新奇事件簿 机器人读报纸（在线收听）

Japanese scientists have created the world's first news-reading robots. They really look and act like human beings. The android newscaster even sounded human and had a sense of humour. The scientists showed two robots to reporters in Tokyo. One of them is called "Kodomoroid". This word joins the Japanese for child, "kodomo," with the English word "android". The other robot is called "Otonoaroid" – the combination of the Japanese word for adult with "android". The first pieces of news read by the robots were on an imaginary earthquake in Tokyo and a raid by the FBI. The robots' creator is a leading robotics professor, Hiroshi Ishiguro. He did not say when robots would read the news for real.

日本科学家已经研发出世界上第一批读报机器人。他们的外表和行为与人类很像。机器人的新闻广播员听起来很像人类，而且还有幽默感。科学家在东京向记者展示了两款机器人。其中一台机器人叫做"Kodomoroid"。这个单词是将日本表达小孩的单词"kodomo"与英语单词"android"结合起来的。另一台机器人叫做"Otonoaroid",是与日本单词中表示成年人的"android"结合起来的。机器人阅读的第一条新闻是在想象中的东京地震，及FBI袭击事件。机器人的创造者，是带头的机器人学教授Hiroshi Ishiguro。他没说何时机器人才能真正阅读新闻给人听。

Robots are big business in Japan. Many companies spend a lot of money on research and development to make robots better and better. The Japanese have a very positive image of robots. They think they are both helpful and cute. In the West, people think of them as a little scary. They worry that robots will take over the world one day and control us. Professor Ishiguro told reporters that robots are very important. He said: "We will have more and more robots in our lives in the future." He added that robots are now not so expensive and so are increasingly becoming a part of everyday life in Japan: "Robots are now becoming affordable - no different from owning a laptop," he said.

机器人在日本有广阔的市场。许多公司投资许多钱研发制作更好的机器人。日本人对于机器人有非常美好的想象。他们认为机器人实用又可爱。在西方，人们认为机器人有点吓人。他们担心机器人会在某一天占领世界，统治人类。Ishiguro教授告诉记者，机器人非常重要。他说，将来我们的生活中会有越来越多的机器人。他还说，机器人的价格现在也不是很贵，所以机器人在日本逐渐变成了日常生活的一部分。他说，人们现在买得起机器人，与买电脑没什么区别。