发布时间 : 星期三 文章2015年职称英语理工类新增文章和翻译 - 图文更新完毕开始阅读
词汇：
Mars rover n. 火星车
panoramic adj. 全景的
odometer n. 里程计
rack up v. 积累
microscopic adj. 微观的
注释：
1.could hold clues to Mars’s ancient environment：含有与火星早期环境有关的线索。 练习：
A. It has also provided scientists with data on the planet’s atmosphere, soil, rocks, and terrain.
B. He works at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
C. Scientists call this site Marathon Valley, because when the rover reaches the area, it will have traveled the same distance as the length of a marathon since its arrival on Mars.
D. Opportunity has been working on Mars since January 2004.
E. The objective of the rovers was to help scientists learn more about the planet and to search for signs of life，such as the possible presence of water.
F. Since arriving on the Red Planet in 2004, Opportunity has traveled 25.01 miles, more than any other wheeled vehicle has on another world. 答案与题解：
1.F 前文讲“机遇号”在距离上比之前的任何漫游车行进的距离都长，因此接下来应该讨论关于行进距离的问题。
2.B 前文引入了一个新人物John Callas，而后文是他说的一些话，因此这里应该填写的内容是对这个人的进一步介绍。
3.E 前文讲了同时被送入太空的两台漫游车“机遇号”和“勇气号”，因此下文应该对它们的情况进行介绍，而关于发射目的的介绍在这里是合适的。 4.A 前文讲到“机遇号”给地面传回了许多照片，而选项A中讲到它还给地面传回了许多其他信息，在这里是一致的。
5.C 前文讲漫游车在行进到26.2英里的时候会到达一个地点，而后文提到了马拉松谷这个地方，因此这里应该是关于这个地点的介绍。
第二十二篇 Real World Robots
When you think of a robot, do you envision a shiny, metallic device having the same general shape as a human being, performing humanlike functions, and responding to your questions in a monotone voice accentuated by high-pitched tones and beeps? This is the way many of us imagine a robot, but in the real world, a robot is not humanoid at all. Instead a robot often is a voiceless, box-shaped machine that efficiently carries out repetitive or dangerous functions usually performed by humans. Today’s robot is more than an automatic machine that performs one task again and again. A modern robot is programmed with varying degrees of artificial intelligence—that is, a robot contains a computer program that tells it how
to perform tasks associated with human intelligence, such as reasoning, drawing conclusions, and learning from past experience.
A robot does not possess a human shape for the simple reason that a two-legged robot has great difficulty remaining balanced. A robot does, however, move from place to place on wheels and axles that roll and rotate. A robot even has limbs that swivel and move in combination with joints and motors. To find its way in its surroundings1, a robot utilizes various built-in sensors. Antennae attached to the robot’s base detect anything they bump into. If the robot starts to teeter as it moves on an incline, a gyroscope or a pendulum inside it senses the vertical differential. To determine its distance from an object and how quickly it will reach the object，the robot bounces beams of laser light and ultrasonic sound waves off obstructions in its path2. These and other sensors constantly feed information to the computer, which then analyzes the information and corrects or adjusts the robot’s actions. As science and technology advance, the robot too will progress in its functions and use of artificial-intelligence programs.