Halloween’s Real Horror? Its High Cost!

October 25, 2013

Halloween is October 31st.

Welcome to American Mosaic from VOA Learning English.

I’m June Simms.

On we tell you about a robot made with the help of medical technology.

Then, it is all about Halloween. How much will the holiday cost Americans this year? What is everybody wearing? And which music will truly scare those trick and treaters?

The Incredible Bionic Man

An engineer makes an adjustment to the robot "The Incredible Bionic Man" at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, Oct. 17, 2013.

Have you heard about a new robot that can walk, talk, see and hear? The robot was recently demonstrated at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington. Mario Ritter has more.

He does not walk very well. He does not dance. But the two meter tall robot holds great promise for the future.

He is called The Incredible Bionic Man. He was built from artificial body parts and organs.

The robot is the subject of a documentary film from the Smithsonian. The film’s presenter, Bertolt Meyer, says it explores the question, ‘how far has medical technology come?’

“What parts of the human body can we already replace today? If we get all of the spare parts that exist and put them together in one piece what will it look like? And the result is, it looks like this.”