【一起听英语】卫星导航系统

驾车的朋友深有体会，有了卫星导航系统，去哪里都不用愁。

Alice: Hello, I'm Alice.

Stephen: And I'm Stephen.

Alice: And this is 6 Minute English! This week we’re talking about sat navs.

Stephen: Sat navs – that’s short for satellite navigation systems.

Alice: They’re the gadgets¹ people put in their cars to help give them directions.

Engineers have been asking if we’re becoming too reliant on them. Before we

find out more, here’s a question for you, Stephen:

Stephen: Ok – I’m ready and waiting.

Alice: When we talk about ‘satellite navigation’ in English, there is an abbreviation

we use called GPS. Do you know what it stands for? I’ll give you some choices.

Is it:

a) greater place signal

b) global positioning signal, or

c) global positioning system

Stephen: I’m pretty sure I know the answer – but I won’t spoil it for everyone else. I’ll

tell you at the end of the programme. 

6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2011

Page 2 of 6

Alice: That’s fine. Sat navs using GPS have become very popular in recent years. But

they can sometimes get people into trouble. The BBC News website has lots of

examples about people driving into rivers or getting stuck on roads which are

too narrow. This woman is talking about the lorries which keep getting stuck

under a 15th century stone archway in her town because they’re following

directions on their sat navs.

Insert 1: Woman

The amount of lorries that we see nearly every day - they get to that point and there’s no

signs anywhere. At the bottom of the road, it doesn’t say: “Don’t go down there - there’s

a bridge.” And they get to this point here and every one of them have to reverse - and

there’s cars everywhere. It’s just absolute mayhem.

Alice: Oh dear – she says it’s mayhem. Lorries either get stuck under the bridge or

they cause lots of problems trying to turn around - or to go backwards², to

reverse - on a very narrow road. She says it’s absolute mayhem.

Stephen: Mayhem – chaos³.

Alice: In another incident, a car got stuck on the edge of a steep hill when its sat nav

directed it down a path which wasn’t suitable for vehicles any more. Antony

Chmarny, who works for a satellite navigation manufacturer, says the gadgets

should only be used as an aid to driving:

Insert 2:

Sat nav voice: Turn around when possible – then turn right.

Antony Chmarny: If it doesn’t look suitable, don’t drive down it, don’t drive down a

one-way street the wrong way if a sat nav tells you to do that. 

6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2011

Page 3 of 6

Alice: I think he means, use your common sense – don’t drive down a one-way street

the wrong way even if a sat nav tells you to do it!

 

Stephen: I like the sat navs which you can programme with different voices – so you can

have your favourite singer or actor with you in the car as your navigator!

Alice: What a good idea! Let’s hear now from an engineer who is worried that we’re

becoming too reliant on sat nav and GPS technology. Professor Martyn

Thomas from the Royal Academy of Engineering says the weak radio signal it

uses can easily be messed up.

Stephen: Messed up – that’s interfered⁵ with, or destroyed.

Insert 3:

Professor Martyn Thomas: You can get interference – either deliberate or accidental

interference, because it is a very weak radio signal.

BBC interviewer Justin Webb: Yes, it’s quite easy, isn’t it, to mess it up?

Professor Martyn Thomas: Oh, extremely, yes. The radio signal is about the strength…

in light terms, it’s like looking at a 100 watt⁶ bulb from 12,000 miles away.

Justin Webb: So someone who really wanted to put out a large area – satellite

navigation systems, could do so?

Professor Martyn Thomas: Yes, you could. It would essentially⁷ have to be

jammed line-of-sight, so you’d have to do it from high ground.

Alice: Researchers were able to interfere⁴ with GPS signals on a ship using a

transmitter on high ground.

Stephen: A transmitter produces radio signals or interference - signals which, if strong

enough, can block other signals. 

6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2011

Page 4 of 6

Alice: Professor Martyn Thomas said all kinds of things went wrong with the onboard

equipment on the ship.

Stephen: Without saying anything was wrong – incorrect – the ship reported that it was

travelling ten miles inland and moving faster than the speed of sound:

Insert 4: Professor Martyn Thomas

All kinds of things went wrong. The onboard equipment, that was reporting where they

were, at one point said that they were ten miles inland and moving faster than the speed

of sound. But more alarmingly, quite often the onboard systems, without saying

anything was wrong, was reporting their position as being just subtly wrong. And of

course, the onboard systems would broadcast that position and information to other

ships.

Alice: Professor Martyn Thomas from the Royal Academy of Engineering who thinks

we should be careful about becoming too reliant on GPS and sat navs, because

they can be interfered with. Apparently⁸ some people buy blocking gadgets to

put on their sat navs in company cars, so their employers won’t know where

they’ve been! Well, before we go, Stephen, can you tell us about the

abbreviation ‘GPS’?

Stephen: So, does it stand for global positioning system?

Alice: Yes, well done. So, before we go - a chance to hear some of the words and

phrases we’ve heard in the programme today: would you mind, Stephen?

Stephen: Sure.

 satellite navigation systems

 gadgets 

6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2011

Page 5 of 6

 abbreviation

mayhem

 

to reverse

aid

common sense

navigator

messed up

interfere with

Alice: Thanks, Stephen.

Stephen: You’re welcome.

Alice: Well, that’s all we have time for today. We’ll have more 6 Minute English next

time.

Both: Bye! 

1 gadgets   

n.小机械，小器具（ gadget的名词复数 ）

参考例句：

• Certainly. The idea is not to have a house full of gadgets. 当然。设想是房屋不再充满小配件。 来自超越目标英语 第4册
• This meant more gadgets and more experiments. 这意味着要设计出更多的装置，做更多的实验。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史

2 backwards   

adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地

参考例句：

• He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
• All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。

3 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

4 interfere   

v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰

参考例句：

• If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
• When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。

5 interfered   

v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 )；调停；妨碍；干涉

参考例句：

• Complete absorption in sports interfered with his studies. 专注于运动妨碍了他的学业。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I am not going to be interfered with. 我不想别人干扰我的事情。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 watt   

n.瓦，瓦特

参考例句：

• The invention of the engine is creditable to Watt.发动机的发明归功于瓦特。
• The unit of power is watt.功率的单位是瓦特。

7 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

8 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。