1 . The Last Robot-Proof Job in America?

You can get most food, such as warm cookies or vodka, to your doorstep in minutes. But try getting a red snapper (红鲷鱼). Until recently, if you could obtain it, it would likely have been pre-frozen and shipped in from overseas.

A new tech startup is aiming to ____________this situation. Based inside the Fulton Fish Market, a seafood wholesale market, the startup, called FultonFishMarket.com, allows customers across the whole country, both restaurants and individuals, to buy from the market. The fish is shipped ____________, rather than frozen, thanks to an Amazon advanced logistics system. Mike Spindler, the company’s C.E.O., said recently, “I can get a fish to Warren Buffett, that’s as fresh as if he’d walked down to the pier (码头) and bought it that morning.”

There is one thing, ____________, that the sophisticated logistics system cannot do: pick out a fish. If Warren Buffett orders a red snapper, the company needs to ____________ that his fish is actually red snapper, and not some other. According to the ocean-conservation organization, more than 20% of the seafood in restaurants and grocery stores in America is ___________. For this task, the company has employed Robert DiGregorio, a forty-seven-year veteran of the business, who possesses a blend of judgement and ___________ knowledge that, so far, computers have yet to replicate.

“___________ the food-safety stuff, our business could be any market from the last three thousand years of human history,” Spindler told me. He is experienced in the ___________ business. When he arrived at the fish market in 2014, people were cautious. “They thought selling fish on the Internet was___________.” DiGregorio said, speaking for the fishmongers(鱼贩). “They didn’t see how it could possibly work.” Five years ago, DeGregorio didn’t know how to use a computer, but when the Web-site people arrived at the market, he sensed an opportunity. Together, they’ve created a human-machine fish-buying operation.

By 1 a.m. each night, the company collects __________ from around the country and sends them to DiGregorio. He heads into the market, carrying his tablet computer. The company’s algorithms（算法） ___________ data on their sources and can tell DiGregorio, for example, which stall to go to get the best tuna (金枪鱼). The computer is a “learning system,”, so if DiGregorio makes a choice it didn’t ___________, it asks, “Was the fish not available? Was it damaged?” All that information is fed back in for next time.

Then, what can a fishmonger see that a computer can’t? DeGregorio showed me his part of the ___________ process. “I’m assessing a few things,” he said. First, ___________. Fish should have “nice” slime(粘液). Then, smell. He sniffed the air above the box. “when fish goes bad, it smells like ammonia.” Besides, to get the best stuff, “Fishmongers have to have a relationship with you. To trust you.” He added.

Is he ever __________being replaced by the learning system of computers? DiGregorio shrugged. “By the time they invent a computer that can do what I can do,” he said, “I’ll be dead.”