听力文本

Hollywood movies have envisaged a future of hoverboards and flying cars. These imaginary machines might not be too far from reality. By 2030 a quarter of shared passenger miles traveled on America's roads could be in self-driving vehicles. It's believed eight out of ten people will be using Robo taxis and cities were available by 2035. There will also be more emphasis on sharing journeys. All this could reduce the number of cars on city streets by 60 percent, emissions by 80 percent and road accidents by 90 percent. And then there are flying cars or more accurately passenger drones and helicopter hybrids. Uber is investing heavily in this technology. Los Angeles Dallas and some states in Australia could see test flights within a couple. But these cross city flights will require changes to air traffic control systems which will probably take longer to develop than the flying vehicles themselves.

Traveling across country could be far quicker - China is leading the world in high-speed bullet trains that are capable of traveling over 400 kilometres per hour. By 2020 80 percent of the country's major cities could be linked to the network. But for high-speed travel the ambitious Hyperloop could leave bullet trains in the dust. It's an ambitious system in which pods move along tubes in a mere vacuum. the lack of air resistance means paas could reach speeds of over 1,000 kilometers per hour. Virgen wants to deliver a fully operational Hyperloop system by the mid-2020s. the company claims its Hyperloop pods could travel from Los Angeles to Las Vegas in 30 minutes. but the potential dangers of travel at such great speeds and the cost mean the Hyperloop will not be a reality for decades. in the air the makers of supersonic jets are promising to slash travel times to. Arian wants to carry 12 passengers in luxury at 1.4 times the speed of sound, about 60% faster than typical aircraft today. and rival boom hopes to be flying its supersonic airliner by 2023. carrying 55 passengers up to 2.2 times the speed of sound. Skeptics say these ideas are impractical and expensive with many technical challenges to overcome. despite this tech and engineering companies are boldly taking up the challenges of passenger transit promising to propel us into the future.

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重点词汇解析

cross city flights 跨城航班

Tom needs to book a cheap flight to Cross City.

汤姆需要预订飞往克罗斯城的特价机票。

be capable of doing 有能力做某事

Truthfully, she reminded me of my mother, who was a savvy investor, fully capable of reading balance sheets and running a portfolio.

说实话，她让我想起了我的母亲，她是一位精明的投资者，完全有能力阅读资产负债表和运作投资组合。

resist v. 抵制，抵挡



You might not be able to resist the temptation to sneak out to the dance(偷偷溜出去跳舞) in spite of your parents' objections.

尽管你父母反对，你可能无法抗拒偷偷溜出去跳舞的诱惑。

slash vt. 大幅削减；挥砍；严厉地批评；

When President George W. Bush slashed taxes, the economy ultimately collapsed.

当乔治•W•布什总统大幅削减税收时，经济最终会崩溃。

bold adj. 明显的，醒目的; 勇敢的，无畏的；

The houses, many of which were built in the late 19th century, are distinguished by their front porches and bold pillars.

这些房屋建于19世纪后期，以其前廊和醒目的柱子而闻名。

参考翻译

好莱坞电影设想了未来这些悬浮滑板和飞行汽车.这些想象中的机器可能不会离现实太远。到2030年，美国道路上的乘客共享行程中有四分之一是通过无人驾驶交通工具。据说截止到2035年，在实现智能的士的城市中将会有80%的人使用智能Taxi。人们将同样更加重视共享行程。这可以将城市街道上的汽车数量减少60％，排放量减少80％，并且道路交通事故减少90％。然后有飞行汽车或更准确的乘客无人机和直升机混合动力车。优步正在大力投资这项技术。洛杉矶达拉斯和澳大利亚的一些州可以在几年内看到试飞。但这些跨城市航班将需要改变空中交通管制系统，这可能比飞行车辆本身需要更长的时间。在全国范围内旅行可能会更快 - 中国在高速子弹列车上领先世界，每小时可行驶超过400公里到2020年，该国80％的主要城市可以与该网络建立联系。但是就高速出行而言，宏大的超回路列车会让高速列车望尘莫及。这是一个宏大的系统，豆荚舱在近乎真空的管道里移动。无空气阻力意味着豆荚舱的速度可以超过1000千米/小时。维珍公司想要在21世纪20年代中叶实现超回路列车系统的全面运行。该公司称其豆荚舱可以在30分钟从洛杉矶出行至拉斯维加斯。但是如此快的速度下的潜在危险和成本意味着超回路列车在几十年内不会成为现实。几十年来，空气中 的制造者在空中交通方面，超音速飞机的制造商也有望削减出行时间。亚里安想要以1.4倍声速的速度搭载12名乘客乘坐豪华舱，那大约比现在的标准飞行机速度快60%。而其竞争对手博姆希望能在2023年前以高达2.2倍声速的速度搭载55名乘客成功飞行超音速客机。由于有许多科技问题要克服，怀疑论者说这些想法不切实际，耗资巨大。尽管如此，技术工程公司大胆应对客运交通方面的挑战，承诺推动我们走向未来。