Robot dolphins: the cruelty-free £20m ‘animal’

Level 2 l Upper intermediate

1 Warmer
Rank these places to see wild animals in order from 1 (the best) to 5 (the worst).
1. ____________________________ a. in the wild
2. ____________________________ b. in a museum (stuffed)
3. ____________________________ c. in an augmented-reality video game
4. ____________________________ d. in a zoo
5. ____________________________ e. in a safari park
6. ____________________________ f. in a film

2 Key words
Fill the gaps in the sentences using these key words from the text. The paragraph numbers are given to
help you.

ethical abandon alongside identical unappealing

captivity heated animatronic commissioned humane

1. An ________________________ animal is a robot but looks like the real thing. (para 1)
2. If two things are ________________________, they are exactly the same or look exactly the same. (para 1)
3. If something is ________________________, it is not attractive or enjoyable. (para 2)
4. If you ________________________ something, you stop doing or using it. (para 2)
5. If you have ________________________ concerns, you think about whether something is morally right or
wrong. (para 3)
6. If you work ________________________ someone, you work with them in the same place and for the same
purpose. (para 3)
7. ________________________ treatment of animals is kind. (para 3)
8. ________________________ is when animals are kept in a place such as a zoo and not in their natural
environment. (para 5)
9. If you are ________________________ to do a job, you are formally invited to do it. (para 7)
10. In a ________________________ debate or discussion, people get angry or excited. (para 7)

3 Find the information

Find the following information in the text as quickly as possible.
1. Where could aquariums with animatronic dolphins soon be seen?
2. How much does each robotic dolphin cost?
3. How long do bottlenose dolphins live in the wild?
4. How long do they live in captivity?
5. How much does the prototype dolphin weigh?
6. In nature, how far do dolphins swim each day?
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NEWS LESSONS / Robot dolphins: the cruelty-free £20m ‘animal’ / Upper intermediate
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Robot dolphins: the cruelty-free £20m ‘animal’
Level 2 l Upper intermediate
Robot dolphins: the cruelty-free
£20m ‘animal’ you can’t tell from the
real thing
Charlotte Graham-McLay  expansion in China. The company would adopt
13 July, 2020
1 They can respond to questions, swim happily
in shopping-mall display tanks and are not
harmed by close contact with humans. And they
could soon be coming to aquariums in China.
Entrepreneurs in New Zealand are working with
American creators of some of Hollywood’s most
famous creatures to develop animatronic dolphins
that look almost identical to real dolphins.
2 A robotic dolphin that can nod an answer to
a child – thanks to the human controlling it by
remote – might sound unappealing or worrying.
But as marine parks around the world are under
pressure to abandon exhibitions with real whales
and dolphins, the creatures are an appealing
alternative, their creators say.
3 “Marine parks’ revenue has been falling for more
than ten years due to ethical concerns and the
cost of live animals, but people still really want to
learn about and experience these animals,” said
Roger Holzberg, a California-based designer of
the life-size robot bottlenose dolphins. Holzberg
is working alongside Walt Conti, responsible for
some of cinema’s best-known sea creatures, to
build the animals. “We believe that it’s time to
reimagine this industry and that this approach
can be more humane and more profitable at the
same time,” Holzberg added.
4 But each dolphin costs NZ$40m (£20.8m), so the
biggest problem is proving to potential clients that
the robotic sea creatures will be cheaper in the
long run than the real thing. Li Wang, a business
developer for Edge Innovation, the New Zealand-
based company selling the robots, said they do
cost four times more than normal dolphins but
would last longer.
5 “We have to persuade them that it is a
profitable business, even more profitable than
live animals,” he said, adding that the robots
did not cost anything to keep and did not need
temperature-controlled water. Bottlenose
dolphins, on average, live for less than 20 years
in captivity but 30 to 50 years in the wild.
6 Before the Covid-19 pandemic, at least 30
aquariums were being built in China, Li Wang
said, and at least one large Chinese corporation
Published by Macmillan Education Ltd. © Macmillan Education Limited, 2020.
NEWS LESSONS / Robot dolphins: the cruelty-free £20m ‘animal’ / Upper intermediate
had committed to replacing real dolphins with
robots. Mike Wang, of Red Star Macalline
Group, said it had sponsored the first phase of
the dolphins’ development and was considering
robotic dolphins and other animals in their new
aquarium projects and was eager to be part of
the creatures’ distribution throughout the country,
he said.
7 Melanie Langlotz, one of the entrepreneurs
behind the project, has a background in
augmented-reality games. Langlotz had been
commissioned to develop a digital component for
the aquariums, but some of the companies she
had assembled to participate were unwilling to be
involved in a plan that would eventually supply
live animals to captivity, she said. “It became
clear that any large aquarium in China, in order
to compete with any other aquarium, would need
to have all the big animals on display, such as
beluga whales, dolphins and sharks,” she said.
“The bigger, the better.” Debates “got more and
more heated” among her New Zealand-based
suppliers about the use of captive animals,
she said. Finally, the group decided to pitch
animatronic animals instead of live ones.
8 The prototype for the dolphin, Langlotz said,
weighs more than 270kg. A test audience had
been unable to guess the dolphin was not real,
she added.
9 Animal-rights supporters also welcomed the
change. Elisa Allen – the UK director for People for
the Ethical Treatment of Animals – said she hoped
robotic dolphins “will replace real ones in marine
parks worldwide.” In nature, dolphins swim “up to
40 miles a day and live in close family groups,”
she said, but in captivity, animals were confined to
concrete pools filled with chemically treated water
and forced to interact with strangers. “In 2020,
cutting-edge technology allows us to experience
nature without harming it,” Allen said.
10 Li Wang, the business developer, did not believe
people would mind that the robots were not
genuine. “For people in New Zealand, for me,
authentic is the same as natural,” he said. “But
if we think about the younger generation, they
spend far more time than us playing electronic
games online. We actually need to ask ourselves
what is real and what is fake.”
© Guardian News and Media 2020
First published in The Guardian, 13/07/20
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Robot dolphins: the cruelty-free £20m ‘animal’
Level 2 l Upper intermediate
4 Comprehension check
Are these statements true (T) or false (F) according to the text?

