Question

【题目】

A team of engineers at Harvard University has been inspired by Nature to create the first robotic fly. The mechanical fly has become a platform for a series of new high-tech integrated systems. Designed to do what a fly does naturally, the tiny machine is the size of a fat housefly. Its mini wings allow it to stay in the air and perform controlled flight tasks.

“It’s extremely important for us to think about this as a whole system and not just the sum of a bunch of individual components (元件),” said Robert Wood, the Harvard engineering professor who has been working on the robotic fly project for over a decade. A few years ago, his team got the go-ahead to start piecing together the components. “The added difficulty with a project like this is that actually none of those components are off the shelf and so we have to develop them all on our own,” he said.

They engineered a series of systems to start and drive the robotic fly. “The seemingly simple system which just moves the wings has a number of interdependencies on the individual components, each of which individually has to perform well, but then has to be matched well to everything it’s connected to,” said Wood. The flight device was built into a set of power, computation, sensing and control systems. Wood says the success of the project proves that the flying robot with these tiny components can be built and manufactured.

While this first robotic flyer is linked to a small, off-board power source, the goal is eventually to equip it with a built-in power source, so that it might someday perform data-gathering work at rescue sites, in farmers’ fields or on the battlefield. “Basically it should be able to take off, land and fly around,” he said.

Wood says the design offers a new way to study flight mechanics and control at insect-scale. Yet, the power, sensing and computation technologies on board could have much broader applications. “You can start thinking about using them to answer open scientific questions, you know, to study biology in ways that would be difficult with the animals, but using these robots instead,” he said. “So there are a lot of technologies and open interesting scientific questions that are really what drives us on a day to day basis.”

【1】 The difficulty the team of engineers met with while making the robotic fly was that __________.

A. they had no model in their mind

B. they did not have sufficient time

C. they had no ready-made components

D. they could not assemble the components

【2】 Which of the following can be learned from the passage?

A. The robotic flyer is designed to learn about insects.

B. Animals are not allowed in biological experiments.

C. There used to be few ways to study how insects fly.

D. Wood’s design can replace animals in some experiments.

【3】Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?

A. Father of Robotic Fly/span>

B. Inspiration from Engineering Science

C. Robotic Fly Imitates Real Life Insect

D. Harvard Breaks Through in Insect Study

Answer 1

【答案】【1】C

【2】 D

【3】 C

【解析】 这是一篇讨论微型飞行装置的说明文。首段开门见山，介绍了哈佛大学的工程师们受到了《自然》杂志的启发，决定自行研究机器苍蝇（robotic fly）——一种微型飞行设备。第二段说明了制造这种飞行设备的实际困难：所需的构成原件没有现成的，需要自行开发。第三段主要介绍了该飞行设备的构成。第四、五两段介绍了该飞行装置技术成熟后能给我们带来生活上、科研上的详细用途。

【1】 细节信息题。由关键词difficulty定位至第二段最后一句话“The added difficulty with a project like this is that actually none of those components are off shelf and so we have to develop them all on our own.”意为这个项目的困难实际上在于所需的元件都没有现成的，需要我们自己开发。on the shelf（现货供应）与ready-made（现成的）同义。因此，正确答案为C。

【2】 推理引申题。定位至最后一段第三句话“…to study biology in ways that would be difficult with the animals, but using these robots instead.”意为当用动物这一途径研究生物问题比较困难时，我们可以用这些机器人取代动物的位置。因此，正确答案为D。

【3】 主旨大意题。该题要求选定文章的标题，故需归纳文章的主旨大意。纵观全文，首段开门见山，介绍了哈佛大学的工程师们决定自行研究机器苍蝇（robotic fly）。第二段说明了制造这种飞行设备的实际困难：所需的构成原件没有现成的，需要自行开发。第三段主要介绍了该飞行设备的构成。第四、五两段介绍了该飞行装置在能运用至多种场合，还能在科研中代替动物。可见本文通篇都在围绕机器苍蝇（robotic fly）进行介绍。因此，正确答案为C。