第二步：精读重点段落

（Tips: 双击文中单词可以查释义并加入你的生词本哦）

第一段：
A couple days ago, a giant robot battle that had been in the making for two years happened, and, like so many things in this miserable, mosquito-infested craphole we call “reality,” it was kind of a letdown. A lot of the blame is being cast at the organizers, but, really, this is also partially on us, the people who’ve been enjoying fictional robot battles for decades: there’s no way the reality could meet our expectations.

• miserable    adj. 悲惨的；痛苦的；卑鄙的
• infested     adj. 为患的，大批滋生的（常与with搭配）；v. 害虫、野兽大批出没于( infest的过去式和过去分词 )；遍布于
• letdown      n. 失望；松弛；减低
• cast            vt. 投，抛；计算；浇铸；投射（光、影、视线等）；铸型；演员阵容；脱落物；vi. 投，抛垂钓鱼钩；计算，把几个数字加起来

第三段：
Sure, the way the event was produced was deceptive, the announcers were sort of annoying, and there was a general sense of labored, forced excitement. There were staged ‘accidents’ and the entire first battle, between Japan’s Kuratas and the American team, Megabots’ old prototype, (renamed, dorkily, Iron Glory) was completely a setup to give the Japanese team a win, since Iron Glory was never intended to fight in the manner of the battle.

• deceptive     adj. 欺诈的；迷惑的；虚伪的
• labored     adj. 吃力的；费劲的；不自然的；v. 工作；劳动；分娩（labor的过去分词）
• staged     adj. 分期的；事先安排好的
• prototype     n. 原型机；标准，模范
• dorkily     adj. 愚蠢的
• setup     n. 设置；机构；组织；调整；计划；装备
• in the manner of    以…的形式 

第十六段：
There’s potential here; people will watch two massive robots fighting. But what this first real attempt has proven to us, if anything, is that it’s better to be honest and earnest with what the fight is, and what the machines can do, that the internet is very hard to fool, and that this can be a lot more if we extract the moist, fragile people from out of these machines.

• massive     adj. 大量的；巨大的，厚重的；魁伟的
• earnest     adj. 认真的，热心的；重要的；n. 认真；定金；诚挚
• moist     adj. 潮湿的；多雨的；含泪的；n. 潮湿

（Tips: 双击文中单词可以查释义并加入你的生词本哦）

That Giant Robot Fight did Kind of Suck and it's Our Own Fault

第一段：
A couple days ago, a giant robot battle that had been in the making for two years happened, and, like so many things in this miserable, mosquito-infested craphole we call “reality,” it was kind of a letdown. A lot of the blame is being cast at the organizers, but, really, this is also partially on us, the people who’ve been enjoying fictional robot battles for decades: there’s no way the reality could meet our expectations.

• miserable    adj. 悲惨的；痛苦的；卑鄙的
• infested     adj. 为患的，大批滋生的（常与with搭配）；v. 害虫、野兽大批出没于( infest的过去式和过去分词 )；遍布于
• letdown      n. 失望；松弛；减低
• cast            vt. 投，抛；计算；浇铸；投射（光、影、视线等）；铸型；演员阵容；脱落物；vi. 投，抛垂钓鱼钩；计算，把几个数字加起来；

第二段：
A lot of outlets have been calling the battle “fake” because it took place over several days and was edited, but I think that’s missing the point. The problem wasn’t that there was fakery going on—the right kind of fakery would have made it far more exciting—the problem was that it was actually pretty realistic, and the reality is that piloted 16-foot-tall DIY mechanical robo-suits just aren’t as exciting to watch as you’d think.

• outlets     n. 电源插座；销路；发泄的方法；批发商店;；
• pilot     n. 飞行员；领航员；adj. 试点的；v. 驾驶；领航；试用；

第三段：
Sure, the way the event was produced was deceptive, the announcers were sort of annoying, and there was a general sense of labored, forced excitement. There were staged ‘accidents’ and the entire first battle, between Japan’s Kuratas and the American team, Megabots’ old prototype, (renamed, dorkily, Iron Glory) was completely a setup to give the Japanese team a win, since Iron Glory was never intended to fight in the manner of the battle.

