2014年職稱英語(理工類)教材閱讀理解文章及譯文15

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　　Winged Robot Learns to Fly

　　Learning how to fly took nature millions of years of trial and error1 -but a winged robot has cracked2 it in only a few hours, using the same evolutionary principles. Krister Wolff and Peter Nordin of Chalmers University of Technology (CUT) in Gothenburg , Sweden, built a winged robot and set about3 testing whether it could learn to fly by itself, without any pre-programmed data on what flapping is or how to do it.

　　To begin with4, the robot just twitched and jerked erratically. But, gradually, it made movements that gained height. At first, it cheated-simply standing on its wing tips was one early short cut5. After three hours, however, the robot abandoned such methods in favor of6 a more effective flapping technique where it rotated its wings through 90 degrees and raised them before twisting them back to the horizontal and pushing down.

　　“This tells us that this kind of evolution is capable of7 coming up8 with flying motion,” says Peter Bentley, who works on evolutionary computing at University College London. But while9 the robot had worked out how best to produce lift10, it was not about to take off. “There’s only so much that evolution can do,” Bentley says. “This thing is never going to fly because the motors will never have the strength to do it,” he says.

　　The robot had metre-long wings made from balsa wood and covered with a light plastic film. Small motors on the robot let it move its wings forwards or backwards. up or down or twist them in either direction.

　　The team attached the robot to two vertical rods, so it could slide up and down. At the start of a test, the robot was suspended by an elastic band. A movement detector measured how much lift, if any11, the robot produced for any given movement. A computer program fed the robot random instructions12, at the rate of13 20 per second, to test its flapping abilities. Each instruction told the robot either to do nothing or to move the wings slightly in the various directions.

　　Feedback from the movement detector let the program work out which sets of instructions were best at producing lift. The most successful ones were paired up14 and “offspring” sets of instructions15 were generated by swapping instructions randomly between successful pairs. These next-generation instructions were then sent to the robot and evaluated before breeding a new generation, and the process was repeated.

　　詞匯：

　　flap 振翅;拍打，拍動 rotate 旋轉(zhuǎn)，轉(zhuǎn)動

　　twitch 猛抽;抽動 balsa 輕木

　　jerk 猛拉;急扭 offspring 后代;結(jié)果，產(chǎn)物

　　erratically 飄忽不定地;不穩(wěn)定地

　　swap 交換;交流

　　注釋：

　　1. Learning how to fly took nature millions of years of trial and error:自然界里的飛行學(xué)習(xí)用了幾百萬年的時間反復(fù)實踐和磨煉。

　　2. crack: to break through (an obstacle) in order to win acceptance or acknowledgement: 突破(障礙)

　　3. set about:開始做，著手

　　4. To begin with: 首先

　　5. short cut: 捷徑

　　6. in favor of:原意為“贊成;支持”。這里，…… the robot abandoned such methods in favor of a more effective flapping technique意為:……這個機(jī)器人放棄了這樣的方法，而去使用一種更為有效的扇動翅膀的技術(shù)。

　　7. be capable of: [指物]有可能，可以……

　　8. come up: to manifest itself; arise 出現(xiàn)。

　　9. while:雖然，盡管

　　10. lift:升高

　　11. if any:若有的話。確切意思是 :如果它能升高的話。

　　12. ... fed the robot random instructions:給機(jī)器人輸入隨意設(shè)定的指令。 fed是feed的過去式。

　　13. at the rate of:以……的速度

　　14. pair up:把……配成一對

　　15.“offspring”sets of instructions:指的是將成功的指令配對后的結(jié)果。“ offspring”本來是后代的意思，在此修飾sets of instructions，所以加了雙引號。

　　練習(xí):

　　1. Which of the following is NOT true of what is mentioned about the winged robot in the second paragraph?

　　A The two professors of CUT built the winged robot

　　B The two professors of CUT tested whether the winged robot could learn to fly.

　　C The two professors of CUT programmed the data on how the robot flapped its wings.

　　D The two professors of CUT tried to find out if the robot could fly by itself.

　　2. How did the robot behave at the beginning of the test?

　　A It rotated its wings through 90 degrees.

　　B It twitched but gradually gained height.

　　C It was twitched and broke down.

　　D It landed not long after the test.

　　3. Which of the following is nearest to Peter Bentley’s view on the winged robot?

　　A The winged robot could never really fly.

　　B The winged robot did not have a motor.

