1、Last weekend, twenty thousand people gathered in the state of Georgia to watch
students from twenty-eight countries compete with robots they built. More than
ten thousand students and more than five hundred robots took part in the
competition.
Almost one thousand and seven hundred high school teams
entered a level of competition called LUNACY. The competitors came from eleven
countries, including the United States. In January, the organization sent the
same supplies for robots to each team. The teams had six weeks to build robots
that could compete in the LUNACY game. The playing area had six robots, three on
each team. Each robot had a trailer(拖车) connected to it. The robots had to pick
up large balls and throw them into the trailers of opposing robots. The robots
were moving on a surface where they could slide(滑行). A team from California won
the competition.
A second competition involved
building a robot that could travel on uneven(不平坦的) surfaces, move objects with
unusual shapes and withstand(承受) physical stress.
Another competition was
for younger students, aged nine to fourteen years old. Eighty-four teams from
twenty-seven countries competed with robots made with LEGO products. They had to
design, build and program robots to explore the Earth’s climates.