Every year landslides cause 25 to 50 deaths and $2 billion in damage in the United States. And in December, a single event killed more than 2000 people in the Philippines. Sending workers to stabilize mountainsides using steel bars can help a lot, but it introduces new difficulties because of dust and loosen heavy, dangerous debris from the work. “It’s a quite dangerous job,” says Giorgio Pezzuto of D’ Appolonia, working with eight other companies. Now there may be an answer: a three-ton robot called Roboclimber.
“The idea is to operate a machine far away that can do the stabilizing job without a human being near,”says Pezzuto, manager for the project, which is supported by a European organization. Engineers say that the machine will be faster and cheaper than manual labor. The robot, a large radio-controlled four-legged spider, has cost at least $2 million so far. It should be able to climb mountainsides, drill holes and insert steel bars there. Testing should begin in May.
小题1:The underlined word “event” refers to_____
A．earthquake
B．debris
C．dust
D．landslide小题2:The purpose in writing this text is _____
A．to tell people how serious the damage caused by landslides is
B．to tell people that sending workers to stabilize mountainsides is a dangerous job
C．to show people how to use a new robot
D．to introduce a new robot that can be used to stabilize mountainsides小题3:What does the robot look like?
A．human being
B．spider
C．steel bar
D．a drill小题4:A landslides cause _____________in damage in the United States Every year .
A．25 to 50 deaths
B．more than 2000 people died
C．$2 billion
D．both A and C小题5:The biggest advantage of this product is that____
A．it will be faster and cheaper than manual labor
B．it can climb mountainsides, drill holes and insert steel bars there.
C．it can do the stabilizing job without human beings near
D．it is like a spider