　　C The winged robot should go through further evolution before it could fly.

　　D The robot could fly if it were lighter.

　　4. What measured how much lift the robot produced?

　　A Two vertical rods.

　　B A movement detector.

　　C An elastic band.

　　D Both B and C.

　　5. What does “the process” appearing in the last paragraph refer to?

　　A Pairing up successful inst ructions.

　　B Sending instructions to the robot.

　　C Generating new sets of instructions for evaluation.

　　D All the above.

　　答案與題解 :

　　1. C A、B、D在第二段中都提到過。 C是錯誤的，因為文中說，教授們測試機(jī)器人是否會自己學(xué)會飛行，而且預(yù)先沒有對翅膀扇動的方式進(jìn)行數(shù)據(jù)設(shè)定。

　　2. B第三段描述了機(jī)器人如何學(xué)習(xí)飛行的過程。第一句和第二句是問題的答案。

　　3. A第四段主要是 Peter Bentley對飛行機(jī)器人的看法。他認(rèn)為前文描述的進(jìn)化過程只能使機(jī)器人有一些飛行的動作，而要讓其起飛則永遠(yuǎn)不可能，因為不可能有如此大功率的發(fā)動機(jī)。所以 A是正確選項

　　4. B答案在第六段的第三句中。

　　5. D文章昀后一段具體描述在機(jī)器人的進(jìn)化過程中，指令的進(jìn)化過程。成功的指令配對后產(chǎn)生新一代的指令，將指令輸入機(jī)輯人，經(jīng)篩選再進(jìn)行成功指令配對，再產(chǎn)生新一代指令，如此反復(fù)進(jìn)行。所以 D是正確選項。

　　譯文：肋生雙翅機(jī)器人學(xué)飛行

　　自然界中的飛行學(xué)習(xí)經(jīng)歷了幾百萬年的反復(fù)實踐和磨練，而安裝機(jī)翼的機(jī)器人僅在數(shù)小時內(nèi)就成功實現(xiàn)突破，用的是同進(jìn)化原理。

　　瑞典Gothenburg Chalmers科技大學(xué)的Krister Wolff 和PeterNordin 研制出帶翼的機(jī)器人，著手測試它能否在不預(yù)設(shè)振翅數(shù)據(jù)程序的條件下自行學(xué)會飛行。

　　首先，機(jī)器人只是飄忽不定地振動盤桓，不過它的運(yùn)動逐漸獲得了上升高度，起初，它想走走捷徑，試圖僅用翅尖保持直立。然而三小時后，它放棄了這種方法， 轉(zhuǎn)用更有效的振翅技術(shù)，90度角旋轉(zhuǎn)兩翼，并在它們恢復(fù)到水平位置將其拉起。

　　“事實告訴我們，飛行裝置有可能實現(xiàn)這種進(jìn)化?！盤eter Bentley 說。他現(xiàn)正在倫敦大學(xué)研究進(jìn)化計算技術(shù)。雖然機(jī)器人可以摸索出上升飛行的最佳方式，卻不會起飛?！斑M(jìn)化升級所做的只有這么多，”Bentley說，“這東西不可能自行起飛，因為發(fā)動機(jī)不能產(chǎn)生足夠動力?！?/P>

　　機(jī)器人的兩翼由輕木制成，長約一米，覆有一層輕塑膠。它的小馬達(dá)使機(jī)翼可以前后上下運(yùn)動，并能在這兩個方向上任意旋轉(zhuǎn)。

　　研究小組將機(jī)器人附著在兩根豎直標(biāo)桿上，它便能上下滑動。實驗剛開始的時候，機(jī)器人懸掛在一根彈性帶上。一旦它升高，運(yùn)動探測器就能測量它任何運(yùn)動的高度。每過20秒，計算機(jī)程序就給機(jī)器人輸入任意設(shè)定的指令，以檢測其振翅能力。每個指令或是讓機(jī)器人停止運(yùn)動或是在各種方向上轉(zhuǎn)動機(jī)翼。

　　通過來自運(yùn)動探測器的反饋，程序測算出哪幾組指令能最有效地產(chǎn)生高度。最成功的幾組進(jìn)行配對，而其“后代”指令則通過在成功組合間隨意交換指令產(chǎn)生。在產(chǎn)生下一代組合之前，這些第二代指令被發(fā)往機(jī)器人并進(jìn)行評估，然后這一過程反復(fù)進(jìn)行。

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