(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
JUDY WOODRUFF: On a day when Exxon and Royal Dutch/Shell took some hits in court and among their shareholders, it's clear there is increasing pressure to address climate change. Fuel for transportation is a big part of the problem. And airplanes are especially difficult. Miles O'Brien looks at efforts to create electric planes of the future. It is part of a special "NOVA" documentary tonight.
MILES O'BRIEN: Chandler Airport in Fresno, California has been in operation since the Wright brothers era, aviation 1.0. Today, the art deco glory has faded, but Joseph Oldham is using this old, underutilized place to help launch a new age of flight, aviation 3.0.
JOSEPH OLDHAM, New Vision Aviation: This is the third revolution of aviation. The first revolution, of course, was powered flight. The second revolution was jet in the 1940s, early 1950s. Electric propulsion is the third revolution.
MILES O'BRIEN: These are Pipistrel Alpha Electros, the first certified all-electric airplanes in the world. And he was gracious enough to give a fellow pilot the right seat. All right, we're set. Contact, huh?
JOSEPH OLDHAM: Clear.
MILES O'BRIEN: It was as simple as flipping a switch. It was weirdly quiet as we taxied to the runway.
JOSEPH OLDHAM: The noisiest thing on this airplane are the brakes.
MILES O'BRIEN: And watch what happened when we stopped to wait for traffic.
JOSEPH OLDHAM: You just sit here just like an electric car.
MILES O'BRIEN: That just cracks me up.
JOSEPH OLDHAM: Electric propulsion systems are so simple that really there's just nothing that you really need to be that concerned about.
MILES O'BRIEN: Are we flying the future right now?
JOSEPH OLDHAM: We absolutely are.
MILES O'BRIEN: It was a hazy day, the result of some raging wildfires nearby, a reminder of the climate emergency which makes the decarbonization of aviation so urgent. How important do you think that is to think about taking fossil fuels out of aviation over the long run?
JOSEPH OLDHAM: Well, it's huge. It's the only mode of transportation that really has not moved aggressively towards zero emission.
MILES O'BRIEN: Globally, about 15 percent of the human carbon footprint comes from transportation. We see some signs of progress. Electric car sales are rising as prices drop. But aviation? It's one of the hardest transportation problems to solve. Pound for pound, liquid fuel contains 16 times more energy than the best batteries. So, while short hops on smaller planes may be possible, the batteries needed to fly big airliners on long flights would make the plane way too heavy. Yet, all over the world, engineers, entrepreneurs and aviators are trying to meet the challenge. They are experimenting, starting small, creating some flying machines like never seen before.
JOEBEN BEVIRT, Founder, Joby Aviation: Maybe we should step over and see how it is to sit in the aircraft. So...
MILES O'BRIEN: JoeBen Bevirt Founded Joby Aviation in 2009. The aircraft he and his team designed is now in flight testing for FAA certification. It's the current leader in the race to fill the world with electric air taxis. It carries a pilot and four passengers under six tilting motors.
JOEBEN BEVIRT: It provides us an aircraft which is incredibly good at hovering and incredibly good at cruising. That efficiency in cruise is what gets us our range and gets us our speed.
MILES O'BRIEN: He says it can fly 200 miles per hour and has a range of 150 miles.
JOEBEN BEVIRT: In order to have the impact that we want to have, in order to transform the way everyone moves every day, we will need to make millions of these. Our mission is to save a billion people an hour a day.
MILES O'BRIEN: A billion people flying air taxis? How could that be safe? At NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, they're tackling the air traffic control challenge.
MAN: We're tracking a UAM 003 currently.
SANDY LOZITO, NASA's Ames Research Center: Looks good. And the speed is OK.
MILES O'BRIEN: Sandy Lozito is chief of the Aviation Systems Division.
SANDY LOZITO: We do not necessarily expect a centralized air traffic control tower to do it, with individual directives telling the pilots how to come in and out of the vertiport. And so that's a very different operation. There could be much more independence on the part of the pilots and the individual operators as they move in and out of these areas.
MILES O'BRIEN: We live in times that demand action to address the climate emergency. But proponents of electric aviation say their business models do not rely on altruism. They believe they can win in the free market.
JOEBEN BEVIRT: We want to be comparable in the cost to the price of a taxi at launch and bring that cost down to the cost of personal car ownership over the coming years.
MILES O'BRIEN: Those competing in the great electric airplane race are convinced a revolutionary moment like that is in the air. For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Miles O'Brien in Santa Cruz, California.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The future is here. And you can watch "The Great Electric Airplane Race" on PBS' "NOVA" tonight.
重点解析
1.aviation 航空
The airline's biggest headache is the increase in the price of aviation fuel.
令航空公司最头疼的问题是航空燃料价格的上涨。
2.short hop 短途飞行
It's a short hop from London to Paris.
从伦敦到巴黎是短途飞行。
3.crack me up 让我捧腹不已，使我发笑
That comedian always cracks me up.
那个喜剧演员总是让我发笑。
4.meet the challenge 迎接挑战
It is known that pollution is a long-term problem, and no single government can meet the challenge alone.
众所周知，污染是一个长期问题，没有任何一个政府能够单独应对这个挑战。
5.altruism 利他主义
Volunteers are not motivated by self-interest, but by altruism.
