财富精英励志演讲 第123期:汽车的未来(3)

 　　We did an analysis where you would have a station in each city with each of the 100 largest cities in the United States, and located the stations so you'd be no more than two miles from a station at any time. We put one every 25 miles on the freeway, and it turns out that translates into about 12,000 stations. And at a million dollars each, that would be about 12 billion dollars. Now that's a lot of money. But if you built the Alaskan pipeline¹ today, that's half of what the Alaskan pipeline would cost. But the real exciting vision that we see truly is home refuelling, much like recharging your laptop or recharging your cellphone. So we're pretty excited about the future of hydrogen. We think it's a question of not whether, but a question of when.

　　我们在全美100个最大的城市做了个分析，在每个城市设定一个车站，将车站设定在无论何时你都距其不大于2英里的范围内。我们在高速公路上每隔25英里设一个车站，那么大约有1.2万个车站。如果一个车站需要花费100万美元，那么就需要花费120亿美元。这可是一大笔钱。但如果现在开建阿拉斯加输油管，120亿美元仅是铺设输油管所花费的一半而已。我们认为最激动人心的前景是在家加油，就像在家里给笔记本或手机充电一样。我们都看好氢气在未来的前景。这不是是否应该应用氢气的问题，而是何时能够应用的问题。

　　What we've targeted for ourselves — and we're making great progress for this goal — is to have a propulsion system based on hydrogen and fuel cells, designed and validated², that can go head-to-head with the internal combustion³ engine — we're talking about obsoleting⁴ the internal combustion engine — and do it in terms of its affordability⁵, add skill volumes, its performance and its durability⁶. So that's what we're driving to for 2010. We haven't seen anything yet in our development work that says that isn't possible. We actually think the future's going to be event-driven. So since we can't predict the future, we want to spend a lot of our time trying to create that future.

　　我们的目标是制造一个以氢燃料电池为基础的推进系统，这个目标正在进展中并且不断得到改进。经过设计及验证后，这个推进系统将能与内燃机媲美——我们正在谈论的是淘汰内燃机——我们这样做是根据它的可购性、操作性能和耐用性。这就是2010年我们要做的工作。目前在研发过程中还没有任何迹象表明我们的想法不可行。我们相信未来是将以具体事件为导向的。虽然我们无法预测未来，但是我们会投入大量时间创造未来。

　　I'm very, very intrigued⁷ by the fact that our cars and trucks sit idle 90 percent of the time: they're parked, they parked all around us. They're usually parked within 100 feet of the people that own them. Now, if you take the power-generating capability⁸ of an automobile⁹ and you compare that to the electric grid¹⁰ in the United States, it turns out that 4 percent of the automobiles¹¹, the power in 4 percent of the automobiles, equals that of the electric grid of the US. that's a huge power-generating capability, a mobile power-generating capability. And hydrogen and fuel cells give us that opportunity to actually use our cars and trucks when they're parked to generate electricity for the grid.

　　我们的汽车以及卡车有90%的时间是停着的，我对如何挖掘这段时间内车子的潜能很感兴趣。这些车就停在我们周围，停在距离他们的所有者不到100英尺的范围内。如果你比较汽车和美国电网的发电能力，结果就会发现汽车电力的百分之四相当于美国电网的供电能力。由此可看出汽车发电能力的强大，而且还是可移动的发电。氢燃料电池让我们能够充分利用资源，即使汽车和卡车停着的时候也能发电，为电网所用。

1 pipeline   

n.管道，管线

参考例句：

• The pipeline supplies Jordan with 15 per cent of its crude oil.该管道供给约旦15%的原油。
• A single pipeline serves all the houses with water.一条单管路给所有的房子供水。

2 validated   

v.证实( validate的过去式和过去分词 )；确证；使生效；使有法律效力

参考例句：

• Time validated our suspicion. 时间证实了我们的怀疑。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The decade of history since 1927 had richly validated their thesis. 1927年以来的十年的历史，充分证明了他们的论点。 来自辞典例句

3 combustion   

n.燃烧；氧化；骚动

参考例句：

• We might be tempted to think of combustion.我们也许会联想到氧化。
• The smoke formed by their combustion is negligible.由它燃烧所生成的烟是可忽略的。

4 obsoleting   

v.已不用的，已废弃的，过时的( obsolete的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Newer media are obsoleting the book. 更新的传播媒介正在逐步淘汰书籍。 来自辞典例句

5 affordability   

可购性

参考例句：

• Performance-Based Logistics Affordability: Can We Afford Categorical Conversion to Performance-Based Acquisition? 基于性能的后期的可承受性：能否担负得起向基于性能的采办的无条件的转变？
• There would be no crisis of affordability, as't for food or clothing. 就想食物与服装一样，因为供给没有危机。

6 durability   

n.经久性，耐用性

参考例句：

• Nylons have the virtue of durability.尼龙丝袜有耐穿的优点。

7 intrigued   

adj.好奇的，被迷住了的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的过去式)；激起…的兴趣或好奇心；“intrigue”的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• You've really intrigued me—tell me more! 你说的真有意思—再给我讲一些吧！
• He was intrigued by her story. 他被她的故事迷住了。

8 capability   

n.能力；才能；(pl)可发展的能力或特性等

参考例句：

• She has the capability to become a very fine actress.她有潜力成为杰出演员。
• Organizing a whole department is beyond his capability.组织整个部门是他能力以外的事。

9 automobile   

n.汽车，机动车

参考例句：

• He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
• The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。

10 grid   

n.高压输电线路网；地图坐标方格；格栅

参考例句：

• In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
• Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。

11 automobiles   

n.汽车( automobile的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• When automobiles become popular,the use of the horse and buggy passed away. 汽车普及后，就不再使用马和马车了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Automobiles speed in an endless stream along the boulevard. 宽阔的林荫道上，汽车川流不息。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》