听力文本

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Christopher Intagliata.
When you walk on a sandy beach, it takes more energy than striding down a sidewalk—because the weight of your body pushes into the sand. Turns out, the same thing is true for vehicles driving on roads.
"The weight of the vehicles creates a very shallow indentation or, you know, deflection in the pavement—and it makes it such that it's continuously driving up a very shallow hill."
Jeremy Gregory, a sustainability scientist at M.I.T. His team modeled how much energy could be saved—and greenhouse gases avoided—by simply hardening the nation's roads and highways.
And they found that stiffening 10 percent of the nation's roads every year could prevent 440 megatons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions over the next five decades—enough to offset half a percent of projected transportation sector emissions over that time period.

To put those emissions savings into context—that amount is equivalent to how much CO2 you'd spare the planet by keeping a billion barrels of oil in the ground—or by growing seven billion trees—for a decade.
The results are in the Transportation Research Record.
As for how to stiffen roads? Gregory says you could mix small amounts of synthetic fibers or carbon nanotubes into paving materials. Or you could pave with cement-based concrete, which is stiffer than asphalt. (It's worth noting the research was funded in part by the Portland Cement Association.)
This system could also be a way to shave carbon emissions without some of the usual hurdles.
"Usually, when it comes to reducing emissions in the transportation sector, you're talking about changing policies related to vehicles and also driver behavior, which involves millions and millions of people—as opposed to changing the way we design and maintain our pavements. That's just on the order of thousands of people who are working in transportation agencies."
And when it comes to retrofitting our streets and highways—those agencies are where you might say the rubber meets the road.
Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.

参考译文

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是克里斯托弗·因塔格里塔IwLQweev#iv8。
在沙滩上行走比在人行道上行走消耗的能量更多，因为你的身体重量会将你推入沙子里SAHYjSOIg[uNaCXS1;。事实证明，在道路上行驶的车辆也是如此wI.GjKO3。
“交通工具的重量会在路面上造成非常浅的凹痕或弯沉，这样，车辆就能不断地在非常浅的小山丘上爬坡6J;piM*zCi3N。”
麻省理工学院的可持续性科学家杰里米·格雷戈里说到~mUXD8mp[.r6GKQbM。他的团队模拟了只通过硬化国家道路和高速公路可以节省多少能源以及避免多少温室气体排放gc*Fuzt%_L*GlN@|ql4。
他们发现，每年将国家道路硬化10%，未来50年可减少4.4亿吨二氧化碳当量排放，这足以抵消交通部门在这段时间预计排放量的0.5%L-M_19DQj6GAit|N。
将这些减排量放入背景中，这相当于将10亿桶石油埋在地下或在10年内种植70亿棵树时，地球减少的二氧化碳量pxV]khc*.0elc!*8tZ。
研究结果在《交通研究记录》上BiYVokcGN00。
至于如何硬化道路？格雷戈里表示，可以将少量的合成纤维或碳纳米管混入铺路材料中zH8q!oDPoM%KZL。或者用比沥青硬的水泥基混凝土铺路&-d-wvS9U+lgGu。（值得注意的是，这项研究部分由波特兰水泥协会资助_#*.aPoOkNg6d。）
这个系统还能避开某些常见障碍，来减少碳排放QK#KXX;0w6#pr1&VqYFe。
“通常，在提到交通部门减排时，谈论的都是改变与交通工具和驾驶员行为有关、且涉及数百万人生活的政策，而不会谈论改变我们设计和维护道路的方法Q#4k5QB0#xZugq9-nh。这可能只涉及交通部门的数千名工作人员t2QU3Dwth]H|I。”
谈到改造我们的道路和高速公路，你可能会说这些机构是“橡胶与道路接触之处”（关键之处）1@uQjDAQj^*J+。
谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学*b0hd~]fjoIBg6yYwy。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔~5ZkFwEqj5j2]vb。

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重点讲解

重点讲解：
1. be equivalent to （价值、数量、意义、重要性等）相等的，相同的；
Eight kilometres is roughly equivalent to five miles.
八公里约等于五英里I]1YbpmMFs1。
2. as for 至于…；
As for anything told to me in confidence, well, my lips are sealed.
至于私底下告诉我的任何事情，我会守口如瓶的YyZFDE~.[kpa。
3. in part 在某种程度上；部分地；
The tendency to become obese is at least in part hereditary.
发胖至少有一部分是源于遗传Jcg=nqDfqhqQE。
4. as opposed to 而不是；
We ate in the restaurant, as opposed to the bistro.
我们是在餐厅吃的饭，而不是在小饭馆b&+uKs07&O&^E8bPwV!N。