• deceptive     adj. 欺诈的；迷惑的；虚伪的
• labored     adj. 吃力的；费劲的；不自然的；v. 工作；劳动；分娩（labor的过去分词）
• staged     adj. 分期的；事先安排好的
• prototype     n. 原型机；标准，模范
• dorkily     adj. 愚蠢的
• setup     n. 设置；机构；组织；调整；计划；装备
• in the manner of    以…的形式；

第四段：
But all of the half-assed editing and attempts to inject drama into the battle are only there at all because the truth is that these types of robo-suit battles are slow.

• inject     vt. 注入；注射;
• drama     n. 戏剧，戏剧艺术；剧本；戏剧性事件；

第五段：
The machines both teams built are impressive, no question. They’re non-trivial works of robotics and engineering, and they can be a fun and exciting way to get people involved in science and robotics, and engineering. But they’re much closer to advanced construction equipment than they are a Gundam suit or anything from Pacific Rim.

• trivial     adj. 不重要的，琐碎的；琐细的；

第六段：
The reality of these machines is that they’re powerful, but make slow, plodding motions. They can pick up a car and throw it, but it’s a methodical process. Any idea that we may have had that a battle between mecha-suits like these would be like a sci-fi MMA fight was absurd even from the start, and, really, we all knew this deep down.

• plodding     adj. 单调乏味的；沉重缓慢的；v. 沉重地走；辛勤工作（plod的ing形式）
• sci-fi     n. 科幻小说（等于science fiction）

第七段：
The slowness is partially the reality of the scale and type of equipment used, and partially because there’s human pilots inside those machines that nobody wants to see get hurt.

第八段：
The biggest problem with the Robot Battle was one of managing expectations. They should have done it live, and just let the machines do what they could do, however they do it. It would have been a slow sort of fight, but it still could have been engaging, and instead of the embarrassing over-excited announcing and staged drama, the physics of how this all worked could have been explained in an entertaining way.

• engaging     adj. 迷人的；v. 参加（engage的ing形式）；保证；雇用；

第九段：
To make this work well in the future, and to make it more exciting, I think one key thing needs to happen: get rid of the people.

第十段：
 The pilots inside the giant suits are just a liability; the controlling of the suits could be done remotely, with VR headsets and radio-frequency controls, which would free all of the safety concerns from having massive machines pummel one another.

• pummel     vt. 击；打；用拳头连续揍；n. （马鞍的）前鞍桥；球壮末端；（刀把或剑柄的）圆头（等于pommel）

第十一段：
Once we take the pilot’s safety out of the equation, a lot more exciting and stupid and fun-to-watch options open up. Two giant, remotely controlled robots could face off, and instead of relying on slow, hydraulic motions, a fist could be thrown powered by small solid-fuel rockets, for example.

第十二段：
You know who did this sort of thing well, and has done it for decades? Survival Research Laboratories. SRL has been doing dangerous, destructive shows with unpiloted, remotely operated machines for years, and the events they put on are exciting and more than a little terrifying.

• terrifying     adj. 令人恐惧的；骇人的；极大的；v. 使害怕，使恐怖（terrify的现在分词）

第十三段：
SRL manages to capture the visceral fear we feel when we see a powerful machine that could be out of control, and a little of that would go a long way for future Robot Battles.

• visceral     adj. 内脏的；出于本能的；发自肺腑的；粗俗的

第十四段：
Once the operators are a safe distance away, we can have battles of massive machines that really go nuts on one another, with cutting tools and showers of sparks and large, room-shaking impacts as one mechanical beast brings down another.

第十五段：
This may sound a lot like the types of bot-fight competitions and TV shows we’ve seen already, but there could be rules set up to make it into something new and novel. The robots could have to be a minimum size, for example, and perhaps would need to be roughly humanoid-shaped, so that the way the pilot moves and fights is directly translated to the robot’s motion, forcing the pilot to learn some technique and not just rely on the equipment.

• novel     adj. 新奇的；异常的；n. 小说

第十六段：
There’s potential here; people will watch two massive robots fighting. But what this first real attempt has proven to us, if anything, is that it’s better to be honest and earnest with what the fight is, and what the machines can do, that the internet is very hard to fool, and that this can be a lot more if we extract the moist, fragile people from out of these machines.

• massive     adj. 大量的；巨大的，厚重的；魁伟的
• earnest     adj. 认真的，热心的；重要的；n. 认真；定金；诚挚
• moist     adj. 潮湿的；多雨的；含泪的；n. 潮湿

第十七段：
I hope they give this another go. And I hope they both play it a bit safer by moving the people out of the machines, and play it much less safe by really watching how SRL did their terrifying and wonderful shows.