VOA慢速英语(翻译+字幕+讲解):受响尾蛇启发制作的机器人
日期:2014-11-19 12:42

(单词翻译:单击)

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听力文本

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From VOA Learning English, this is the Technology Report.

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Five years ago, the Mars Rover Spirit got stuck in sand on the red planet. Spirit is one of the American space agency's two motorized vehicles on Mars.

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Recently, the other vehicle – Curiosity -- had to go a long way to avoid another sandy area. These incidents led some scientists to develop ways to keep the costly robots from being trapped in the sand. These scientists looked to nature for their ideas.

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The researchers flew deadly snakes to Zoo Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia. The snakes, called sidewinder rattlers, are native to the southwestern United States.

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The creatures were put in a specially designed sandbox with inclines that could be raised up or lowered. The scientists used high-speed video cameras to record the position of the snakes as they moved sideways up different inclines. Their movement is called sidewinding.

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Daniel Goldman teaches physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. He says the snakes moved easily in the sand -- even when the sand began moving.

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Mr. Goldman and other researchers wrote about their findings in the journal Science. They are said to be the first to explain this kind of snake movement.

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"We noticed that the animals were in fact sidewinding, using the same kind of pattern of sidewinding they use on hard ground, but laying instead of only a few points of contact on the body contacting the ground, they were essentially laying more and more snake body down on the hill as the incline angle increased."

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Researchers then performed experiments with a robot developed at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania. The robot is called MOD-Snake. It is one meter long, and has 16 parts or modules. Each module is 6 centimeters wide.

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Daniel Goldman says the robot has a long history of getting in and out of tight places. Researchers wanted to get the MOD-Snake to climb in the same way as the sidewinder rattlers.

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"And those same waves existed in the robot and allowed it to make its maneuvers and allowed us to modify those waves to make the kind of maneuvers that the snake did on sand dunes of different inclines -- that is, laying down more robot as the hill angle increased."

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The researchers performed the same experiment with other snakes closely related to the rattlers. But all of those creatures failed to slide up the inclines.

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Joe Mendelson is research director at Zoo Atlanta. He says the robot model helped explain why those snakes have trouble climbing.

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Mr. Mendelson adds that the next generation of Mod-Snake may be used to save lives or explore unexplored areas on Earth or even in space.

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"Robots are expensive. And a robot gets stuck in the sand, that's a problem. And you realize, part of going into this, we realize that sidewinders never ever, ever get stuck on sand!"

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The researchers hope the new sidewinder robot will travel up and down sand dunes just as well.

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I'm Jonathan Evans.

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译文属可可原创,仅供学习交流使用,未经许可请勿转载C|CFNwd@Ntkg

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词汇解释

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1.trap vt. 诱捕;使…受限制;使…陷入困境 n. 陷阱;圈套;[建] 存水弯 vi. 设陷阱

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His offer smelt of a clear trap.
他的提议明显是一个圈套pEqgA)dU2QxwNW)BEH

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2.incline angle 倾斜角

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The bigger incline angle is, the smaller roughness is.
倾斜角度越大,表面粗糙度值越小;

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3.dune n.沙丘

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The sand massed to form a dune.
沙积集起来成了沙丘xf&Te1^64*3|ElvIvH

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内容解析

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1.Five years ago, the Mars Rover Spirit got stuck in sand on the red planet.

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get stuck in 陷入了…;加紧进行;全神贯注吃饭或工作

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He said his car had got stuck in the snow.
他说他的汽车陷在了雪地里[qk.(O3]~~P1[]o183X

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He got stuck in a revolving door.
他给旋转门困住了5Dd&9NiFi*=zc

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参考译文

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这里是美国之音慢速英语科技报道ERp.y*zBx+z[S8P

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5年前,火星漫步者“勇气号”陷入这个红色星球的沙中,“勇气号”是美国航天局在火星上的两辆机动车之一|^~2n.=EsY=5Gr_G(L

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最近,另一辆火星车“好奇号”为避免另一个沙区,只得进行长途跋涉RU4YgeK^uKG。这些事故使得科学家开始想办法让这些昂贵的机器人免于陷入沙中,这些科学家向大自然寻找答案HE7-~99+7aZ=F

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研究者把致命毒蛇空运到乔治亚州亚特兰大动物园,这种名为“角响尾蛇”的蛇原产于美国西南部Qot^GyWThWdR.0uf|w1K

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这种蛇被放进一种特制的坡度可升降沙箱中,科学家使用高速摄像机记录蛇在不同斜面上升时的位置,这种运动叫蛇形_[w3P@H,cZ,RJDq,#t

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丹尼尔·戈德曼在亚特兰大乔治亚理工学院教物理,他说蛇能很轻易地在沙中移动,即使沙子在移动时也是如此vI5,35-Qwcz

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戈德曼等研究者在《科学》期刊上发表了他们的发现,据悉他们是解释蛇的这种运动的第一人lWJ(=&M(T9s6.a^SlQ

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“我们注意到这种动物是在蛇形,使用在硬地上一样的蛇形方式,但不再是身上的少数点接触地面,而是随着坡度增大有越来越多身体点接触坡面U(I8Vp2b+50G0@4,8p。”

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研究者后来使用宾夕法尼亚州卡内基·梅隆大学研制的机器人做了实验,这种机器人名叫MOD-Snake,它身长1米,有16个模块,每个模块6厘米宽.[&4[UJL_LB;j+

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丹尼尔·戈德曼说,这种机器人经常在狭窄空间移动,研究者希望它能像响尾蛇一样攀爬i5~j60_E-J5o

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“机器人也能做同样的波浪运动,可以灵活移动,还可以把波浪改成蛇在不同坡度沙丘上移动的那种动作,就是说随着坡度上升,机器人更多地接触地面zO^J3~l%2hFR。”

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研究者使用和响尾蛇密切相关的其他蛇也做了实验,但这些动物都未能爬上斜坡exy|mrkjG.]1BEyswJ

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乔·门德尔松是乔治亚动物园的研究负责人,他说机器人模型能帮助解释为何这类蛇无法攀爬f^Guk3G|w[nj

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门德尔松说下一代Mod-Snake机器人可能被用来拯救生命,或探索地球甚至太空中的未开发地区2@qj0swCYH

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“机器人很昂贵,一旦机器人陷入沙子里,就很麻烦,keJiw7WH5Ro!T|TV]Q。而我们发现响尾蛇永远都不会陷入沙子里V2.SyYVR0LN|k-。”

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研究者希望这种新的响尾蛇机器人也能在沙丘中爬上爬下B6Uh.&I^*h5X@TqMpEJ

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我是乔纳森·伊万斯6(o8a6PY]43r

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点击此处下载本期VOA慢速新闻讲解PDF与音频

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重点单词
  • curiosityn. 好奇,好奇心
  • patternn. 图案,式样,典范,模式,型 v. 以图案装饰,仿造
  • dunen. 沙丘
  • relatedadj. 相关的,有亲属关系的
  • avoidvt. 避免,逃避
  • essentiallyadv. 本质上,本来
  • sandyadj. 沙,含沙的,沙色的,不稳固的 Sandy n.
  • movementn. 活动,运动,移动,[音]乐章
  • costlyadj. 昂贵的,代价高的
  • explorev. 探险,探测,探究