会说三国语言的日本机器人迎宾小姐

 　　Meet Chihira Junco, a tourist greeter at a shopping mall in Tokyo.

　　来见见地平Junco(Chihira Junco)吧，她是东京一个购物中心的游客迎宾员。

　　In her crisp blue button-down shirt, white blazer and pinstripe skirt, she stands in sensible pumps behind a counter in Aqua City Odaiba on Tokyo Bay, dispensing¹ directions to local sites and shops in Japanese, Chinese and English.

　　她身穿湛蓝色前系扣衬衫、白色上衣和细条纹半身裙，脚踩实用的轻便鞋，站在东京湾台场海洋城(Aqua City Odaiba)的一个柜台后面，用日语、中文和英语分发当地景点和商店的指南。

　　She is not, however, human.

　　不过，她不是人。

　　Ms. Junco — if you can use an honorific for a machine — joins an incipient² group of androids springing up around Japan.

　　Junco小姐——如果可以把敬语用在一个机器身上的话——是日本各地涌现的初代机器人中的一员。

　　There are also Yumeko, a receptionist at the Hen-na Hotel, a robot-operated boutique in Nagasaki, and Matsukoloid, who appears in a popular television variety show with her human doppelg?nger, Matsuko Deluxe³.

　　其他的机器人还有前台接待员梦子(Yumeko)和松子机器人(Matsukoloid)。梦子在位于长崎的精品酒店奇特酒店(Hen-na Hotel)工作，这家酒店由机器人运营；而松子机器人和她的人类分身松子Deluxe(Matsuko Deluxe)一起出现在一个热门电视综艺节目上。

　　Toshiba, the electronics company, developed Chihira Junco in collaboration⁴ with technology labs at several Japanese universities.

　　电子公司东芝(Toshiba)与日本几所大学的技术实验室合作开发了地平Junco。

　　She and four other androids cost ￥10 million (about $93,000) to produce, but only Ms. Junco — Chihira? — is currently out in public, while the others remain with their maker⁵.

　　她和另外四名机器人的总造价为1000万日元（约合9.3万美元），不过目前只有Junco小姐——还是该叫她地平小姐？——公开亮相，其他机器人依然和制造者在一起。

　　The company said it planned to develop 1,000 more androids in 2017.

　　该公司表示，计划于2017年再开发1000个机器人。

　　By 2020, it hopes to make 10,000 a year.

　　到2020年时，希望每年制造1万个机器人。

　　At Aqua City, which is popular with tourists and where a small replica⁶ of the Statue of Liberty stands in a park near the mall entrance, visitors can tap on a screen to ask Chihira questions like Where are you from? (I was born in Mizuho-machi, Nishitama-gun in Tokyo.

　　在海洋城——这个购物中心很受游客欢迎，入口附近的公园里有一个自由女神像(Statue of Liberty)的小型复制品——游客们可以点击屏幕，向地平提问，比如你来自哪里？（我出生于东京西多摩郡瑞穗町。

　　I now live alone in the Minato ward) and What’s your favorite food? (I especially like watermelons and Japanese pears).

　　现在我独自住在港区）和你最喜欢的食物是什么？（我特别喜欢西瓜和日本梨）。

　　Up close, Chihara’s robotic arm movements give her away, as do her eyes, which blink only halfway⁷.

　　从近处看，地平的机械臂的动作出卖了她，她的眼睛也让她露馅——她眨眼时，眼睛只闭一半。

　　When she talks, she looks more like someone chewing gum than speaking.

　　她说话的样子更像在嚼口香糖。

　　During a recent rendition of My Heart Will Go On, from the movie Titanic⁸, her mouth barely moved and her gestures suggested a crossing guard directing traffic.

　　前不久她演唱《泰坦尼克号》(Titanic)的主题曲《我心依旧》(My Heart Will Go On)时，嘴巴几乎没动，手势像是一个交警在指挥交通。

　　For those visitors who still long for genuine human contact, two actual human greeters stand at an information counter about 20 feet away.

　　对于那些依然渴望与真正的人类交流的游客来说，约20英尺外的咨询台站着两名真正的人类迎宾员。

1 dispensing   

v.分配( dispense的现在分词 )；施与；配（药）

参考例句：

• A dispensing optician supplies glasses, but doesn't test your eyes. 配镜师为你提供眼镜，但不检查眼睛。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The firm has been dispensing ointments. 本公司配制药膏。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 incipient   

adj.起初的，发端的，初期的

参考例句：

• The anxiety has been sharpened by the incipient mining boom.采矿业初期的蓬勃发展加剧了这种担忧。
• What we see then is an incipient global inflation.因此，我们看到的是初期阶段的全球通胀.

3 deluxe   

adj.华美的，豪华的，高级的

参考例句：

• This system puts the top hotels in a special deluxe category.这种分类法把最高级的旅馆列为特殊豪华级。
• I liked the deluxe edition,but I could afford only a second best.我喜欢精装版，但我只买得起一本稍差一点的。

4 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。

5 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

6 replica   

n.复制品

参考例句：

• The original conservatory has been rebuilt in replica.温室已按原样重建。
• The young artist made a replica of the famous painting.这位年轻的画家临摹了这幅著名的作品。

7 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

8 titanic   

adj.巨人的，庞大的，强大的

参考例句：

• We have been making titanic effort to achieve our purpose.我们一直在作极大的努力，以达到我们的目的。
• The island was created by titanic powers and they are still at work today.台湾岛是由一个至今仍然在运作的巨大力量塑造出来的。