题目内容
Your next Saturday night takeaway could be brought to you by a robot after a major food delivery company announced plans to use automated vehicles to transport meals. Europe’s biggest online takeaway food company Just Eat has partnered with Starship Technologies to deliver food with robots on the streets of London later this month. “Nobody has ever done deliveries with land-based robots,” said Allan Martinson, the chief operating officer of Starship.
The robot courier can travel up to 4 miles per hour for about 10 miles. It uses a GPS signal and nine cameras to navigate(确定方向). Instead of a person arriving at their door, customers could find themselves receiving a notification(通知) on their phone that says a robot is on its way and a code to unlock the automated courier. “Put the code in, the robot opens up, and there’s your food,” said David Buttress, chief manager of Just Eat.
The robot, which has so far been tested in Greenwich, Milton Keynes and Glastonbury, costs ￡1 to transport within 3 miles, compared with the ￡3 to ￡6 it costs for a human courier. To date 30 robots have driven nearly 5,000 miles without getting into an accident or finding themselves picked on by passers-by. They have driven in more than 40 cities around the world, including London and Tallinn, Estonia.
An initial worry was how the public would react to robots. But Martinson said the public has been calm when passing the delivery machine on the streets. “The most surprising reaction has been the lack of reaction,” said Martinson.
Another significant fear was that people would disrupt(扰乱) the robots, or try to steal them and their contents. To prevent this, the robot is fitted with nine cameras, two way audio, and movement sensors that send a warning if it is lifted off the ground. And it opens only with a pass code provided to the customer via a notification. “It’s much easier to shoplift than it is to steal a robot,” said Martinson.
1.The test of Starship robots shows that ________.
A. they are easy to operate
B. the robot delivery is appreciated in big cities
C. the robot delivery is cheaper than human delivery
D. they can travel for 10 hours continuously
2.Which of the following is one of the worries about Starship robots?
A. People’s indifference to the robots.
B. Safety of the robot delivery.
C. Accuracy of the robot delivery.
D. People’s concern about public traffic.
3.Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
A. Great Improvement of Just Eat
B. Global Trend of Food Companies
C. New Robots to Move on the Road
D. Delivery Robots to Replace Takeaway Drivers
The concept of culture has been defined many times, and although no definition has achieved universal acceptance, most of the definitions include three central ideas: that culture is passed on from generation to generation, that a culture represents a ready-made principle for living and for making day-to-day decisions, and, finally, that the components of a culture are accepted by those in the culture as good, and true, and not to be questioned. The eminent anthropologist George Murdock has listed seventy-three items that characterize every known culture, past and present.
The list begins with Age-grading and Athletic sports, runs to Weaning and Weather Control, and includes on the way such items as Calendar, Fire making, Property Rights, and Tool making. I would submit that even the most extreme advocate of a culture of poverty viewpoint would readily acknowledge that, with respect to almost all of these items, every American, beyond the first generation immigrant, regardless of race or class, is a member of a common culture. We all share pretty much the same sports. Maybe poor kids don’t know how to play polo, and rich kids don’t spend time with stickball, but we all know baseball, football, and basketball. Despite some misguided efforts to raise minor dialects to the status of separate tongues, we all, in fact, share the same language.
There may be differences in diction and usage, but it would be ridiculous to say that all Americans don’t speak English. We have the calendar, the law, and large numbers of other cultural items in common. It may well be true that on a few of the seventy-three items there are minor variations between classes, but these kinds of things are really slight variations on a common theme.
There are other items that show variability, not in relation to class, but in relation to religion and ethnic background — funeral customs and cooking, for example. But if there is one place in America where the melting pot is a reality, it is on the kitchen stove; in the course of one month, half the readers of this sentence have probably eaten pizza, hot pastrami, and chow mein. Specific differences that might be identified as signs of separate cultural identity are relatively insignificant within the general unity of American life; they are cultural commas and semicolons in the paragraphs and pages of American life.
1.According to the author’s definition of culture, ________.
A. a culture should be accepted and maintained universally
B. a culture should be free from falsehood and evils
C. the items of a culture should be taken for granted by people
D. the items of a culture should be accepted by well-educated people
2.What can we learn from the passage?
A. Baseball, football and basketball are popular sports in America.
B. Different classes have different cultures.
C. Playing polo is popular among kids.
D. There is no variation in using the American language.
3.It can be inferred that ________ will most probably be included in the seventy-three items.
A. accent | B. polo | C. dream patterns | D. table manners |
4.The author’s main purpose in writing this passage is to ________.
A. prove that different people have different definitions of culture
B. warn that variations exist as far as a culture is concerned
C. indicate that culture is closely connected with social classes
D. show that the idea that the poor or the rich establish a separate culture is an absurdity