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热点练 05 阅读理解话题科学技术
“科学技术类”文章是高中新课程标准话题之一。该话题包括各领域最新科技知识、最新
发明创造等方面。科技已经影响渗透到我们生活的方方面面，例如电视、电脑、手机、MP3、火
箭、卫星、宇宙飞船……好多好多，几天几夜都说不完。总之生活离不开科技，科技在为生活
服务。点点滴滴，时时事事，科技无处不在。
“科学技术类”话题是历年高考英语的必考话题，主要题型为阅读理解，体裁一般为说明
文，分值所占比重也比较高。
解答阅读理解最基本的原则——忠于原文，把握文章主旨大意，有理有据、不能主观臆断
解题步骤：在理解文章主旨大意的基础上一定、二找、三比较
一定：读题干，定关键词
二找：利用关键词，结合命题顺序，在文中找到信息句
三比较：将信息与选项比较，选出正确答案。
正确的答案的特征 1.与主题吻合 2. 同义替换 3. 语气委婉，不绝对化
错误选项的特征：无中生有、以偏概全、偷换概念、过度推理、常识干扰、绝对化 。
科学研究 发明创造 科普知识真题链接
（每篇限时8分钟）
（ 2022年全国乙卷之C篇）
主题语境 语篇类型 文章词数 核心词汇
科学技术 事例阐述 327 drones
Can a small group of drones (无人机) guarantee the safety and reliability of railways and, at
the same time, help railway operators save billions of euros each year? That is the very likely
future of applying today’s “eyes in the sky” technology to making sure that the millions of
kilometres of rail tracks and infrastructure (基础设施) worldwide are safe for trains on a 24/7
basis.
Drones are already being used to examine high-tension electrical lines. They could do
precisely the same thing to inspect railway lines and other vital aspects of rail infrastructure such
as the correct position of railway tracks and switching points. The more regularly they can be
inspected, the more railway safety, reliability and on-time performance will be improved. Costs
would be cut and operations would be more efficient (高效) across the board.
That includes huge savings in maintenance costs and better protection of railway personnel
safety. It is calculated that European railways alone spend approximately 20 billion euros a year
on maintenance, including sending maintenance staff, often at night, to inspect and repair the rail
infrastructure. That can be dangerous work that could be avoided with drones assisting the crews’
efforts.
By using the latest technologies, drones could also start providing higher-value services for
railways, detecting faults in the rail or switches, before they can cause any safety problems. To
perform these tasks, drones for rail don’t need to be flying overhead. Engineers are now working
on a new concept: the rail drones of the future. They will be moving on the track ahead of the
train, and programmed to run autonomously. Very small drones with advanced sensors and AI and
travelling ahead of the train could guide it like a co-pilot. With their ability to see ahead, they
could signal any problem, so that fast-moving trains would be able to react in time.
28. What makes the application of drones to rail lines possible?
A. The use of drones in checking on power lines.
B. Drones’ ability to work at high altitudes.
C. The reduction of cost in designing drones.D. Drones’ reliable performance in remote areas.
29. What does “maintenance” underlined in paragraph 3 refer to?
A. Personnel safety. B. Assistance from drones.
C. Inspection and repair. D. Construction of infrastructure.
30. What function is expected of the rail drones?
A. To provide early warning. B. To make trains run automatically.
C To earn profits for the crews. D. To accelerate transportation.
31. Which is the most suitable title for the text?
A. What Faults Can Be Detected with Drones
B. How Production of Drones Can Be Expanded
C. What Difficulty Drone Development Will Face
D. How Drones Will Change the Future of Railways
（2022年新高考II卷之C篇）
主题语境 语篇类型 文章词数 核心词汇
科学技术 事例阐述 290 Textalyzer
Over the last seven years, most states have banned texting by drivers, and public service
campaigns have tried a wide range of methods to persuade people to put down their phones when
they are behind the wheel.
