News corner﹕Robotic baby penguin
【明報專訊】To find out more about the species' behaviour, a team of scientists and film-makers from France created a remote control rover disguised as a baby penguin.
Emperor penguins are shy creatures and they retreat when researchers approach them. That causes the penguins' heart rates to rise and makes it hard to collect accurate data on their health.
To tackle this problem, the researchers have designed a robotic baby penguin. It is covered with grey fur. Its face is painted black and white, and its beak is painted black. The robot easily sidles up to emperor penguins without scaring them away. Some chicks and adults have even spoken to or squawked at the robotic penguin.
The researchers are planning to use in the future a more automatic robot to spy on emperor penguins. The idea is to use devices on the rover to read signals from radio tags on the birds.
(source: The Independent)
■Words
rover 四驅車
robotic 機器人的
signal 信號
■Quiz
Choose the correct answer.
(answers on next text)
1. In line 1, "species'" means:
A. researchers'
B. penguins'
C. robots'
2. In line 4, "retreat" means the emperor penguins move ____.
A. backwards
B. forwards
C. to the right
3. What do the researchers want to get from the penguins?
A. their food
B. data on their health
C. neither
4. The experiment of having a robotic penguin approach real birds is considered _____.
A. very easy
B. a failure
C. a success
■Glossary
disguise (v) 裝扮
sidle (v) 悄悄地慢慢走近
squawk (v) 發出響亮的尖叫聲
automatic (adj) 自動的
