听力文摘第296期:未来智能轮胎 Smart Wheels
日期:2014-09-23 13:47

(单词翻译:单击)

My car is stupid, Don.
Don,我的汽车真笨。
What do you mean, Yael?
Yael,你什么意思?
I turn the key, the engine ignites.
我拧车钥匙,引擎发动。
I turn the steering wheel,the wheels move. And that's it!
我转方向盘,轮胎转动。就是这样。
Well, what you expect? That's how a car works.
汽车都是这样呀,你还想怎么样呢?
I know, but cars are so rigidly mechanical,
我明白,可是这也太机械化了吧。
you know, it's likewhen we removed the horses to make horseless carriages;
我们用汽车代替马车,
they took away the only intelligent partof the carriages!
但是却卸下了马车唯一智能的部分。


So you want to go back to the horse-baggage days?
那么,你想回到马车时代?
No, but it would be cool, if cars are more intelligent.
我不想,要是汽车能更智能就太好了!
You mean like be able to sense things and react to them, like a horse mind?
你是说能像马一样识别事物并做出反应?
Right, actually there are designers and engineers at MIT working on a new kind of three-wheeled car–a new kind of wheel actually.
没错,事实上,麻省理工学院的设计师和工程师已经在研究一种新型三轮车。
It's a sort of “smart” wheel that contains most of themechanical parts of the car—drive train, suspension, and braking.
这是种车的“智能”轮胎具备大部分汽车的机械部分功能—驱动系统、悬置系统、制动系统。
And the wheels have artificialintelligence–they can sense obstructions and potholes in the road.
轮胎人工智能:能识别障碍物和道路的坑洼。
And since these smart wheelscan communicate with each other, they could allow cars in cities to move in flocks, like birds orsheep.
另外,智能轮胎能相互交流,让车子像鸟和羊一样成群结队。
Also, the wheels can turn 360 degrees, so the car can move in any direction.
轮胎还能360度转弯,这样车可以向任何方向移动。
That sounds kind of futurist.
这听起来很前卫,
Do these kinds of cars actually exist?
这种车确实存在吗?
Sort of, there are computer models and prototypes, but it's not like you can buy one at a cardealership.
算吧,已经有计算机模型和汽车原型了,但是想在车行买到可能还不太现实。
Well, let me know when you can.
那么,可以的时候别忘了告诉我。

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重点单词
  • reactvt. 作出反应 vi. 起反应,起作用,反攻
  • communicatev. 交流,传达,沟通
  • suspensionn. 悬挂,悬浮液,暂缓,未决,中止
  • mechanicaladj. 机械的,力学的,呆板的 n. (供制版用的)样
  • intelligentadj. 聪明的,智能的
  • wheeln. 轮子,车轮,方向盘,周期,旋转 vi. 旋转,转动
  • smartadj. 聪明的,时髦的,漂亮的,敏捷的,轻快的,整洁的