美国有线新闻 CNN 2015-04-13

 Fridays are awesome¹. And 10 minutes of commercial-free current events are headed your way right now, starting with news from Central America. 

 

Panama is the site of The Summit of the Americas. It's an international meeting being held today and tomorrow in Panama City, the capital. The summit includes dozens of leaders from throughout the Western Hemisphere and it focuses on cooperation between countries and addressing the challenges facing the people of the Americas. This is the seventh summit since 1994. It's the first one that Cuba will attend.

 

President Obama has moved toward normalizing U.S. relations with the communist country. He doesn't have a formal meeting scheduled with Cuban President Raul Castro. But the two leaders are expected to interact on the sidelines of the summit. That's one thing that Western leaders will be keeping their eyes on.

 

We've talked a lot about how the leading cause of death for American teenagers are car crashes. But today's second story isn't about the distractions² that can lead to them, it's about new software popping up in cars that's intended to keep young drivers safer on the road. One of these programs allows parents to limit the speed of the car. Others can send them text messages if you drive outside an area they've decided³ on or notify parents if you're racing⁴ people, slamming on your brakes or just when you get to school.

 

General Motors' just unveiled teen driver tracking in its new Chevy Malibu. Personally, I'm a crusader for convenience, but this stuff is bordering on spy tech. 

 

If you've ever used the Internet, you know how tempting⁵ it is to trade your privacy for convenience. You might not even know that most cars on the road today have black boxes that, in the event of a crash, can tell investigators⁶ how you were driving. Then again, what if teen driver monitoring were used to track a non-teen?

 

"We don't think that the privacy situation is, is something that will have to be concerned about. What we believe we have to do is we have to get the consent of the owner up front. We have to explain the features, what we're doing. We have to get their consent and we do. And if the customer doesn't want it, then we don't go forward. It's as simple as that."

 

That means you need to be paying attention. You should actually read that long anything user agreement and understand what you're sharing with some big car company computer out there, because soon, you won't be able to find a car without this kind of technology.

1 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

2 distractions   

n.使人分心的事[人]( distraction的名词复数 )；娱乐，消遣；心烦意乱；精神错乱

参考例句：

• I find it hard to work at home because there are too many distractions. 我发觉在家里工作很难，因为使人分心的事太多。
• There are too many distractions here to work properly. 这里叫人分心的事太多，使人无法好好工作。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 racing   

n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的

参考例句：

• I was watching the racing on television last night.昨晚我在电视上看赛马。
• The two racing drivers fenced for a chance to gain the lead.两个赛车手伺机竞相领先。

5 tempting   

a.诱人的, 吸引人的

参考例句：

• It is tempting to idealize the past. 人都爱把过去的日子说得那么美好。
• It was a tempting offer. 这是个诱人的提议。

6 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》