Pre-reading

Question: How much grain is wasted each year?

Intensive Reading

Farmers do a lot of hard work. They keep grain in special towers. The towers can be more than 10 meters high. The work is not easy to look after the grain. Farmers must keep the grain dry. It must not get too warm.

农民做很多辛苦的工作。他们把谷子储存在特别的塔里。塔有10多米高。照看这些谷子的工作不容易。农民必须保持谷子干燥。也不能太温暖。

If the grain gets wet or warm happens, bugs come. Fungi start to grow. People can’t eat this grain.

如果谷子变潮或者温度变暖，虫子就会来。霉菌就会生长。人就不能吃这些谷子了。

Farmers throw it away. It costs them a lot of money. Farmers all over the world throw away around 630 million tons of grain every year.

农民把谷子扔掉。这使他们损失了很多钱。全世界的农民每年都要扔掉约6.3亿吨谷子。

A special robot can help. It moves through the grain. It checks how warm and wet it is. It sends information to a farmer’s phone. Farmers can look after the grain better.

有一种特殊的机器人可以帮忙。它在谷子中穿梭，检测谷子的温度和湿度。它给农民的手机发送信息。农民就可以更好地照看谷子。

Notes:

1. grain：n. 谷子，谷物。

2. bug：n. 小虫。

3. fungi：n. fungus的复数形式，真菌，霉菌，菌类，蘑菇。

4. throw away：扔掉

Exercise:

请根据文章内容，回答下述问题：

What does the robot do in the grain tower?