A robot in the kitchen 
　　Matt Mason has seen the future—and it’s fun. As director of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, Mason likes thinking about how machines can make our lives easier by taking over the tasks we hate, like mopping, scrubbing and cleaning. When it comes to the kitchen, he’s confident that within just a few decades, robots will rule�瞕oing most of the burdensome work and freeing us to sit back and relax. “Right now we think of the kitchen as a place for chores,” says Mason.“But maybe we’re in the process of discovering it as a place we can enjoy.”
　　So unless you really, really love to clean, you won’t have to. The revolution has already begun. Recently, iRobot, the company that gave us the Roomba vacuum, unveiled Scooba—a robot that vacuums, wet�瞫crubs and dries floors all at once. The robotic floor cleaners of the future could take many different forms, explains Dan Kara, president of Robotics Trends, which tracks developments in automation. He envisions a floor-cleaning system that’s built into the wall and blows debris to a part of the room where it’s sucked up by a vacuum. Then the system sprays the floor with a soapy solution, and it’s mopped up by an arm with a sponge attached. “This is sheer speculation, of course,” Kara admits, “but you could program it to come on at 3 a.m., and it would just wet�瞞op the floor for you.”
　　More than just fun, future kitchens will be environmentally friendly. Bruce Beihoff, director of Corporate Innovation and Technology at Whirl—pool, foresees appliance systems that recycle the energy lost from your oven to heat the kitchen, your water, even the entire home.“We have things like this running in our labs today,” he says. Even your sink water could be reused, sanitized and recycled through a filter. And a green kitchen means more green in your pocket.
　　New culinary technologies will help you go from Chef Boring to Chef Brilliant. The best cooks know that an evenly heated skillet is crucial to the perfect sauté. Enter the “pow dered bed,” an experimental stovetop that’s been designed by Whirlpool. Using microwave-heated ceramic chips instead of standard gas flame or electric coil, the system heats pans with near-perfect balance and lets you control the heat level with incredible precision. “It gives you extremely even heating,” says Whirlpool’s Beihoff,“maybe 10 or 20 times better than the best pan you can buy today.” Researchers at Whirlpool are also experimenting with an oven that will let you roast a skinless chicken to crispy perfection. “You’d still get the beautiful aesthetics in taste and appearance,” says Beihoff, “but you’d be able to cut way back on fats.”
　　Paul Leuthe, corporate marketing manager for Wolf Appliance Company, says induction burners will be de rigueur. They use a magnetic field to heat up pans, bring water to a boil in half the time it takes now, and allow for slow cooking.
　　考研詞匯：
　　burdensome[’bə:dnsəm]
　　a.繁重的，難以承擔(dān)的
　　[真題例句] Since the dawn of human ingenuity, people have devised ever more cunning tools to cope with work that is dangerous, boring, burdensome, or just plain nasty.[2002年閱讀2，]
　　[例句精譯] 從人類比較初有了智慧至今，人們一直在設(shè)計(jì)日益巧妙的工具來處理那些危險(xiǎn)的、枯燥的、繁重的或者簡(jiǎn)單而骯臟的工作。
　　automation[.ɔ:tə’meiʃən]
　　n.自動(dòng)(化)
　　[真題例句] 58. What is this passage mainly about?[1994年閱讀2]
