文章大意:本文是一篇说明文。所有的船只都有污染的问题:水线以下堆积的贝类、海藻和其他生物。这会造成阻力,使受影响的船舶减速并增加其燃料消耗,本文主要讲述了进行水下清洁工作的机器人——HullSkater。
All ship suffer from fouling (污垢): the build-up below the waterline of shellfish, seaweeds and other organisms. This causes drag, which slows the affected craft and increases its fuel consumption (消耗). Regular hull (船体) cleaning thus makes a considerable difference to the profitability of shipping. It also results in a useful reduction in the amount of planet-warming carbon dioxide.
Roar Adland, a shipping economist at the Norwegian School of Economics, in Bergen, says that a midsized oil tanker’s fuel consumption drops by around 9% after its hull is cleaned at sea -- something that happens, on average, once every six or seven months. If the cleaning is done in a dry dock (船坞), which allows the process to be more thorough, that figure can be as much as 17%.
At the moment, cleaning at sea is done by teams of divers. In recent years, robots have sometimes been added to underwater cleaning crews. They have proved potent. Jotun, a Norwegian coatings (涂层) company, and Semcon, a Swedish engineering firm, propose, however, to go one step further. They want to replace the divers completely with a machine. That machine, moreover, would not merely help clean a ship’s hull, but stop it fouling up in the first place.
Their invention, HullSkater, is a 200kg robot. It will stay permanently on a ship, ready to be launched whenever the ship is not moving. To use the robot, it is first lowered overboard. Its four magnetic wheels, each of which is fitted with a motor, hold onto the hull and it can start moving around. After this, the ship’s crew need do nothing. The robot is piloted by an operator on land, who may be half a world away. Inspecting and cleaning a hull takes HullSkater between two and eight hours, depending on the size and design of the ship.
The HullSkater approach is not absolutely ideal. Regular cleaning by a robot could wear away some types of antifouling coating. Jotun has, however, developed a special, hard-wearing coating to deal with the problem. HullSkater is now being tested in various parts of the world for rates of fouling depending on local conditions, such as sea temperatures, and the plan is to make it available commercially soon.
12. What will happen when a ship fouls up?
A.Its fuel will be polluted. | B.Its coating will come off. |
C.Its motors will stop working. | D.Its shipping expenses will increase. |
13. What does the underlined word “potent” in paragraph 3 probably mean?
A.Costly. | B.Noisy. | C.Effective. | D.Complex. |
14. What can be learned about HullSkater?
A.It can be operated by people from a distance. | B.It keeps working while the ship is sailing. |
C.It has one motor weighing around 200kg. | D.It can give a hull a thorough clean in an hour. |
15. For what purpose has Jotun made an improvement to its products?
A.To make HullSkater more lightweight. | B.To adapt to rising sea temperatures. |
C.To help a ship travel much father. | D.To protect the surface of a hull. |