志愿者们不是被自身利益而是被利他主义所推动。
参考译文
朱迪·伍德乐夫：今天，埃克森美孚(Exxon)和荷兰皇家壳牌(Royal Dutch/Shell)在法庭上及其股东之间遭受了一些打击，应对气候变化的压力明显越来越大。交通燃料是问题的主要部分，其中航空业尤占大头。下面由迈尔斯·奥布赖恩为您介绍未来的电动飞机。该内容是今晚“NOVA”特别纪录片的一部分。
迈尔斯·奥布赖恩：位于加州弗雷斯诺的钱德勒机场自莱特兄弟时代开始运营，航空1.0。如今，装饰艺术的荣耀已经褪去，但约瑟夫·奥尔德姆正在利用这个老旧的、未被充分利用的地方帮助开启飞行的新时代，航空3.0。
约瑟夫·奥尔德姆，新视野航空：这是航空业的第三次革命。第一次革命，当然，是动力飞行。第二次革命是20世纪40年代到50年代初的喷气式飞机。电力驱动是第三次革命。
迈尔斯·奥布赖恩：这是Pipistrel公司的Alpha Electros型号飞机，世界上第一架经过认证的全电动飞机。他还慷慨地把右边的座位让给了另一位飞行员。好的，我们已经准备好了，联系吧？
约瑟夫·奥尔德姆：准备完毕！
迈尔斯·奥布赖恩：跟直接按一下开关差不多，特别简单。我们滑行到跑道的时候一点噪音都没有。
约瑟夫·奥尔德姆：这架飞机上最吵的是刹车。
迈尔斯·奥布赖恩：看看我们停下来等待起飞的时候会是什么情况。
约瑟夫·奥尔德姆：我就这样坐在这里，就像坐在电动车里一样。
迈尔斯·奥布赖恩：哈哈，太好笑了。
约瑟夫·奥尔德姆：电力推进系统非常简单，没有什么真的需要担心的地方。
迈尔斯·奥布赖恩：我们正飞向未来吗？
约瑟夫·奥尔德姆：当然了。
迈尔斯·奥布赖恩：今天的天儿雾蒙蒙的，附近出现了几起比较大的野火，这提醒我们气候危机让航空脱碳变得非常紧迫。从长远看的话，你觉得让化石燃料脱离航空业有多重要？
约瑟夫·奥尔德姆：嗯，非常重要。这是唯一一种还没有向零排放迈进的交通方式。
迈尔斯·奥布赖恩：全球范围内，大约有15%的人类碳足迹来自交通运输。我们看到了一些进步的迹象。电动汽车的销量随着价格的下降而上升，但航空呢？航空是最难解决的交通问题之一。平均下来液体燃料所含的能量是最好的电池的16倍。所以，小型飞机的短途飞行是可行的，但大型客机的长途飞行所需的电池会让飞机变得非常重。然而，世界各地的工程师、企业家和飞行员都在努力迎接这一挑战。他们正在进行实验，从小处着手，创造出一些前所未有的飞行器。
乔本·贝弗特，乔比航空公司创始人：我们要不要过去体验一下坐在飞机上是什么感觉。
迈尔斯·奥布赖恩：乔本·贝弗特于2009年创立了乔比航空公司。他和他的团队设计的飞机目前正在接受FAA(联邦航空局)认证的飞行测试，是目前全球电动空中出租车竞赛的领跑者，有6个倾转电机，搭载了1名飞行员和4名乘客。
乔本·贝弗特：它是一架非常擅长悬停和巡航的飞机，巡航的效率决定了我们的航程和速度。
迈尔斯·奥布赖恩：他说这架飞机每小时可飞行200英里，航程为150英里。
乔本·贝弗特：为了能够产生我们想要的影响，为了能够改变每个人每天的出行方式，我们将需要制造数百万架这种飞机。我们的使命是每天每小时为十亿人提供出行。
迈尔斯·奥布赖恩：十亿人乘坐空中出租车？这怎么可能安全呢？在美国宇航局位于硅谷的艾姆斯研究中心，他们正在解决空中交通管制带来的挑战。
男子：我们目前正在追踪UAM 003。
桑迪·洛齐托，美国宇航局艾姆斯研究中心：看起来不错，速度还可以。
迈尔斯·奥布赖恩：桑迪·洛齐托是航空系统部门的负责人。
桑迪·洛齐托：我们并不指望中央空中交通管制塔能用单独的指令告诉飞行员如何进出机场，我们不指望它做到这一点。这是一个非常不同的操作。当飞行员和操作员进出这些区域时他们可以有更多的独立性。
迈尔斯·奥布赖恩：我们生活在需要采取行动应对气候紧急情况的时代。但电动航空的支持者表示，他们的商业模式并不依赖于利他主义。他们相信他们能在自由市场中获胜。
乔本·贝弗特：我们希望推出时的成本能和出租车的价格相当，并在未来几年将成本降至私家车的成本。
迈尔斯·奥布赖恩：那些在这场电动飞机竞赛中竞争的人们确信这样一个革命性的时刻就在空中。这里是PBS新闻一小时节目，我是迈尔斯·奥布莱恩，在加州圣克鲁兹为您报道。
朱迪·伍德乐夫：未来就在这里。今晚大家可以在PBS的“NOVA”节目上观看“伟大的电动飞机比赛”。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