Yet the problem, by just about any measure, appears to be getting worse. Americans are still
texting while driving, as well as using social networks and taking photos. Road accidents, which
had fallen for years, are now rising sharply.
That is partly because people are driving more, but Mark Rosekind, the chief of the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said distracted（分心）driving was "only increasing,
unfortunately. "
"Big change requires big ideas. " he said in a speech last month, referring broadly to the need
to improve road safety. So to try to change a distinctly modern behavior, lawmakers and public
health experts are reaching back to an old approach: They want to treat distracted driving like
drunk driving.
An idea from lawmakers in New York is to give police officers a new device called the
Textalyzer. It would work like this: An officer arriving at the scene of a crash could ask for the
phones of the drivers and use the Textalyzer to check in the operating system for recent activity.
The technology could determine whether a driver had just texted, emailed or done anything else
that is not allowed under New York's hands-free driving laws.
"We need something on the books that can change people's behavior,” said Félix W. Ortiz,
who pushed for the state's 2001 ban on hand-held devices by drivers. If the Textalyzer bill
becomes law, he said, "people are going to be more afraid to put their hands on the cell phone. "
8. Which of the following best describes the ban on drivers' texting in the US?
A. Ineffective. B. Unnecessary.C. Inconsistent. D. Unfair.
9. What can the Textalyzer help a police officer find out?
A. Where a driver came from. B. Whether a driver used their phone.
C. How fast a driver was going. D. When a driver arrived at the scene.
10. What does the underlined word "something" in the last paragraph refer to?
A. Advice. B. Data. C. Tests. D. Laws.
11. What is a suitable title for the text?
A. To Drive or Not to Drive? Think Before You Start
B. Texting and Driving? Watch Out for the Textalyzer
C. New York Banning Hand-Held Devices by Drivers.
D. The Next Generation Cell Phone: The Textalyzer-
（2022年新高考II卷之B篇）
主题语境 语篇类型 文章词数 核心词汇
学习感悟 事例阐述 348 book
We journalists live in a new age of storytelling, with many new multimedia tools. Many
young people don’t even realize it’s new. For them, it’s just normal.
This hit home for me as I was sitting with my 2-year-old grandson on a sofa over the Spring
Festival holiday. I had brought a children’s book to read. It had simple words and colorful pictures
— a perfect match for his age.
Picture this: my grandson sitting on my lap as I hold the book in front so he can see the
pictures. As I read, he reaches out and pokes (戳) the page with his finger.
What’s up with that? He just likes the pictures, I thought. Then I turned the page and
continued. He poked the page even harder. I nearly dropped the book. I was confused: Is there
something wrong with this kid?
Then I realized what was happening. He was actually a stranger to books. His father
frequently amused the boy with a tablet computer which was loaded with colorful pictures that
come alive when you poke them. He thought my storybook was like that.
Sorry, kid. This book is not part of your high-tech world. It’s an outdated, lifeless thing. An
antique, like your grandfather. Well, I may be old, but I’m not hopelessly challenged, digitally
speaking. I edit video and produce audio. I use mobile payment. I’ve even built websites.
There’s one notable gap in my new-media experience, however: I’ve spent little time in front
of a camera, since I have a face made for radio. But that didn’t stop China Daily from asking me
last week to share a personal story for a video project about the integration of Beijing, Tianjin and
Hebei province.
Anyway, grandpa is now an internet star — two minutes of fame! I promise not to let it go to
my head. But I will make sure my 2-year-old grandson sees it on his tablet.