　　[C] Significance of automation in commercial enterprises.
　　[例句精譯] 58. 本文主要內(nèi)容是什么?
　　[C] 商業(yè)企業(yè)自動(dòng)化的重要性。
　　spray[sprei]
　　n.噴霧，飛沫，浪花，水花;v.噴，噴射
　　attach[əˈtætʃ]
　　v.①(to)縛上，系上，貼上;②使依附，使隸屬，使依戀;③把……放在
　　[真題例句] A survey of news stories in 1996 reveals that the anti�瞫cience tag has been attached (①) to many other groups as well, from authorities who advocated the elimination of the last remaining stocks of smallpox virus to Republicans who advocated decreased funding for basic research.[1998年閱讀3] 
　　[例句精譯] 1996年對(duì)新聞報(bào)道的調(diào)查表明，反科學(xué)的標(biāo)簽也貼在了許多其他群體上，這些人包括從提倡消滅所有現(xiàn)存的天花病毒的官方人士到倡議削減基礎(chǔ)研究基金的共和黨人。
　　[真題例句] They (particularly Quebec and Alberta) just want Ottawa to fork over additional billions with few, if any, strings attached (①).[2005年新題型]
　　[例句精譯] 這些官員(尤其是魁北克省和阿伯塔省官員)只希望政府當(dāng)局額外出錢， 如有可能，還會(huì)附帶條件。
　　[真題例句] The modern school that hails technology argues that such masters as Galileo, Newton, Maxwell, Einstein, and inventors such as Edison attached (①) great importance to, and derived great benefit from, craft information and technological devices of different kinds that were usable in scientific experiments.[1994年翻譯]
　　[例句精譯] 推崇技術(shù)的現(xiàn)代學(xué)派認(rèn)為，像伽利略、牛頓、麥克斯韋、愛因斯坦這樣的大師以及像愛迪生這樣的發(fā)明家都非常重視科學(xué)實(shí)驗(yàn)中使用的不同技術(shù)信息和技術(shù)設(shè)施，并從中受益頗深。
　　foresee[fɔ:ˈsi:]
　　v.預(yù)見，預(yù)知
　　[真題例句] (72) This trend began during the Second World War, when several governments came to the conclusion that the specific demands that a government wants to make of its scientific establishment cannot generally be foreseen in detail.[1996年翻譯]
　　[例句精譯] (72)這種趨勢(shì)始于第二次世界大戰(zhàn)期間，當(dāng)時(shí)一些國家的政府得出結(jié)論：政府要向科研機(jī)構(gòu)提出的具體要求通常是無法詳盡預(yù)見的。
　　crispy[’krispi]
　　a. 易碎的, 爽快的
　　背景常識(shí)介紹：
　　斯坦福大學(xué)科學(xué)家計(jì)劃制造一種能夠做日常服務(wù)的機(jī)器人，比如它可以從洗碗機(jī)中卸下碗碟。科學(xué)家計(jì)劃為這種機(jī)器人安裝“智能”軟件，通過這套軟件，機(jī)器人能夠拾起它們以前從來沒有看到過的東西。羅西是卡通電影《杰森一族》中的機(jī)器人女仆，而在科學(xué)家距離創(chuàng)造出現(xiàn)實(shí)生活中的羅西又更近了一步。
　　參考譯文：
　　廚房里的機(jī)器人
　　艾特·梅森已經(jīng)看到了令人向往的未來， 作為卡耐基·梅隆大學(xué)的機(jī)器人學(xué)會(huì)的主任，梅森喜歡思考如何用機(jī)器來替我們做那些我們所憎恨的家務(wù)，比如拖地、洗刷、清潔等。一談到廚房，他確信在幾十年內(nèi)，機(jī)器人將替我們做大多數(shù)繁重的工作而我們將得到解放。梅森說：“現(xiàn)在我們認(rèn)為廚房是一個(gè)充滿家務(wù)雜事的地方，但是我們或許正在逐漸發(fā)現(xiàn)那里其實(shí)是一個(gè)可以得到快樂的地方�！�
　　所以，除非你真的喜歡做清潔，那么你將可以不做。革命已經(jīng)開始，曾經(jīng)給我們提供了Roomba吸塵器的公司，iRobot近來推出了一款新的機(jī)器人，它可以幾乎同時(shí)吸塵、濕洗并擦干地板。將來地板清洗機(jī)器人將沿著自動(dòng)化方向以多種形式出現(xiàn)，機(jī)器人發(fā)展協(xié)會(huì)主席丹·喀拉這樣解釋。他設(shè)想一個(gè)建在墻里面的地板清潔系統(tǒng)先將碎片吹到房間里的一個(gè)設(shè)置了吸塵器的角落里隨后用吸塵器吸走，然后這個(gè)系統(tǒng)在地板上噴上一層肥皂溶液并用一個(gè)裝了海綿的臂拖洗地板�！爱�(dāng)然，這純粹是一個(gè)設(shè)想，”喀拉承認(rèn)，“但是你可以設(shè)定讓它在下午三點(diǎn)開始，它就會(huì)為你濕洗地板。”
　　除了有趣以外，將來的廚房將更環(huán)保。Whirl—pool的技術(shù)創(chuàng)新公司主管，布魯斯·貝豪夫預(yù)見將來的器具系統(tǒng)將循環(huán)利用烤箱里損失的熱能來為你的廚房用水甚至整個(gè)家供暖�！艾F(xiàn)在我們已經(jīng)在實(shí)驗(yàn)室嘗試著這樣做”，他說到。甚至你下水道的水也可以通過過濾器凈化回收再利用。綠色環(huán)保的廚房意味著你的開銷更少。
　　新的廚具技術(shù)將幫助你從一位煩惱的廚師變成一位才華橫溢的廚師。比較好的廚師知道要做一道精美的小炒，均勻地加熱是很關(guān)鍵的。來看一下“powdered bed”，它是由Whirlpool設(shè)計(jì)正在試驗(yàn)的一款爐子。取代通常用的天然氣火苗或者電爐絲而用微波來加熱陶瓷片，這個(gè)系統(tǒng)近乎完美地均衡加熱平底鍋并且使我們能以難以置信的精確度來控制加熱水平�！八�提供了非常均衡的加熱”�� Whirlpool的貝豪夫說，“或許它比你現(xiàn)在所能買到的平底鍋要好上10倍或者20倍”。同時(shí) Whirlpool的研究者們也正在試驗(yàn)一種能使你將去皮的雞烤到完美的焦酥狀�！澳氵�能做到色香味俱全”，貝豪夫說，“但是你可能要考慮減肥了”。
　　保羅·Leuthe，Wolf器具公司市場(chǎng)部經(jīng)理，稱感應(yīng)爐是非常需要的。他們用磁場(chǎng)加熱鍋，使得水沸騰的時(shí)間比現(xiàn)在要少一半，當(dāng)然也可以慢火做飯。