48 至 51 題為題組       The retail giant Amazon has recently announced their plan to deliver packages to customers’ homes via drones.Delivering packages this way may sound fascinating and innovative, but in reality it is nothing new. For starters, dronesalready have been trialed to deliver food and medical supplies to disaster-hit areas, such as Haiti, by a startup calledMatternet. According to Matternet, a fleet of drones could speed up the delivery of medicines and other supplies to remoteareas, and even provide a cheaper option than a road network.
        The U.S.-based company sets its sights on the construction of a network of base stations. Each base station is 10kilometers apart, and drones carry packages of up to two kilograms between bases. A drone can travel for 15 minutesbefore it has to land and recharge its batteries. A number of prototypes were tested in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.Andreas Raptopoulos, one of Matternet's founders, claimed triumphantly, “The trials were successful.” Meanwhile, thecompany has gained valuable lessons on how to modify and better equip the prototypes, especially regarding theautonomous battery exchange and navigation.
         One reason for the rising popularity of delivering medical supplies with drones is speed and safety. Drones make itpossible to courier blood, vaccines, birth control pills, snake bite serums, and other essential health care items to remoteareas safely and swiftly. According to Dr. Jeremy Tucker, vice president of patient safety and regional medical director atMEP Health. “Being able to cross long distances at faster speeds to deliver blood products and lab samples also is a hugebenefit. Now transporting blood products between hospitals, for example, involves vehicles on the ground that are prone toaccidents and delays.
        Drones can help decrease those incidents.”Drones provide exciting possibilities, which is why researchers, manufacturers, and nonprofit organizations arestarting to look to drones to improve efficiency. Drone manufacturer Flirtey recently completed the first ship-to-shoredrone delivery in the U.S. The mission was a joint effort carried out by Flirtey, the John Hopkins University School ofMedicine, and the nonprofit Field Innovation Team. It demonstrated how drones can be of help in a medical emergency.During the demo, the drones carried medical samples, flying them between an onshore medical relief camp at Cape May,N.J. and a test facility on a vessel off the New Jersey coast. The drones also transported medical supplies from the vessel tothe onshore medical camp.
        These applications are just scratching the surface of drones’ immense potential. With drones, medical supplies canreach victims, patients, and medical professionals more efficiently and accurately. God knows what benefits drones canbring to the medical communities as the sky is the limit.
【題組】48. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a merit of drones in the passage?
(A) Better safety.
(B) Higher efficiency.
(C) Lower costs.
(D) More privacy.