Part I – READING COMPREHENSION (A)

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions in English. (35 points) קראו את הקטע שלפניכם וענו על השאלות שאחריו באנגלית. اقرأ القطعة التي أمامك وأجب عن الأسئلة التي تليها بالإنجليزية.

Milking Cows with Robots

I Dairy farming* has changed over the years. Farmers used to milk cows by hand, but after the invention of the milking machine, it became common to milk cows using machines. Today, machines are not enough to produce the necessary amounts of milk. This is because the demand for milk products has increased, while at the same time, it has become hard to get workers to operate the machines because very few people want to work on farms.

*Dairy farming משק החלב قطاع الألبان

II Recently, a new technology was developed to solve these problems: smart milking robots. These robots allow farmers to produce large amounts of milk with fewer workers. With regular milking machines, a human worker connects the machine to the cow, and after the milking is finished, the worker disconnects the machine and cleans the cow’s udders. Smart robots can do these jobs without the help of a human, using special sensors and artificial intelligence (AI).

III Smart robots make dairy farms more efficient in other ways, too. They use sensors to collect data about the cows and the milking. Using AI, the robots analyze the data and then share the results with farmers, so they can make good decisions. For example, the robots collect information about each cow’s health. If a cow’s behavior or milk production show that she is not healthy, the robots warn the farmer so the farmer can quickly decide how to treat the cow. The robots also learn about each cow’s needs – for example, what time of day she prefers to be milked. The robots can then milk each cow at a different time of day, and as a result, the cows are more comfortable and produce more milk.

IV Smart robots allow dairy farmers to make more money with less work. This is why sales of the robots are increasing by 15% every year. But the robots are important not only for farmers: they also help feed the billions of people living on our planet today.

Adapted from: https://www.researchdive.com/blog/from-manual-to-autonomous-how-ai-is-changing-the-landscape-of-milking-robots-in-dairy-farms

Answer the following questions in English. (35 points) ענו על השאלות הבאות באנגלית. أجب عن الأسئلة التالية بالإنجليزية