Your next vacation may be virtual

河南睢縣高級中學(xué) 喬 艷

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難詞探意

1.stimulate/'st?mjule?t/v.刺激

2.affluent/'?flu?nt/adj.富裕的

3.inhibit/?n'h?b?t/v.阻止；抑制

4.haptic/'h?pt?k/adj.觸覺的

Japan's biggest airline is betting that the future of travel isn't travelling at all.For the last month,a married couple in Oita Prefecture has been interacting with a robot called Avatar,which was controlled by their daughter hundreds of miles away in Tokyo.Made by ANA Holdings Inc.,it looks like a cleaner with an iPad attached.But the screen displays the daughter's face as they chat,and its wheels let her trundle around the house as though she's really there,and even join her parents at the dinner table.

“Virtual travel” is nothing new,of course.Storytellers,travel writers and artists have beenstimulatingthe senses of armchair tourists for centuries.It's only in recent decades thatfrequent,safe travel,especially overseas,has become available to the non-wealthy,thanks to low-cost airfares and home-sharing services.

Thetourism boom isstressing popular destinations,and forcing them to look at ways to limit visitors.And the aging ofaffluentsocieties is bothinhibitingphysical travel and creating demand for alternative ways to experience the world and stay connected to others.For the travel industry,virtual reality offers an attractive response to these trends.First Airlines,another Japanese company,now lets customers sit in a model of an airplane in Tokyo,where they're served fancy meals before taking VR tours of selected destinations.The company is targeting elderly travelers who don't want the trouble of a real-life trip,and “flights”to cities such as New York,Paris and Rome arefrequentlyfully booked.

ANA is thinking bigger.It wants to use robotics,haptictechnology,and fast communication to create a “new mode of instantaneous transportation” thatlets people carry their“presence,consciousness,knowledge,and skills”to remote locations.In less-lofty terms,the idea is to make the VR experience more immersive by stimulating multiple senses,including touch.Japan's space agency even hopes to use the company's Avatars for lunar exploration.

ANA doesn't plan to start selling Avatars until next year.Over the past two decades,cheap video-conferencing apps have changed how families and companies around the world communicate.Inexpensive robots that let them interact physically are a naturalnextstep.ANA's robots may not replace its airplanes any time soon,but they'll almost certainly be a part of travel's high-tech future.

Reading Check

1.What's the meaning of the underlined word in paragraph 1?

A.Look. B.Roll. C.Turn. D.Gather.

2.What kind of travelers is First Airlines mainly targeting?

A.Children. B.Teenagers. C.Adults. D.Old people.

3.What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A.Avatars sell well in the market.

B.Avatars may take the place of airplanes soon.

C.Avatars may be an important part of future travel.

D.Avatars changed the way people communicate in the world.

Language Study

Sentence for writing

It's only in recent decades that frequent,safe travel,especially overseas,has become available to the non-wealthy,thanks to low-cost airfares and home-sharing services.直到最近幾十年，頻繁、安全的旅行，尤其是海外旅行，對于一些并不富裕的人才變得可行，這多虧了低價機票和住房共享服務(wù)。

【信息提取】強調(diào)句型：It+be+被強調(diào)成分+that(who)...，其中的被強調(diào)部分可以是名詞或代詞，也可是短語或從句。

【句式仿寫】直到當我最近重讀他的詩歌的時候，我才開始欣賞到這些詩的美。