第二十二篇 RealWld Robots 　　When you think of a robot, do you envision ashiny, metallic device having the same general shape as a human being,perfming humanlike functions, responding to your questions in a monotonevoice accentuated by high-pitched tones beeps? This is the way many of usimagine a robot, but in the real wld, a robot is not humanoid at all. Insteada robot often is a voiceless, box-shaped machine that efficiently carries outrepetitive dangerous functions usually perfmed by humans. Today’s robot is me than an automatic machine that perfms one taskagain again. A modern robot is programmed with varying degrees ofartificial intelligence—that is, a robot contains acomputer program that tells it how to perfm tasks associated with human intelligence,such as reasoning, drawing conclusions, learning from past experience. 　　A robot does not possess a human shape fthe simple reason that a two-legged robot has great difficulty remainingbalanced. A robot does, however, move from place to place on wheels axlesthat roll rotate. A robot even has limbs that swivel move incombination with ts mots. To find its way in its surroundings1, arobot utilizes various built-in senss. Antennae attached to the robot’s base detect anything they bump into. If the robot starts to teeteras it moves on an incline, a gyroscope a pendulum inside it senses thevertical differential. To determine its distance from an object how quicklyit will reach the object，the robot bounces beams oflaser light ultrasonic sound waves off obstructions in its path2. These other senss constantly feed infmation to the computer, which then analyzesthe infmation crects adjusts the robot’sactions. As science technology advance, the robot too will progress in itsfunctions use of artificial-intelligence programs. 　　词汇： 　　envision v. 想象，预想 　　device n. 装置 　　accentuate v. 强调，重读 　　artificial intelligence n. 人工智能 　　limb n. 臂 　　antennae n. 天线 　　incline v. 倾斜 　　pendulum n. 钟摆 　　ultrasonic adj. 超声的 　　metallic adj. 金属的 　　monotone n. 单调的 　　humanoid adj. 像人的 　　axle n. 轮轴 　　rotate v. 旋转 　　swivel n. 旋转 　　teeter v. 摇晃 　　gyroscope n. 陀螺仪，回转仪 　　vertical n. 直立的 　　注释： 　　1.To find its way in its surroundings...：为了在周围找到路…… 　　2.the robot bounces beams of laser light ultrasonic sound waves off obstructions in its path：机器人发射激光束和超声波，反射到障碍物上(以此来探知路径)。 　练习：3.The last paragraph suggests that futurerobots will be