2018考博英语阅读经济学人文章每日精析：精准农业

　　Relay 转达Transceiver n.无线电收发机，收发器

　　Microsoft is not the only organisation hoping to make agricultural sensors practical. Researchers at the University of Applied Sciences in Mannheim, for instance, have developed a sensor network that relies on a technology called software-defined radio, which uses computers to simulate an ultra-flexible, very sensitive radio receiver. And scientists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln are working on sensors that communicate with radio waves that propagate through the soil rather than the air, and which draw their power from the vibrations generated by farm vehicles moving about on the surface.致力于农业传感器实用意义研发的并不是只有微软一家。德国曼海姆大学应用科学院的研究员们，已经研发出了一种基于软件无线电技术的传感器网络。它利用电脑模拟异常灵活、敏感的无线电接收器的运作。内布拉斯加大学林肯分校的科学家们正在研究一种以无线电波传导的传感器，它通过土壤而不是空气传播，并从在地面上移动的农场车辆产生的振动中获得能量。

　　Propagate through 传播

　　But although such sensor data are useful, but they cannot tell you everything. To fill in the gaps, Dancing Crow uses a drone. These are getting cheaper (a basic model costs $1,000) but they require some skill to fly, and their small batteries mean limited flight times. So Microsoft's team wrote an autopilot that lets a farmer outline a plot to survey, works out the most efficient route and sends the drone on its way, reducing the time taken to cover a farm by over 25%.(读者试译)虽然通过传感器获得的数据很有用，但是数据并不完整。Dancing Crow利用了无人机来填补这个缺口。虽然无人机的价格越来越便宜(一个基本型大概1000美元)，但是操控起来需要技巧，电池容量小，飞行时间短。读者试译句，快来把你们的翻译或理解留言在文章下方吧。第二天会有解析哟。

　　Drone无人机

　　The resulting imagery contains useful information on growing conditions, crop health and insect pests, but interpreting it properly is beyond most farmers. So Microsoft also developed software that runs on an ordinary laptop, and can stitch together individual pictures into a single panoramic view of the entire farm. Sensor data can be laid atop this view, and the computer can then extrapolate a handful of sensor readings into predicted values for moisture, acidity and so on at any given point.无人机传来的图像包括作物生长条件、健康状况、虫害等有用信息。但是它不能像大多数农民那样恰当的解释这些现象。所以微软也开发了一款可以在普通笔记本上运行的软件，以便把单独的图像整合成整个农场的全景。传感器带来的数据可以显示在全景图上，电脑可以在任何一个给定的点上推算出传感器上的一些预测读数，包括湿度、酸度等。

　　Stitch缝补Panoramic 全景的Extrapolate (由已知资料对未知事实或价值)推算，推断;

　　When the nearby Snoqualmie River rises up to flood Dancing Crow farm in a couple of months, as it does most winters, Mr Chandra plans to take his technologies to India. For the very poorest farmers, even a cheap drone will be beyond their budget. He wants to see if a lower-tech solution will work just as well—simply attaching a smartphone to a $5 helium balloon and walking it through the fields.大多数的冬天，附近的斯诺夸尔米河河水都会上涨，会淹没Dancing Crow 农场好几个月。所以Chandra计划把这套技术迁往印度。对于最贫穷的农民来说，即使是一个廉价的无人机他们也买起。他想看看一个低技术含量的解决方案是能否一样奏效——把智能手机绑在一个5美元的氢气球上并拿着它穿越农场。

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