4. What do the underlined words “hit home for me” mean in paragraph 2?
A. Provided shelter for me. B. Became very clear to me.C. Took the pressure off me. D. Worked quite well on me.
5. Why did the kid poke the storybook?
A. He took it for a tablet computer. B. He disliked the colorful pictures.
C. He was angry with his grandpa. D. He wanted to read it by himself.
6. What does the author think of himself?
A. Socially ambitious. B. Physically attractive.
C. Financially independent. D. Digitally competent.
7. What can we learn about the author as a journalist?
A. He lacks experience in his job. B. He seldom appears on television.
C. He manages a video department. D. He often interviews internet stars.
（2022年浙江卷1月B篇）
主题语境 语篇类型 文章词数 核心词汇
时代发展 事例阐述 323 technology
The United States rose to global power on the strength of its technology, and the lifeblood
that technology has long been electricity. By providing long-distance communication and energy,
electricity created the modem world. Yet properly understood, the age of electricity is merely the
second stage in the age of steam, which began a century earlier.
"It is curious that no one has put together a history of both the steam and electric
revolutions." writes Maury Klein in his book The Power Makers, Steam, Electricity, and the Men
Invented Modem America. Klein, a noted historian of technology, spins a narrative so lively that
at times it reads like a novel.
The story begins in the last years of the 18th century in Scotland, where Watt perfected "the
machine that changed the world". Klein writes, "America did not invent the steam engine, but
once they grasped its passwords they put it to more uses than anyone else. "
Meanwhile, over the course of 19th century, electricity went from mere curiosity to a basic
necessity. Morse invented a code for sending messages over an electromagnetic circuit. Bell then
gave the telegraph a voice. Edison perfected an incandescent bulls that brought electric light into
the American home.
Most importantly, Edison realized that success depended on mass electrification, which he
showed in New York City. With help from Tesla, Westinghouse's firm developed a system using
alternating current, which soon became the major forms of power delivery.
To frame his story, Klein creates the character of Ned, a fictional witness to the progress
brought about by the steams and electric revolutions in America during one man's lifetime. It's a
technique that helps turn a long narrative into an interesting one.
4. What is Klein's understanding of the age of electricity?
A. It is closely linked to the steam age.
B. It began earlier than proper thought.
C. It is a little-studied period of history.D. It will come to an end sooner or later.
5. What can be inferred about Ned?
A. He was born in New York City. B. He wrote many increasing stories,
C. He created an electricity company. D. He lived mainly in the 19th century.
6. What is the text?
A. A biography. B. A book review. C. A short story. D. A
science report.
（2022年新高考I卷之B篇）
主题语境 语篇类型 文章词数 核心词汇
机器人 事例阐述 307 robots
An Australian professor is developing a robot to monitor the health of grazing cattle, a
development that could bring big changes to a profession that's relied largely on a low-tech
approach for decades but is facing a labor shortage.
Salah Sukkarieh, a professor at the University of Sydney, sees robots as necessary given how
cattlemen are aging. He is building a four-wheeled robot that will run on solar and electric power.
It will use cameras and sensors to monitor the animals. A computer system will analyze the video
to determine whether a cow is sick. Radio tags (标签) on the animals will measure temperature
changes. The quality of grassland will be tracked by monitoring the shape, color and texture (质
地) of grass. That way, cattlemen will know whether they need to move their cattle to another
field for nutrition purposes.
Machines have largely taken over planting, watering and harvesting crops such as com and
wheat, but the monitoring of cattle has gone through fewer changes.
For Texas cattleman Pete Bonds, it's increasingly difficult to find workers interested in
watching cattle. But Bonds doesn't believe a robot is right for the job. Years of experience in the
industry - and failed attempts to use technology - have convinced him that the best way to check
cattle is with a man on a horse. Bonds, who bought his first cattle almost 50 years ago, still has
each of his cowboys inspect 300 or 400 cattle daily and look for signs that an animal is getting
sick.
Other cattlemen see more promise in robots. Michael Kelsey Paris, vice president of the
Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association, said a robot could be extremely useful given rising concerns
about cattle theft. Cattle tend to be kept in remote places and their value has risen, making them
appealing targets.
