节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-05-23
难易度:High
关键字:startle, incredible, replacement, profound, game changer
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And I'm Carolyn.
And you are joining us for the second day of our lesson about 3-D printing.
It is quite an interesting piece of technology.
And we're talking about no factory required.
So of course you don't have to go to a factory to have things printed, have
objects printed for you.
Well, if you had a 3-D printer, or if you had this option of 3-D printing, what
would you print?
What kinds of things would you print?
Carolyn?
Well, I really like to have useful things.
And maybe if I had a 3-D printer, I could print things that I could wear, like
jewelry.
I could print a necklace or earrings or shoes.
I could print shoes, Gabe.
You could print shoes.
But make sure that you get shoes that fit right if you're going to run because
you want to run right.
That's very true.
That's very, very true.
All right.
I don't know what I would print.
I would probably think about something that is usually very expensive to buy,
and then I just go print that out in my 3-D printer for a little cheaper price.
Well, it's time for us to get started with the first reading of our lesson
today.
(Music).
3-D Printing: No Factory Required!
The future of 3-D printing.
One startling ability 3-D printers have is that they can print parts of
themselves.
This ability could come in handy for future space missions, like building a base
on Mars.
Instead of transporting heavy equipment to Mars, engineers could send one 3-D
printer that could "print" multiple printers.
Each one could be used to make certain objects - from doors to windows - for
astronauts to assemble.
An even more incredible application of 3-D printing technology is being tested
in the medical field.
(Music).
All right.
We're going to learn more about the medical field later.
But let's go back to the beginning of this section.
It's called The future of 3-D printing.
So we learned about the history, then and now, the past and present.
Now we're talking about the future of 3-D printing.
One startling ability 3-D printers have is that they can print parts of
themselves.
That is really cool and, yes, maybe even startling.
It is a little bit startling.
And that is a word from our Word Bank.
If something is startling, then it is unexpected.
You didn't think it could happen.
You are very surprised by it.
And if something can reproduce itself, it doesn't have to have something else
make it.
It can make parts of itself.
That can be a little bit startling.
That's right.
Well, I think of other things in life that can be startling as well.
Maybe they surprise you.
They take you by surprise.
Maybe you're busy doing your homework.
And then you don't think anybody is in the room.
And someone comes up and taps you on the shoulder, it startles you.
You could say: You startled me.
Don't startle me like that.
Well, this is startling information about the printer that can print parts of
itself.
Continuing: This ability could come in handy for future space missions, like
building a base on Mars.
Oh. It could come in handy for space missions?
I think this is really cool.
Of course, anything that has to do with the final frontier of space is
interesting.
And you could take a 3-D printer and build a base on Mars, or it could help when
you're building a base on another planet.
Well, it could come in handy.
Let's go and see what Steve and Ken have to say about this phrase.
Hey, Ken, thanks for lending me your cell phone yesterday.
It really came in handy.
No problem.
That's just an old cell phone I'm not using anymore.
I'm glad it came in handy.
Now friends, when I said "it came in handy," I mean it became useful.
Since my cell phone was being repaired, Ken's phone came in handy, or it became
useful to me.
Now if you keep something handy, it's not really the same as come in handy, is
it?
No, it's not.
If you keep something handy, it's close to you.
And therefore, it's easy to reach or get to, presumably with your hands.
I like to keep a Chinese-English dictionary handy so I can look up Chinese
characters that I don't know.
Sounds like it's a handy reference book.
It is, Ken.
My Chinese-English dictionary is very useful.
You know, I always keep a pen handy so I can jot down important information.
Good. It's always within easy reach.
Now we should mention a related word: handyman.
And that's someone who can do many different small jobs or tasks like fix things
in a house or building.
A handyman is very handy with various tools.
Yes, he or she is very good at working with tools.
(Chinese).
Well, we were talking about the printer being able to print parts of itself and
this being useful in space missions.
We see instead of transporting heavy equipment to Mars, engineers could send one
3-D printer that could print multiple printers.
So you could just take one to Mars, and then it could print parts for other
printers that could be put together.
That's right.
And that's what transporting means.
You take it from one place to another.
So you don't have to take all this heavy equipment.
You can just take one printer.
And it can do the job for you.
Uh, this seems really interesting.
I don't really understand how this can work.
Carolyn, do you?
Well, if you take on printer, and it has all of the materials it needs to print
other printers, then you can have it print out those parts.
And then the astronauts could put the printer together, and then that printer
could also print more parts.
And we see in the article:
Each one could be used to make certain objects - from doors to windows - for
astronauts to assemble.
So you can print multiple printers, and then those printers can print even more
things.
And they can print doors and windows and other things that astronauts can put
together.
That's right.
It says here "from doors to windows." That's kind of a special way of saying "a
lot of things." So from... from one thing to another.
We're going to print things from doors to windows here on Mars.
And then the astronauts, these scientists in space, will assemble them.
They'll put them together.
Right now it's time for us to enjoy another special video.
There's kind of a robot in here that looks a little bit like a spider.
Now let's take a look.
(Music).
I've been interested in robots ever since I really saw the first robot.
I started building robots when I was 12 years old.
And when I saw the first hexapod, I was in middle school.
I... I saw hexapod in a book.
And from the minute I saw it, I knew I wanted to build one of these.
And it wasn't until I took a cognitive robotics class here at the University of
Arizona.
And at that time I actually had... had a good excuse to spend a lot of time on
working on a hexapod.
(Music).
I'm able to make very complex parts using something called a 3-D printer made by
Dimension.
And the way this works is it actually extrudes layer by layer small... small
amounts of plastic.
And there are two kinds of plastic.
There's a support material and an actual model material.
And the support material kind of holds like overhanging structures so you can
really print any complicated shape that you want.
And this right here is the femur of the hexapod.
And this is made in the printer.
And it was made in the printer like this.
And the head actually extruded plastic around and filled all the cavities like
this.
Now the white material here is the... is this support material.
And the grey material up here is the actual model material.
And again, it was printed like this.
And there's so much support material because this is the actual leg the way that
it comes out.
And so you can see that you can really make any sort of complex shape with the
3-D printer.
And these are very rigid uh, pieces that can be used in robotics, casings for
other and better projects.
Wow! It's a little hard to believe that that robot was made using a 3-D printer.
And an even more incredible application of 3-D printing technology is being
tested in the medical field.
Something even more incredible is being done in the medical field with 3-D
printing.
And we see this word "incredible." What does that mean, Gabe?
It's from our Word Bank.
That's right.
If something is incredible, it is hard to believe.
So a lot of things could be incredible in this life.
We use this word actually to talk about something that is great or amazing.
It's incredible.
There's an incredible view from the top of that mountain.
So you can use this word in different ways.
How would you use this word?
Well, it was incredible.
I had no idea that it was possible to be able to print a spider robot.
I also had no idea that you could print things in the medical field.
Well, before we learn more about that, we should go spend some time with
Michelle in the Language Lab.