Scientists in Norway (挪威) have created an underwater robot that can tell different kinds of pollution at the bottom of the sea. The robot will help clean-up teams find the rubbish and give them a chance to remove the things that can cause the most harm to the environment.
The robot, which weighs nearly 100 pounds and uses special cameras to take 3D pictures, was created by a team at Skarv Technologies.
The researchers put their work to the test at a lake in the city of Bergen, on Norway’s southwest coast. First, the robot swam up and down in rows at about six feet above the lake bed, collecting information with the special camera. Then a computer turned the information into a map, which showed different kinds of rubbish in different colors.
A total of 3,894 objects were found in the lake and divided into different kinds. “There’s too much rubbish,” a member of the Skarv Technologies team told New Scientist. “There’s somewhere around 165 to 300 tons of rubbish in the lake.”
It is not always possible for clean-up teams to remove all the rubbish they find underwater, because there is something more important to clean. The robot will be used to help the teams find the most harmful things, and spend their time, efforts and money in removing them first. “Glass isn’ really polluting,” said Fossum. “So if you know there’s an area with a lot of glass, you probably can ignore that. Instead, you should pay attention to the things that are putting heavy metals into the environment.”
Besides helping to check the pollution, the robot can also tell the positions of animals in the sea. It can avoid hurting the animals while the clean-up teams remove the rubbish.
【小题1】What can the underwater robot do?| A．It can remove all the rubbish. | B．It can tell the positions of lakes. |
| C．It can turn the information into maps. | D．It can tell different kinds of pollution. |
| A．By drawing a map of the lake. |
| B．By turning the maps into different texts. |
| C．By using special cameras to take pictures. |
| D．By listening to the sounds of objects on the lake bed. |
| A．To work out how much rubbish is in the lake. |
| B．To show that the underwater robot is helpful. |
| C．To tell us how to clean up the rubbish in the lake. |
| D．To encourage teams to find the most harmful things. |
| A．Take in. | B．Deal with. | C．Find out. | D．Leave out. |
| A．When the robot will be used around the world. |
| B．What pollution animals cause in the sea. |
| C．How the robot tells the positions of animals. |
| D．Why animals are important to the environment. |