12. What is a problem with the cattle-raising industry?
A. Soil pollution. B. Lack of workers.
C. Aging machines. D. Low profitability.
13. What will Sukkarieh's robot be able to do?
A. Monitor the quality of grass. B. Cure the diseased cattle.
C. Move cattle to another field. D. Predict weather changes.14. Why does Pete Bonds still hire cowboys to watch cattle?
A. He wants to help them earn a living. B. He thinks men can do the job better.
C. He is inexperienced in using robots. D. He enjoys the traditional way of life.
15. How may robots help with cattle watching according to Michael Kelsey?
A. Increase the value of cattle. B. Bring down the cost of labor.
C. Make the job more appealing. D. Keep cattle from being stolen.
（2021年全国乙卷之B篇）
主题语境 语篇类型 文章词数 核心词汇
固定电话 事例阐述 342 landline
When almost everyone has a mobile phone, why are more than half of Australian homes still
paying for a landline（座机）?
These days you’d be hard pressed to find anyone in Australia over the age of 15 who doesn’t
own a mobile phone. In fact plenty of younger kids have one in their pocket. Practically everyone
can make and receive calls anywhere, anytime.
Still, 55 percent of Australians have a landline phone at home and only just over a quarter
（29%） rely only on their smartphones according to a survey （调查）. Of those Australians
who still have a landline, a third concede that it’s not really necessary and they’re keeping it as a
security blanket — 19 percent say they never use it while a further 13 percent keep it in case of
emergencies. I think my home falls into that category.
More than half of Australian homes are still choosing to stick with their home phone. Age is
naturally a factor（因素）— only 58 percent of Generation Ys still use landlines now and then,
compared to 84 percent of Baby Boomers who’ve perhaps had the same home number for 50
years. Age isn’t the only factor; I’d say it’s also to do with the makeup of your household.
Generation Xers with young families, like my wife and I, can still find it convenient to have
a home phone rather than providing a mobile phone for every family member. That said, to be
honest the only people who ever ring our home phone are our Baby Boomers parents, to the point
where we play a game and guess who is calling before we pick up the phone（using Caller ID
would take the fun out of it）.
How attached are you to your landline? How long until they go the way of gas street lamps
and morning milk deliveries?
24. What does paragraph 2 mainly tell us about mobile phones?
A. Their target users. B. Their wide popularity.
C. Their major functions. D. Their complex design.
25. What does the underlined word “concede” in paragraph 3 mean?
A. Admit. B. Argue.
C. Remember. D. Remark.
26. What can we say about Baby Boomers?
A. They like smartphone games. B. They enjoy guessing callers’ identity.C. They keep using landline phones. D. They are attached to their family.
27. What can be inferred about the landline from the last paragraph?
A. It remains a family necessity.
B. It will fall out of use some day.
C. It may increase daily expenses.
D. It is as important as the gas light.
【词汇积累】
security安全 emergencies 紧急事件；紧急需要 category种类，范畴
【长难句析】
Of those Australians who still have a landline, a third concede that it’s not really necessary and
they’re keeping it as a security blanket — 19 percent say they never use it while a further 13
percent keep it in case of emergencies. I think my home falls into that category.
【分析】本句中的who still have a landline为定语从句，修饰先行词Australians； a third
concede后为that引导的宾语从句；they never use it为省略了that的定语从句；while表示对
比。
【翻译】在那些仍有固定电话的澳大利亚人中，三分之一的人承认没有必要，他们把它当
作安全毯——19%的人说他们从不使用它，另有13%的人留着它以防紧急情况。
热点练
（每篇限时7分钟）
（河北省示范性高中2022-2023学年高三9月调研考试英语试题）Housing ranks high
among the numerous challenges that still need to be overcome before humans can colonize(征服)
Mars. The brave pioneers that make the six-month voyage to the Red Planet will need a place to
live in as soon as they land. While the best solution would be to have the structures ready before
they get there, it has so far been a challenge given that most construction robots have never made
it out of the laboratory. Now, there may be a bit of hope thanks to Massachusetts Institute of
Technology’s newly revealed Digital Construction Platform (DCP).
