Read the text.
Ancient robots
What do you think of when you read the word ‘robot’? Many people think
about big machines in car factories or futuristic monsters in films. Few of us
think about the past. But people were building incredible machines with human
abilities hundreds of years ago!
For example, Egyptian texts from 1100 BC mention moving statues that
‘chose’ the next king. None of these statues exists, but probably they were
built using the ancient Egyptians’ mechanical technology.
Another ancient robot was a big robotic arm called “The Claw”. The
ancient Greek writer Polybius wrote about it in 213 BC. It was built during a
war with the Romans, and it hung over the city wall towards the sea. When a
Roman ship came close, the arm picked up the front of the ship and lifted it
into the air. Then the boat fell backwards into the sea and sank. Again, we
don’t know if the machine was really built, but it was possible with Ancient
Greek technology.
Another ancient Greek inventor, Philon of Byzantium, built a female
robot at about the same time. If someone placed a cup in her hand, it mixed
water and wine to make a drink. However, the robot wasn’t popular because
people didn’t need robots to work. They had many slaves.
The famous artist Leonardo da Vinci loved designing robots. Few of his
ideas were built, but his plans are very detailed. One modern-day robot
engineer, Mark Rosheim, still uses them to get ideas when designing robots for
NASA! One of da Vinci’s robots was a lion. He built it for the king of France
in 1515. It could walk and present flowers! In 2009, engineers used the plans
to build it again. It worked perfectly.
After that, more and more mechanical robots were built. They did more
and more difficult tasks, such as playing the flute, writing and drawing a
picture. Although modern technology has moved on, these historical robots still
amaze people today.
Are the statements
TRUE or FALSE?
1.
Ancient people had technology developed enough to create robots. Blank 1 Вопрос 2 TrueFalse
2.
Several ancient
robots can be seen nowadays. Blank 2 Вопрос 2 FalseTrue
3.
We know about ancient
robots due to the written documents of the past. Blank 3 Вопрос 2 FalseTrue
4.
Some ideas from the
past are used today. Blank 4 Вопрос 2 TrueFalse