机器人送餐正流行

江苏 李 璐

数百个小型机器人已经在美国、英国和其他国家的大学和城市投入使用。这些约50厘米高的机器人可以为饥饿的食客送去美味的食物。

题材科技体裁说明文文章词数326难度★★★★建议用时7分钟

1Hundreds of little robots are rolling around colleges and cities in the United States, Britain and elsewhere. The robots,about 50 centimeters tall, are bringing food like pizza to hungry students.

2The robots were being tested in limited numbers before the pandemic (流行病) started. But pandemic-related worker shortages and a desire for contactless delivery have expanded their use.

3“We saw demand for robot usage just go through the ceiling,”said Alastair Westgarth. He is the head of Starship Technologies, whose robots recently made their 2 millionth delivery.“I think demand was always there, but it was brought forward by the pandemic effect.”

4Starship has deployed more than 1,000 robots, up from just 250 in 2019. Hundreds more will be sent out soon. They are delivering food at 20 US colleges and 25 more will be added soon.

5The robots use cameras, sensors and GPS to move around and even cross streets on their own at the speed of 8 kilometers per hour.

6Operators keep watch on several robots at a time,but they say they rarely need to stop or move them around a barrier.When a robot arrives,people enter a code from their phones to open the robot and get their food.

7There are some limitations for now. The robots have to be recharged regularly. They are slow and cannot travel far.They will not leave food at the door.And big cities like New York and Beijing are not welcoming them.

8Data company NPD found that US food delivery orders increased 66 percent for the year ending in June.And delivery demand could remain high even after the pandemic because people have got used to the service.

9Ji Hye Kim is the chef of Miss Kim restaurant in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She used robot delivery when her dining room was closed last year.

10Kim prefers robots to delivery companies.Kim said the robots also excite people who often share videos of their interactions.

Reading Check

Choose the best answers according to the text

Language Study

Ⅰ.Analyze the difficult sentence in the text

And delivery demand could remain high even after the pandemic because people have got used to the service.即使在疫情之后，（机器人）配送需求也可能仍然很高，因为人们已经习惯了这项服务。

【点石成金】本句是一个主从复合句，because引导原因状语从句。

Ⅱ.Memorize some text-centered chunks

a desire for 渴望……

demand for 对……的需求

send out 分发；散发；发出

get used to 习惯于