The DCP comprises a double arm system that is fitted on a tracked vehicle. As the larger arm
moves, the smaller, precision motor robotic arm builds the structure by shooting out the necessary
construction material, ranging from insulation foam( 绝缘泡沫 ) to concrete. The team of
researchers led by Ph. D．Steven Keating say that unlike other 3-D printers that are limited to
building objects that fit within their overall enclosure, DCP’s free moving systems can be used to
construct structures of any size.
The team recently demonstrated the DCP’s building skills on an empty field in Mountain
View, CA．The robot began by creating a mold with expanding foam that hardens when dry. It
then constructed the building, layer by layer, using sensors to raise itself higher as it progressed.The final product was a sturdy “home” that had 50-foot diameter walls and a 12-foot high roof
with room for essentials like electricity wires and water pipes to be inserted inside. Even more
impressive? It took a mere 14 hours to “print”!
The researchers’ next plan is to make the DCP smart enough to analyze the environment
where the structure is going to be built and determine the material densities best suited for the
area. However, that’s not even the best part. Future DCP models are going to be solar-powered,
autonomous, and, most importantly, capable of sourcing construction components from its
surroundings. This means the robot can be sent to remote, disaster-stricken areas, and perhaps
even to Mars, to build shelters using whatever material is available.
1．What do we learn from the first paragraph?
A．Housing pioneers on Mars is a reality.
B．Colonizing Mars is out of the question.
C．Building structures on Mars is in the testing phases.
D．Finding a liveable place on Mars is a top priority.
2．How does the DCP differ from other 3-D printers?
A．It consumes less time.
B．It comes in more different sizes.
C．It is more environmentally friendly.
D．It can build more diverse structures.
3．What is the third paragraph mainly about?
A．The successful case of the DCP. B．The working principle of the DCP.
C．The instructions of using the DCP. D．The limitation of the DCP’s function.
4．What might be the biggest highlight of future DCP ?
A．Being powered by solar.
B．Building shelters anywhere.
C．Collecting building materials on site.
D．Analyzing building material densities.
（2022·河南·洛宁县第一高级中学高三开学考试）Climate science has been rapidly advancing
in recent years, but the foundations were laid hundreds of years ago.
In the 1820s, French scientist Joseph Fourier theorized that Earth must have some way of
keeping heat and that the atmosphere may play some role. In 1850, American scientist Eunice
Newton Foote put thermometers(温度计)in glass bottles and experimented with placing them in
sunlight. Inside the bottles, Foote compared dry air, wet air, N , O and CO, and found that the
2 2
bottle containing humid air warmed up more and stayed hotter longer than the bottle containing
dry air,and that it was followed by the bottle containing CO . In 1859, Irish scientist John Tyndall
2
began measuring how much heat different gases in the atmosphere absorb. And in 1896, Swedishscientist Svante Arrhenius concluded that more CO in the atmosphere would cause the planet to
2
heat up: These findings planted some of the earliest seeds of climate science.
The first critical breakthrough happened in 1967 when Syukuro Manabe and Richard
Wetherald connected energy absorbed by the atmosphere to the air movement vertically over
Earth.They built a model which first included all the main physical processes related to climate
changes. The predictions and the explanations based on their model still hold true in the real world
almost half a century later.
The model was improved in the 1980s by Klaus Hasselmann who connected short-term
weather patterns with long-term climate changes. Hasselmann found that even random weather
data could yield insight into broader patterns.
“ The greatest uncertainty in the model remains what human beings will do. Figuring it out is
1,000 times harder than understanding the physics behind climate changes,” Manabe said.“ There
are many things we can do to prevent climate change. The whole question is whether people will
realize that something which will happen in20 or 30 years is something you have to respond to
now.”
