Page 5 - Short Articles for Reading 2nd_1_Preview

Track 01

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In the early decades of the twentieth century, music lovers marveled
when they saw and heard self-playing pianos called ?쐏layer pianos.?? Now, because of progress in robotics , we can enjoy music played by
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robot pianists.

5 Robot pianists come in many more shapes and sizes than human
pianists. A robot pianist named Arpeggio resembles a high-tech piano
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bench. When he puts his fingers on a piano, he spans the entire length
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of the keyboard. His 88 rectangular metal fingers mean that no note is
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ever out of reach.

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10 Arpeggio reproduces the piano performances of great performers. If
you couldn?셳 see who was performing, you wouldn?셳 be able to pick out
whether it was a human or a robot playing.

Another robot pianist, Teotronica, has a face that makes him more
humanoid . His video camera eyes allow him to interact with the
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15 audience, and he can make facial
expressions. He can even talk and
sing in any language!

There is one big difference
between Teotronica?셲 hands and a

20 human player?셲 hands. The first
Teotronica had 19 fingers. Now he
has 53! Not surprisingly, he can play
faster than any human pianist.

189 words Reading Time minutes seconds

1) decade: n. a period of ten years
2) marvel: v. to feel wonder, surprise, or great interest; to be amazed
3) robotics: n. the science or business of making robots
4) resemble: v. to be like or look like
5) span: v. to reach across; to be as wide as
6) note: n. a key of an instrument, such as a piano or organ
7) reproduce: v. to make something that is similar or the same as something else
8) humanoid: adj. having human characteristics or a human form
9) interact: v. to talk or do things with others
10) facial: adj. having to do with the face

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SARC-1.indd 5 2017-11-08 9:52:21