Hitchbot

Have you ever seen a hitchhiker（搭便车的旅行者）standing by the side of a road？Now drivers in Canada might see（51）　　unusual hitchhiker； a hitchhiking robot．

One of its inventors，David Harris Smith，has hitched across Canada three times．Smith and a friend，Frauke Zeller，have built Hitchbot because they wanted（52）　　（see） if people would    stop and give the robot a lift and talk to it．The robot can chat about things it has learned，and about（53）　　（it） trip．You might think it's a joke，（54）　　Smith and Zeller's experiment has a serious point：can robots and people get along？

Hitchbot（55）　　（begin） its journey in Nova Scotia in July．It has already completed a    third of its 6，000﹣mile trip to Victoria．More than 57，000 people are following its journey（56）　　（close） on Facebook and Twitter，and travelers have posted lots of（57）　　（photo） on the websites．Hitchbot has also done some shopping，eaten motor oil，and had fun with travelers．Nobody knows（58）　　it will finish its journey．It might be（59）　　（long） than expected，but Zeller and Smith want Hitch to get（60）　　many rides as it can．It hasn't been in a self﹣driving car yet，but anything is possible!