So, it’s up to us to solve the problem that these pioneers helped the world understand.
5．What does the word “humid” underlined in paragraph 2 mean?
A．Cool. B．Cold. C．Dry. D．Wet.
6．What is Klaus Hasselmann’s contribution to climate science?
A．He found that CO causes global warming.
2
B．He invented a unique measuring instrument.
C．He improved Manabe and Wetherald’s model.
D．He built a reliable model on climate change.
7．What is paragraph 5 mainly about?
A．The biggest problem with the climate model.
B．The necessity for human beings to take action now.
C．The challenge of understanding climate change.
D．Measures to be taken to prevent climate change.
8．Which of the following can be the best title for the text?
A．Negative Effects of the Global Warming
B．Historic Breakthroughs in Climate Science
C．Main Causes Leading to Climate Change
D．Difficulties of Preventing Climate Change
（2022·河北邯郸·高三开学考试）To effectively interact with humans in crowded social
settings, such as malls, hospitals, and other public spaces, robots should be able to actively
participate in both group and one-to-one interactions. Most existing robots, however, have been
found to perform much better when communicating with individual users than with groups ofconversing humans. Hooman Hedayati and Daniel Szafir, two researchers at University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, have recently developed a new data-driven technique that could improve
how robots communicate with groups of humans.
One of the reasons why many robots occasionally misbehave while participating in a group
conversation is that their actions heavily rely on data collected by their sensors. Sensors, however,
are prone (易于遭受) to errors, and can sometimes be disturbed by sudden movements and
obstacles in the robot’s surroundings.
“If the robot’s camera is masked by an obstacle for a second, the robot might not see that
person, and as a result, it ignores the user,” Hedayati explained. “Based on my experience, users
find these misbehaviors disturbing. The key goal of our recent project was to help robots detect
and predict the position of an undetected person within the conversational group.”
The technique developed by Hedayati and Szafir was trained on a series of existing datasets.
By analyzing the positions of other speakers in a group, it can accurately predict the position of an
undetected user.
In the future, the new approach could help to enhance the conversational abilities of both
existing and newly developed robots. This might in turn make them easier to serve in large public
spaces, including malls, hospitals, and other public places. “The next step for us will be to
improve the gaze behavior of robots in a conversational group. People find robots with a better
gaze behavior more intelligent. We want to improve the gaze behavior of robots and make the
human-robot conversational group more enjoyable for humans.” Hedayati said.
9．What is the technique developed by Hedayati and Szafir based on?
A．Data. B．Cameras.
C．Existing robots. D．Social settings.
10．What is mainly talked about in Paragraph 2?
A．The working procedure of robots.
B．The ability of robots to communicate.
C．The experience of the researchers.
D．The shortcomings of existing robots.
11．What will happen if a robot’s camera is blocked?
A．It will stop working. B．It will break down.
C．It will abuse its user. D．It will misbehave.
12．What do we know about the new data-driven technique?
A．It is considered a failure. B．It has been used in malls.
C．It gets satisfactory result. D．It only works with new robots.
（2021·浙江湖州·高三阶段练习）Researchers say they have used brain waves of a paralyzed
man who cannot speak to produce words from his thoughts onto a computer. A team led by Dr.
Edward Chang at the University of California, San Francisco, carried out the experiment.“Most of us take for granted how easily we communicate through speech,” Chang told The
Associated Press. “It’s exciting to think we’re at the very beginning of a new chapter, a new field
to ease the difficulties of patients who lost that ability.” The researchers admit that such
communication methods for paralysis victims will require years of additional research. But, they
say the new study marks an important step forward.
Today, paralysis victims who cannot speak or write have very limited ways of
communicating. For example, a victim can use a pointer attached to a hat that lets him move his
head to touch words or letters on a screen. Other devices can pick up a person’s eye movements.
But such methods are slow and a very limited replacement for speech.
