ears
D.Apple Music Offers New Services
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【推荐3】From self-driving cars to deep sea explorers, more and more of humans’ tasks are being taken over by robots. But technology doesn’t stop there. In mid-August, reported the BBC, scientists from Cambridge University developed a robotic system that meant a robot could “build other robots, each one better than the previous(以前的) generation”.

The BBC noted that “those concerned about machines taking over the world shouldn’t worry”.

However, over 1,000 scientists and numerous artificial intelligence (AI, 人工智能) researchers-including UK astrophysicist Stephen Hawking and Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak of the US-brought the danger of fully autonomous weapons(自主武器), known as “killer robots”, to our attention earlier this summer.

“If any major military(军事的) power pushes ahead with AI weapon development, a global arms race is inevitable(不可避免的),” warned an open letter released at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence held in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Unlike drones(无人机), which need a human hand, this kind of robot would have some decision-making abilities and the ability to act by itself. While what the BBC called these “solders that never sleep” could help reduce battlefield deaths, they might also make countries more likely to go into battle, which would lead to more deaths overall, noted the scientists. The risks, they said, could be far greater than those posed by nuclear weapons.

Scientists called for a “ban on offensive(攻击性的) autonomous weapons beyond meaningful human control”, reported The Huffington Post.

In fact, in an interview with the BBC in 2014, Hawking warned that the “development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race”.

And according to the BBC, many leading thinkers have been thinking about the AI-powered killing machine of the not-too-distant future. “Killer robots could be here within years, not decades,” as Stuart Russell, professor of computer science at UC Berkeley, US, put it.

Authorities are gradually waking up to the risk of robot wars. Last May, for the first time, the United Nations brought governments together to begin talks on so-called killer robots in a hope of stopping such weapons while there is still time.

Meanwhile, there are scientists who are less worried. They believe all technologies have potential(潜力) for being used for good and evil ends, and argue that the ban called for by the open letter could close the door to developing AI technology that could save lives. “Technology can clearly do better than human beings in many cases,” Ronald Arkin, dean at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, US, told The Christian Science Monitor. “If we are willing to turn over some of our decision making to these machines, we may actually get better outcomes.”

1. What does Steve Wozniak think the future robot technology might produce?
A.Artificial Intelligence.B.Autonomous weapons.
C.Soldiers that never sleep.D.Killing machines.
2. The underlined word “spell” in Paragraph 7 is closest in meaning to “______”.
A.causeB.prevent
C.reachD.change
3. What does Stuart Russell mean by saying “killer robots could be here within years, not decades.”?
A.Killer robots will visit UC Berkeley, US sooner than expected.
B.Killer robots will be produced and used sooner than expected.
C.Killer robots will speed up the development of AI in the near future.
D.Killer robots will kill these scientists in the near future.
4. What is the main idea of the text?
A.More and more of humans’ tasks are being taken over by robots.
B.Robots have decision-making abilities and the ability to act by itself.
C.Scientists called for a ban on the development of robot technology.
D.All technologies have potential for being used for good and evil ends.
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