(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Experts say that sun and wind are the richest sources of clean, renewable energy. But ocean waves also create powerful, clean energy. So, the U.S Department of Energy has announced a $1.5 million-dollar prize for the winner of a competition on how to capture that energy.
The Department of Energy says that waves and tides along U.S. coasts create about 1,420 terawatt-hours of energy a year. That is equal to the amount of energy produced by more than 330 nuclear power factories.
But today's technologies can only capture about 20 percent of the energy from ocean waves. Jose Zayas is the director of the Wind and Water Power Technologies Office at the Department of Energy. He says 20 percent is too low for an investment in ocean wave energy to be economical. He says it needs to be up in the high 30 percent to 40 percent.
"...we believe that once you achieve that then the economic competiveness of this industry really comes to life and that's really the target that we are shooting for."
The Department of Energy has launched the Wave Energy Prize competition to encourage development of new technologies.
But developing new devices to capture wave energy can be difficult. Wave capture machines must operate in oceans.
Competition organizers expect most of the new ideas to come from established energy companies as well as some universities and research centers. Mr. Zayas says testing the new technologies will be done in several steps using scaled models. A scaled model is a smaller form of a larger object or structure.
"We would have 1/50th scale testing where we would do the first fundamental evaluation of their performance, as well as making sure that they are on a pathway that can assure them success towards a prize...and near the end, we will have about 10 teams, it is our hope."
The scaled models will be tested at the United States Navy's large indoor testing pool near Washington. Machines at the pool can create ocean-size waves. Mr. Zayas says the models will be tested to show how much ocean wave energy they can capture.
The competition will not require the machines to produce electrical power. He says changing the mechanical kinetic energy into electrical energy is easy.
Mr. Zayas says the main goal of the Wave Energy Prize is to develop a new set of power producing technologies for the future. Developers of the best performing devices will receive prizes from $250,000 to as much as $1.5 million.
I'm Jonathan Evans.
词汇解释
1.tide n. 趋势，潮流；潮汐 vt. 随潮漂流
Our boat gently dropped down with the tide.
我们的小船慢慢随潮顺流而下。
2.scaled model 成比例模型，相似模型
Acoustic similarity is the base of scaled model tests of underwater structure noise.
声学相似性是水下结构噪声模型试验的基础。
3.kinetic energy [力] 动能
The relativistic kinetic energy diverges completely from the Newtonian formula.
相对论动能完全偏离了牛顿力学的公式。
4.economical adj. 经济的；节约的；合算的
We must find economical methods for extracting oil from shale.
我们必须找到从页岩中采油的经济方法。
内容解析
1."...we believe that once you achieve that then the economic competiveness of this industry really comes to life and that's really the target that we are shooting for."
shoot for 争取，为…而努力
We should shoot for the best results.
我们应力争取得最好的成绩。
No one dared shoot for fear of hitting Pete.
没人敢开枪，怕伤着皮特。
2.He says changing the mechanical kinetic energy into electrical energy is easy.
change into 变成；把…变成；兑换
I'd like to change these U.S. dollars into Renminbi.
我想把这些美元兑换成人民币。
He said he had been bitterly disillusioned by his country's failure to change into a democracy.
他说他对他的国家未能实现民主变革极度失望。
参考译文
专家称太阳和风是清洁、可再生能源的最丰富来源，但海洋波浪也能产生强大的清洁能源。因此，美国能源部宣布提供150万美元的奖金，提供给一项捕捉这种能源的竞赛的决胜者。
能源部称美国沿海的海浪和潮汐每年能产生大约1420万亿瓦时的电力，相当于330多家核电厂产生的能源之和。
但如今的科技只能捕捉大约20%的海洋波浪能源，何塞·萨亚斯是能源部风电和水电技术办公室主任，他说要想在海洋波浪能源上得到经济的投资，20%的比例太低。他说需要将之提高到30%到40%。
“我们认为，一旦实现这一目标，那么就能实现这个产业的经济竞争力，那就是我们希望实现的目标。”
能源部发起了海浪能源奖竞赛，来鼓励新技术的开发。
但开发能捕捉海浪能源的新设备会很艰难，海浪捕捉机器必须在海洋中运转。
竞赛主办方期待大多数新创意能来自已有的能源公司，以及一些大学和研究中心。萨亚斯说测试新技术奖需要分几个步骤，需要用缩放模型来进行。缩放模型是大型物体或结构的较小模型。
“我们将进行50分之一的缩放测试，将对其性能进行第一步的基础评估，并确保这些技术能够成功得奖，最后我们将有10个团队，我们希望是这样。”
这些缩放模型将在华盛顿附近美国海军的大型室内测试池里进行，池子里的机器能制造海洋那样的波浪，萨亚斯说将测试这些模型能捕捉多少能源。
这场竞赛不需要机器来制造电力，他说将机械动能转化为电能很简单。
萨亚斯说海洋能源奖的主要目标是为未来开发一套新的发电技术，最佳性能设备的开发者将得到25万美元到150美元的奖金。
我是乔纳森·伊万斯。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