Using brain signals to work around disabilities is currently a hot field of study. Chang’s team
built their experiment on earlier work. The process uses brain waves that normally control the
voice system. The researchers implanted electrodes on the surface of the man’s brain, over the
area that controls speech. A computer observed the patterns when he attempted to say common
words such as “water” or “good.” Over time, the computer became able to differentiate between
50 words that could form more than 1,000 sentences. Repeatedly given questions such as “How
are you today?” or “Are you thirsty,” the device enabled the man to answer “I am very good” or
“No, I am not thirsty.” The words were not voiced, but were turned into text on the computer.
In an opinion article published with the study, Harvard brain doctors Leigh Hochberg and
Sydney Cash called the work a “pioneering study.” The two doctors said the technology might one
day help people with injuries, strokes or diseases like Lou Gehrig’s. People with such diseases
have brains that “prepare messages for delivery, but those messages are trapped,” they wrote.
13．How is the new method different from the current ones?
A．It involves a patient’s brain waves.
B．It can pick up a patient’s eye movements.
C．It is a very limited replacement for speech.
D．It can help a patient regain his speech ability.
14．What does the underlined word “differentiate” in paragraph 4 mean?
A．Organize. B．Learn. C．Distinguish. D．Speak.
15．What was Leigh Hochberg and Sydney Cash’s attitude towards the study?
A．Positive. B．Negative. C．Doubtful. D．Critical.
16．Which of the following is the best title for the text?
A．Researchers Found Good Methods to Help Paralyzed Patients
B．Device Uses Brain Waves of Paralyzed Man to Help Him Communicate
C．Years of Additional Work Needed to Improve the Communication Methods
D．Device Uses Brain Waves of Paralyzed Man to Cure His Speaking Disability
（2022·安徽·高三开学考试）When people think of farming today, they usually picture a tractor
(拖拉机) rather than horses in the farmland. That’s because tractors that relied on enginesrevolutionized farming in the late 1800s. Now a new type of tractor can do the same in the 21st
century.
Agriculture has been changing dramatically in the last few decades. The push for innovation
is fed by the need to produce larger amounts of food for a growing world population. Autonomous
tractors may be the key to solving this challenge. They can be used to carry out labor-intensive
farming while allowing farmers to do other work. A big plus is that it can increase crop output
while reducing costs because the autonomous machines can work in all weather conditions
without any rest.
Part of push for automation is a shortage of farm workers due to people’s desire to have
higher paying jobs with better work conditions. Farm owners are competing against companies
like Amazon and restaurants that are raising wages to attract workers. “With labor shortages and
the increase in the hourly wages that have to be paid in order to be competitive, all of a sudden
automation seems like a more reasonable decision,” said David Swartz, a professor at Penn State
University.
Many believe the time is ripe for an autonomous revolution because robotics is already in use
in agriculture. One company that is working to bring autonomous tractors into main stream
farming is Blue and White Robotics, an Israeli agricultural technology company, whose mission is
to make a fully autonomous farm. The company released an autonomous tractor kit in February
2021 that can be fixed on any existing tractor. The kit includes camera detection, speed controls,
as well as an anti-crash system. Blue and White’s kit is being used by West Coast growers in the
US. It may soon come to a farm near you.
17．What contributes to the agricultural revolution according to Paragraph 2?
A．The urge to feed more people. B．The extreme weather conditions.
C．The need to reduce farming cost. D．The desire for automatic farming.
18．What is Swartz’s attitude to automation?
A．Critical. B．Negative. C．Supportive. D．Indifferent.
19．What can be inferred about Blue and White’s kit?
A．It has been widely used. B．It can be made in many firms.
C．It can improve safety of tractors. D．It will detect the way of farming.
20．What may be a suitable title for the text?
A．Automation Is Transforming Agriculture B．Big Companies Are Making A Difference
C．Driverless Tractors Are Worth Investing D．Traditional Farming Is Falling out of Date
