5 . What will restaurants look like in the future? What would your dinner taste like if a robot cooked it? A robot restaurant in Tianjin may give you the answers.
Covering an area of over 400 square meters with a total of 112 seats, the X Future Restaurant is a robot restaurant that opened in November 2018. The restaurant has amazed customers with its fully-automated (全自动的) technology, which covers every step of the dining experience, from ordering to cooking to serving the dishes and even taking payment.
Entering the restaurant, one can order dishes by simply scanning the QR codes on the table. There are over 40 choices of dishes. After taking the order, “robot cooks” prepare dishes using fixed time, temperature and ingredients designed by famous Chinese cooks.
“As the cooking is controlled by a computer system, the taste and quality of dishes can be good,” said Li Xiaokui, manager of the X Future Restaurant.
Robots also complete the delivery of dishes. Without following any designed route, the robot waiters serve meals thanks to automated driving technology, which helps each robot timely change its route when something is in the way.
These eye-catching technologies have received wide praise from customers. “The dishes taste surprisingly good. I couldn’t believe that they were made by robots, especially dishes that were difficult to cook.” one customer said. “The application of robots has increased our efficiency and cut down our costs,” Li said, “I think robot restaurants will develop fast and have a bright future.”
1. What do we know about the X Future Restaurant?| A．It covers over 112 square meters with 400 seats. |
| B．Robot waiters deliver dishes following fixed routes. |
| C．Customers could enjoy fully-automated services. |
| D．Robot cooks design dishes by themselves. |
| A．They are prepared by human cooks. |
| B．They are not easy for robots to prepare. |
| C．They are not accepted by customers. |
| D．They are ordered by scanning QR codes. |
| A．The choices of dishes are limited. |
| B．It takes a long time for the robots to prepare the dishes. |
| C．Customers are willing to dine in the restaurant. |
| D．The delivery routes are designed by the waiters. |
| A．Hopeful. | B．Doubtful. | C．Puzzled. | D．Worried. |
9 . Winners of the Broadcom MASTERS
Girls took the top prizes at the Broadcom MASTERS, a science competition for middle school students.
Alaina Gassler
Alaina won the $25,000 Samueli Foundation Prize for the project of reducing blind spots in cars. She was inspired to solve this issue by her mother who didn’t like driving her vehicle because its large A-pillar (A柱) design made her feel in danger. “I started to think about how blind spots were a huge problem in all cars,” said Alaina. So she worked on and solved it.
Sidor Clare
Sidor won the $10,000 Marconi/Samueli Award for Innovation, an honor made by Samueli’s generous donation of his 2012 Marconi Society Prize Award. She developed bricks that could one day be made on Mars, so that humans wouldn’t be required to carry building materials with them in order to build there.
Alexis MacAvoy
Alexis won the $10,000 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Award for Health Advancement, which recognized the student whose work and performance showed the most promise in health-related fields and demonstrated an understanding of the many social factors that affect health. She designed a water filter (过滤器) by using carbon to remove heavy metals from water.
Rachel Bergey
Rachel won the $10,000 Lemelson Award for Invention, awarded by The Lemelson Foundation to a young inventor creating promising solutions to real-world problems. She developed a trap made of tinfoil (锡纸) and netting for the spotted lanternfly, an invasive species causing damage to trees.
1. What is the purpose of Alaina Gassler’s invention?| A．To beautify vehicles. | B．To improve the safety of driving. |
| C．To decorate the sidewalk for the blind. | D．To reduce the carbon released from cars. |
| A．Alaina Gassler’s. | B．Sidor Clare’s. |
| C．Rachel Bergey’s. | D．Alexis MacAvoy’s. |
| A．Art. | B．Sport. | C．Technology. | D．Education. |
| A．She stayed at home. | B．She went to a party. | C．She saw a movie. |