1. The marine park industry is making less money because many people are worried about keeping animals
in captivity.
2. Animatronic dolphins are four times cheaper to buy than real dolphins.
3. Animatronic dolphins need temperature-controlled water.
4. The test audience realized the animatronic dolphin was not real.
5. Cutting-edge technology could allow us to enjoy nature without damaging it.
6. Li Wang believes that people will not care if the dolphins are robotic.

5 Find the word

Find the following words and phrases in the text. The paragraph numbers are given to help you.

1. a noun meaning money from business activity (para 3)

2. a four-word prepositional phrase meaning not immediately but at some time in the future (para 4)
3. a two-word phrasal verb meaning promise to do something (para 6)
4. a verb meaning organize and support an activity (para 6)
5. an adjective meaning very keen to do something (para 6)
6. a verb meaning try to sell something by saying how good it is (para 7)
7. a verb (used here in the passive voice) meaning forced to stay in a place and prevented from leaving (para 9)
8. an adjective meaning real, rather than pretended or false (para 10)

6 Two-word expressions
Match the words in the left-hand column with the words in the right-hand column to make phrases from
the text.

1. shopping a. display
2. marine b. reality
3. ethical c. mall
4. augmented d. park
5. on e. technology
6. cutting-edge f. concerns
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NEWS LESSONS / Robot dolphins: the cruelty-free £20m ‘animal’ / Upper intermediate
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 Robot dolphins: the cruelty-free £20m ‘animal’
Level 2 l Upper intermediate
7 Word-building
Complete the table using words from the text.

verb noun
1. create (person)
2. design (person)
3. develop (person)
4. supply (person)
5. direct (person)
6. support (person)

8 Discussion
• When did you last visit a zoo?
o What animals did you see?
o Did you enjoy your visit?
o Do you have any ethical concerns about zoos?

• Which animals are the most intelligent?

o How do we know they are intelligent?

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NEWS LESSONS / Robot dolphins: the cruelty-free £20m ‘animal’ / Upper intermediate
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