2024届高三英语总复习热点话题练习：关注科技创新

关注科技创新 Ⅰ.阅读理解 A [2023·衡水中学高三下学期一调]The deep­sea oil and gas industry has vast and costly facilities to maintain. Wells, other equipment, and thousands of kilometers of pipelines must be inspected and repaired. Now, cutting­edge underwater drones (无人机) and robots are being developed that could make the work safer and cheaper. Among them is Eelume, a six­meter­long, snake­like robot equipped with sensors and a camera at each end. It can be kept at a station at depths of up to half a kilometer for six months, without being brought back to the surface. The robot can travel up to 20 kilometers before needing to return to its station to recharge. Maintenance work at many deep­water wells and pipeline systems is already carried out by unmanned vehicles. But these vehicles typically need to be transported to the offshore site on a fully crewed ship and then remotely operated from the onboard surface ship. That can cost up to $100，000 per day, according to Pål Liljebäck, chief technology officer with Eelume Subsea Intervention, which developed the robot. Liljebäck says that by “enabling the robot to become a subsea resident living at a station, it can be mobilized at any time to do inspections, thereby reducing the need for costly surface ships”． Eelume can work autonomously on tasks assigned from a control room onshore, and send back video and data. Its snake­like design allows it to work in small spaces and wriggle (扭动) its body to stay in place in strong currents. By staying under the sea, it can carry out tasks whatever the conditions on the surface of the ocean. The global underwater robotics market is expected to be worth around $7 billion in 2025, according to analysts, and other companies are in the process of commercializing new deep­sea drone and robot technology. Eelume Subsea Intervention will carry out final testing on the seabed later this year at the Åsgard oil and gas field. It expects to put its first snake robots into use next year and hopes to have up to