Imagine a robot. What comes to your mind first? A machine stronger than the human body? However, this same quality is now causing a big problem—it’s creating tons of long-lasting e-waste that could flood our planet. What if, instead, the machines we use were designed to break down and disappear—just as living things do?

For a study published in Science Advances, researchers made a robotic arm and a controller using materials from animals and plants. These materials are strong enough to work but can easily break down in a natural environment. After testing, both parts were gone in soil within weeks.

Biodegradable (可生物降解的) robotics often falls under the umbrella of soft robotics, which takes ideas from nature. “This field started in materials science and chemistry rather than traditional robots that come from mechanical (机械的) engineering.” says Florian Hartmann, a materials scientist from Germany. However, many early soft robotics models still used man-made materials that cause pollution.

Wei, a scientist who studies natural materials in Hangzhou, worked together with his friend Zhang, a robotics engineer in Shanghai, to build robots for the new study. They started with cellulose (纤维素) taken from cotton. Then, they added glycerol (甘油) to make a new material that is soft and easy to change shapes. After that they allowed it to dry so it became strong, “Cellulose is cheap and easy to work with,” says Wei. They found that the controller and the robotic arm stood up to both heavy use and a week of inactivity. Finally, they buried (埋) them both in a hole. Within eight weeks these two parts were almost completely gone.

Wei and Zhang expect that robots like these can be used to deal with dangerous waste and then disappear naturally. They also hope that such robots can aid doctors in operations and then safely break down inside the body.

However, it’s important to note that the technology is still in very early stages. “If we truly want to have a biodegradable robot,” Hartmann says, “we also need to make sure its electronics and power parts are biodegradable.”

1.1. What is special about the robotic arm and the controller in Paragraph 2?

A They are green.

B They are hard.

C They are intelligent.

D They are affordable.

解析：选A。A.细节理解题。题干问第二段中机械臂和控制器的特殊之处。第二段明确提到 “利用动植物材料制成”“能在自然环境中轻易降解”，核心特征是环保（green）；B 选项 “坚硬”（hard）仅对应 “足够坚固工作”，非核心特殊点；C “智能的”、D “价格实惠的” 均未在第二段提及，故选 A。

2.2. What is mentioned in Paragraph 5 about soft robots?

A Their operation.

B Their applications.

C Their challenges.

D Their performance.

解析：选B。B.段落大意题。第五段核心内容是 “这类机器人可用于处理危险废弃物、辅助医生手术”，均为软机器人的应用场景（applications）；A “操作方式”、C “挑战”、D “性能表现” 均未在第五段涉及，故选 B。

3.3. What can we learn from the passage?

A Soft robots are widely used to clean up e-waste.

B Soft robots have to rest for a week after heavy use.

C The designing of soft robots borrows ideas from nature.

D Mechanical engineering offers new ways to run soft robots.

解析：选C。C.推理判断题。A 选项 “软机器人广泛用于清理电子垃圾”：文中仅说 “期望用于处理危险废弃物”，未提及 “广泛使用”，且电子垃圾是研发背景而非应用场景，错误；B 选项 “软机器人高强度使用后需休息一周”：文中说 “能承受高强度使用且闲置一周仍正常工作”，并非 “必须休息”，错误；C 选项 “软机器人的设计借鉴自然灵感”：第三段首句 “软机器人的设计灵感来源于自然”，与原文一致，正确；D 选项 “机械工程为软机器人运行提供新方法”：第三段提到软机器人 “起源于材料科学和化学，而非传统机器人的机械工程”，与选项表述相反，错误。