Onions make you cry, add flavor to food and win popularity for their medicinal benefits. Now the vegetable has another use—_____ green energy.

Anew system debuts（首次亮相）on Friday that _____ onion juice into electricity at Gills Onions, the largest fresh onion processor in the United States.

The Oxnard, California-based company _____ its new onion-fueled power to reduce its electric bill by $700,000 a year and _____ its annual greenhouse gas emissions by up to 30,000 tons.

The _____ ending to this green energy tale, however, started with another question: how to _____ onion waste.

“_____ we peel an onion, 35 to 40 percent of the onion comes off before we have a(n)_____ onion. That's the top, tail and skin around the onion, and _____ we can get to the meat,” said Steven Gill, co-owner of the 25-year-old company.

They used to pull the waste to the fields for compost（混合肥料）, but that turned out to be a tough ______. Ten years ago, Gill started looking at technology for a(n) _____, including microturbines（微型燃气轮机）.

“We ______ cutting the skins into pieces and extracting all the ______, which is very high in sugars, and bacteria love that stuff,” Gill said.

In the new system, bacteria ______ methane（甲烷）gas from the juice. The gas then goes to two 300 kilowatt fuel cells, creating ______ power for 460 homes. If everything goes smoothly, ______ are that the company will get 35 to 40 percent of its electricity from the on-site generator.

The company ______ $ 9. 5 million in the project and will receive $2. 7 million from Southern California Gas Co. _____ cutting its electric bill, the company will save $400,000 in costs and expects paybacks in the new future.

The onion grower now has a new ______: to be a zero-waste facility in the coming decade.

“We want to ______ it all the way through and make the full circle,” Gill said.

   A start-up company in California, called Zume, is testing machines that make pizza. The robot takes and shapes dough to create the base of the pizza. It then adds tomato sauce, cheese, meat or other toppings. Next, the robot places the uncooked pizza into a hot oven. A few minutes later, the pizza is ready. The pizza comes out the same each time. Zume says the robots work quickly and do not get sick. The robots do not get paid either.

Julia Collins is the company’s founder and chief executive officer (CEO) . Her business can spend money on better food products because it does not have to pay the robots. Zume is using robots to make pizza.

Charity Suzuki has bought the robot-made pizza. She likes its taste. “It’s delicious. It’s always hot and fresh when it comes. I mean it’s great that they’re making it, but I can’t tell the difference that it’s made by a robot versus a human.”

Other companies say they are developing robots so people can get higher quality food faster. But what about the jobs the robots are taking from humans?

Ken Goldberg is a professor at the University of California in Berkeley. He also directs the school’s automation laboratory. Goldberg says researchers have been working with robots for 50 years. He says that, while there has been progress, the jobs are not going to disappear right away. “I want to reassure (使放心) restaurant workers that the skills that they have are still going to be of value,” Goldberg said.

“We’re going to get rid of boring, repetitive, dangerous jobs and we’re going to free up people to do things that have higher value. There’s going to be amazing new ways of working that don’t exist yet but are going to be created.”

   Researchers are placing robotic dogs in the homes of lonely old people to determine whether they can improve the quality of life for humans. Alan Beck, an expert in the human-animal relationship, and Nancy Edwards, a professor of nursing, are leading the animal-assisted study concerning the influence of robotic dogs on old people’s depression, physical activity, and life satisfaction. “No one will argue that an older person is better off being more active, challenged, or stimulated (刺激), ”Edwards points out. “The problem is how we promote that, especially for those without friends or help. A robotic dog could be a solution.”

In the study, the robotic dogs, called AIBO, are placed for six weeks in the houses of some old people who live alone. Before placing AIBO in the home, researchers will collect data for six weeks. These old people will keep a diary to note their feelings and activities before and after AIBO being placed. Then, the researchers will study the data to determine if it has inspired any changes in the life of its owner.

“I talk to it all the time, and it responds (回应) to my voice,” says a seventy-year-old lady. “When I’m watching TV, it’ll stay in my arms until it wants to go down. It has a mind of its own.”

The AIBOs respond to certain orders. The researchers say they have some advantages over live dogs, especially for old people. Often the elderly are disabled and cannot care for an animal by walking it or playing with it. A robotic dog removes exercise and feeding concerns.

“At the beginning, it was believed that no one would relate to the robotic dog because it is metal and not furry,” Beck says. “But it’s amazing how quickly we have given up that belief.”

“Hopefully, down the road, these robotic pets could become a more valuable health helper. They will record their masters’ blood pressure, oxygen levels, or heart rhythms. AIBOs may even one day have games that can help stimulate older people’s minds.”

   In the modern world，there is an unfortunate tendency to value profit over intelligence. People may know a practice is harmful，but continue to do it anyway because it produces an in-demand product. Fortunately，there are inventors who work tirelessly to develop more responsible solutions. Sally Fox is one such individual.

Before Fox's invention of Foxfibre cotton，naturally colored cotton could only be spun（纺线）by hand，which was such a long and laborious process that businesses chose to take white cotton，bleach（漂白）it，dye it and spin it on a machine. This produced the colored fabrics people wanted，but also created a lot of pollution through the bleaching and dying processes. Sadly，there weren't really any practical choices available until Sally Fox came along in the late 1980s and revolutionized the industry.

While working as a pollinator（传花粉者）for a cotton breeder looking to develop more pest-resistant plants，Fox began breeding brown and green cotton，picking out the best seeds that produced the longest fibres and replanting them year after year. Finally，she created two kinds of colored cotton that could be spun on a machine，and she purchased a small lot of land to grow them. Sally even received Plant Variety Protection Certificates for the new cotton.

By the early 1990s，Sally Fox had had a 10-million-dollar business that produced naturally colored cotton for major companies like Levi's，Esprit，Land's End and L. L. Bean. It was a more environmentally friendly product that was also turning a profit. After globalization forced most of the spinning mills（工厂）to South America and Southeast Asia，Fox's business took a hit，but she continues to make new naturally colored cotton to this day. Each new color takes about 10 years to produce—but，for Sally Fox，the patience is worth the payoff.