NEWS SUMMARY
In the world’s first humanoid half-marathon in China, robots competed against humans. Despite their technological advancements, the robots were far from outpacing the human runners. They faced challenges throughout the race but showcased China’s progress in humanoid robotics. While the robots finished well behind the human winners, the event highlighted the growing competition in the field.
Source: CNN
ACTIVITY 1
Show students the beginning of the headline and ask them to choose the ending they think is correct. Ask students to justify their opinion.
Chinese robots ran against humans in the world’s first humanoid half-marathon.
- To everyone’s surprise, one robot crossed the finish line first – it really came out on top!
- Several robots finished neck and neck with human participants.
- They lost by a mile.
(correct answer: 3. They lost by a mile)
You can also ask students to explain some of the expressions from the sentences: come out on top (win or succeed in a situation), neck and neck (very close in a competition, with no clear leader), by mile (to lose or win by a large margin).
ACTIVITY 2
Ask students the following questions:
- What do you think events like this tell us about the future of robots?
- Would you be excited or worried if robots could outperform humans in sports?
- Do you think it’s useful to build robots that move like humans, or should we design them differently?
Related lesson
Can robots compete with humans?
TechnologyWith this B1 technology lesson plan, students talk about different types of robots, watch two videos about robots in sports, learn some commonly confused sport words and reflect on the future of robots.
What do you think about this edition of News for Classroom Use?
