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  3. Amazon is looking at drastically reducing its delivery times—to 30 minutes or less—as it plans a new service called Prime Air th

Amazon is looking at drastically reducing its delivery times—to 30 minutes or less—as it plans a new service called Prime Air th

admin2022-07-18  64
问题     Amazon is looking at drastically reducing its delivery times—to 30 minutes or less—as it plans a new service called Prime Air that it says could debut (初次登台) in a few years. The giant online retailer plans to use semi-autonomous drones (无人驾驶飞机) to carry purchases to customers. CEO Jeff Bezos announced the plan Sunday on CBS’ 60 Minutes.
    Bezos tells Charlie Rose, the host that Amazon’s "octocopters" could be airborne within four to five years, using GPS coordinates to find customers.
    "These are effectively drones," Bezos says, "but there’s no reason that they can’t be used as delivery vehicles."
    The drones would depart from the retailer’s "fulfillment centers", the huge warehouses it has built near many large population centers in the U.S. and elsewhere. They can carry about five pounds, Bezos says, a figure that covers around 85 percent of Amazon’s products.
    "I know this looks like science fiction," Bezos tells Rose. "It’s not."
    The delivery drones would be particularly useful in densely populated urban areas, Bezos says. Powered by electricity, their current range of operation is around 10 miles from the point of origin.
    Writing that "drones can explode, or run into things," the Quartz technology blog’s Heather Timmons notes that safety concerns may limit where the new delivery devices could be used.
    In addition to safety concerns, drones could face another challenge before they’re widely used for delivery: overcoming the possible suspicions of citizens who have mostly seen the unmanned aircraft mentioned in conjunction with military and surveillance (监控) uses.
    Rose’s interview with Bezos also touched on the retailer’s 10-year, $600 million contract with the CIA through its Amazon Web Services unit. The company is using its technological expertise to build a computing cloud for the agency, Bezos said.
    When asked by Rose if that presented a conflict, Bezos answered, "We’re building what’s called a private cloud for them, Charlie, because they don’t want to be on the public cloud."
    Amazon isn’t alone in pursuing drone delivery. Earlier this year, a pilot project by Domino’s Pizza looked at flying hot pizzas to customers in Britain, posting a video of a successful test run.
    That led the site Singularity Hub to observe: "So why are drones such a big deal? In our robotic future, anything that can reduce urban congestion, minimize carbon emissions, save money and save trips to the emergency room (car accidents kill, you know) will drive huge value in the economy and make our lives better, to boot."
What can be learned from this passage?
选项 A、The "octocopters" refer to Amazon’s fulfillment centers.
B、Amazon is building a private cloud for itself.
C、Amazon is the only company that is pursuing drone delivery.
D、The author is optimistic about the future of drone delivery.
答案D
解析 推断题。由A选项中的octocopters可定位到第二段。octocopters是指有八个螺旋桨的无人机，故排除A。由B选项中building a private cloud可定位到第十段，该段提到亚马逊正在为美国中央情报局(CIA)建立私有云，而不是为其自身建立，故排除B。由C选项中pursuing drone delivery可定位到倒数第三段，该段提到除亚马逊之外，已有美国达美乐比萨饼公司试点在英国用无人机送餐，故排除C。全文介绍了无人机送货的优势和潜在问题，并在最后一段中引用了Singularity Hub网站对无人机价值的肯定，可见作者对无人机送货的未来持乐观的态度，故选D。
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