节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2012-06-26
难易度:High
关键字:devastation, catastrophe, toxic, operational, oil spill, unmanned
Welcome back, everybody.
This month's TECHNOLOGY feature can actually double as an ENVIRONMENTAL lesson
too because it focuses on a safer,
greener, more reliable way to clean up oil spills in the ocean.
A researcher at MIT named Cesar Harada says the answer is simple: Use a
sailboat.
Now let's find out what makes Harada's sailboat so special down on line 15.
(Music).
Protei: An Answer to Oil Spills.
Harada was inspired to take action, so he began developing Protei,
a new form of an unmanned sailboat designed to clean up spilled oil.
Safe and stable.
Currently, people have to drive the ships that clean up spilled oil, and they
are exposed to toxic oil and tar, which may cause cancer.
Protei eliminates this danger.
And operating without human direction doesn't limit Protei's effectiveness - in
fact,
its sensors are more accurate than human vision.
Protei is also designed to remain operational in the harshest conditions.
This enables it to reach oil far from shore and to work during hurricane season,
which would be too dangerous for human workers.
(Music).
We've been talking a lot about the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but
we haven't yet started talking about what Protei is.
And so let's get started taking a look at what that actually is.
That's right. Harada was the man who is inspired, the man from MIT who wanted to
take action.
So he was inspired and he took action.
So he began developing Protei.
Now it's a new form of an unmanned sailboat designed to clean up spilled oil.
OK. So now we see exactly what Protei is.
It's an unmanned boat.
Now we've talked about something that's being unmanned before.
But let's review. What does it mean if something is unmanned?
If it is "unmanned," that means there is no human being in the vehicle.
So it is being driven with... by technology and by remote access, not someone
there.
For example, we said an unmanned spacecraft to the moon.
So the first thing that got to go to the moon did not have a human in it, just
like the sailboat is not being driven by a human.
Right. And before in one of our TECHNOLOGY articles,
we were talking about unmanned planes that fly around to clean up uh... to check
on those sprinkler and water systems around cities.
That's right.
So this is unmanned, which makes it a lot safer for the people involved.
So let's talk about what makes it safe and stable.
OK, so. Currently, people have to drive the ships that clean up spilled oil.
Ships drive around and clean up and collect the oil.
And they are exposed to the toxic oil and tar, which can cause cancer.
That's right.
It also can cause fire dangers.
If you're with... on oil, there's a chance of fire. So it's not safe.
But most importantly is this toxic danger.
Now "toxic" means it is, in fact, poinsonous.
It's another way of saying that.
So this tar, this oil that pulling out of the water is poisonous.
And as we see, it can cause cancer.
Right. So these people that are driving these ships to collect oil can get
poisoned and can possibly get cancer, a very terrible disease.
So Protei eliminates that danger.
It eliminates it completely because there is no man.
It is an undermanned boat.
So that protects all the people because they don't have to be right there.
OK. Now normally I would think that since there isn't a human in control, it
wouldn't be as effective.
But here we see operating the Protei actually it does a good job on its own.
Its effectiveness is not limited.
That's right.
So it says: And operating without human direction doesn't limit Protei's
effectiveness - in fact, its sensors are more accurate than human vision.
So it's measuring by technology, which can be more accurate than if a man was
actually on the boat.
So it's actually better at finding the oil.
Protei is also designed to remain operational in the harshest conditions.
Now when we say "operational," that's a fancy word for saying working.
It can still work in harsh conditions.
All right. And "harsh" is referring to very difficult or very dangerous.
And so these conditions could be referring to bad weather, or if the ocean
currents or large waves are moving very fast.
Well, in fact, this enables it to reach oil from shore, far from shore.
So when the oil is spreading, it can get far out there without having to worry
about the humans on board because there is no one onboard.
It can also work during hurricane season.
OK. So it can keep working at times when other humans would not be able to work
because it would be too dangerous.
So here it's able to find oil that's far away from shore.
It's able to work during hurricane season even, which, I think, is impressive.
That's right. Hurricanes are like typhoons.
They're a large tropical storm that causes great danger for people on the water.
So these could be dangerous if workers... if human workers were out there.
But since Protei can be out there without a human, it actually can get a lot
done.
OK. So it has better vision than humans have, it has good sensors.
It can find all the oil.
It can travel further than human drivers could.
It can find oil further away from shore.
And it can work in even the most dangerous conditions.
This sounds pretty good.
That's right.
We're going to see a lot more about Protei, some of the positives,
and maybe even some of the negatives about why Protei is being developed and see
how it works.
But first, let's watch this video.
Protei, the open hardware oil spill cleaning sailing robot.
The worst environmental catastrophe in U.S. history just happened here in the
Gulf of Mexico.
But there are oil spills all around all the time.
To clean the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill takes all sorts of expensive
technologies.
Wth althogther, only 3 percent of the oil was skimmed from surface, exposing the
health of the cleaners.
We think we can do it better and cheaper.
Conventional oil skimmers basically trace clean paths in a sea of oil.
Oil moves downwind following surface currents.
So the best way to capture it is to move upwind. One layer of oil-absorbing
material is OK.
But consecutive layers collect more oil.
Protei uses the wind to power an unmanned sailing robot that pulls a long
absorbing boom tail sailing upwind autonomously,
without exposing the health of human beings onboard.
A normal saiboat loses steering and pulling power when it pulls a long, heavy
load.
What we tried was moving the steering to the front.
We hacked a little remote control boat, and it worked!
We had great control and speeds and using a very little rudder at the front, we
were able to steer a very long heavy tail and back.
The problem is when you go upwind, every time you turn, you face the wind for a
moment.
When you face the wind, you no longer have pulling power, so you lose control.
We made an articulated sailboat, Protei II.
Flexible, it moves like an animal.
When it takes upwind, it's able to catch wind from both sides,
which means that it never loses its pulling power and can pull a long heavy
tail.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.
(Chinese).
And that's it for today's Language Tips.
Take care and bye-bye.
Thank you, Michelle.
We appreciate that.
Friends, visit us at StudioClassroom.com for a variety of resources that are
designed to help you improve your English.
Teachers, too.
If you ever want to make your own classroom activities based on Studio Classroom
lessons, we can help.
Visit our Studio Classroom website and click on Teaching Services for effective,
fun classroom activity ideas.
OK. Please join us tomorrow when we learn more about how the Protei way is
safer, cheaper and greener.
Have a greatday.