When you think about a factory, what do you imagine first? Do you picture lots of workers doing the same thing over and over again without stopping? Well, things are changing!
Nowadays, because of super cool technologies like AI, the internet of things, cloud computing and big data, factories are becoming smarter. They need fewer workers than you might think.
Teway Food Group, a company in Chengdu, Sichuan, makes tasty seasonings, which are added into food to improve the taste. There robots do most of the work in their clever factory. First, the robots get and mix the things in line with their recipes (食谱). After that, the food goes into a smart cooking system that carefully watches and controls the temperatures to make sure the seasonings taste really good. During the whole process, you hardly see any workers and this makes everything cost much less. The president of the company, Yu Zhiyong, told The Paper, “Thanks to the smart factory, we have been able to make things 40 percent cheaper.”
Besides helping companies save money, smart factories are also looking out for the safety of workers. Baidu created a smart safety assistant (助理) called Du An’an to make sure workers are safer in factories. It gives fast answers to safety questions from workers and also looks at safety problems, helping managers work with dangers and risks quickly. Thanks to Du An’an, a big chemical (化学品) company called Daxie Petrochemical can now deal with accidents 50 percent faster than before.
Faster, better and safer at a lower cost, smart factories are changing our life. In line with the “Made in China 2025” plan, China is ready to grow from “Made in China” to “Created in China”.
8. In Paragraph 1, the writer starts the passage by _______.
A.asking questions | B.offering opinions | C.showing results |
9. What does the underlined word “
seasonings” mean in Paragraph 3?
10. Which of the following is
Not true about smart factories?
A.There are no workers working in Teway Food Company. |
B.Du An’an is created to make sure the safety of the workers. |
C.Smart factories are cheaper and safer than traditional factories. |
11. What’s the main idea of the passage?
A.Robots will take the place of workers in smart factories. |
B.Robots play a very important part in smart companies. |
C.Robots are needed to cut down the cost of smart companies. |