【英语语言学习】滑板车“火”起来了吗

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

One of the hottest gifts of the season is a little too hot, hot enough to catch fire. Hoverboards have been burning up because of problems with their lithium-ion batteries. And lithium-ion batteries are in a lot of things these days from smartphones to laptops to Tesla automobiles¹ to Boeing 787s. Jay Whitacre is a professor of materials science and engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. He's joins us from WQED in Pittsburgh. Thanks so much for being with us.

JAY WHITACRE: Thank you very much.

SIMON: So are all of these batteries dangerous?

WHITACRE: No. I mean, in principle all batteries do contain - lithium-ion batteries do contain a flammable electrolyte that will burn if it gets hot enough. But most of them, the vast majority of them, are made safely and as long as they're used properly, that is, they're not overcharged or physically² abused to the point where you rupture³ their package, they're OK. But a very small fraction have internal defects that can lead to the kind of problems we're seeing right now in the marketplace.

SIMON: Would you hazard a guess, Professor, as to why hoverboards seem to be - in particular, maybe seem to be having these problems?

WHITACRE: We have a confluence⁴ of at least two things. One is there's a lot of companies making these right now and I think a lot of them are using second-tier battery sources which are going to have probably a higher rate of defects, number one. And number two, these things have more lithium-ion batteries in them than most things because they're used to move you around. It takes more batteries to get the power and energy to do that. And as such, there's just more energy in a small space, and so if something does go wrong, it's a bit more catastrophic.

SIMON: Are there any precautions people realistically can take?

WHITACRE: There's a sense that if you pay more for one of these it may have better batteries in it. When I say better, I mean from a tier-one supplier like LG Chem or Samsung or someone else like that. And I have not verified that. If that was true, that would help. Another precaution would be, especially early on, don't charge or use this indoors because you could seriously have an issue with a household fire or something like that.

SIMON: You mean the hoverboard.

WHITACRE: The hoverboard themselves, yeah. In general...

SIMON: But there's other stuff like...

WHITACRE: Laptops. Yeah, well, that's a great point but these have a fewer numbers of cells inside them, a few - less energy in general. And most of these, you know, the Apples, the computer suppliers that we typically buy from the United States usually have top quality batteries inside them that have a lower frequency of this kind of issue, although you will still see it. Sony had a real problem in 2006. There were a lot of failures in a major battery recall. And they learned a lot from that process. So even the big boys can have this kind of thing once in a while.

SIMON: How do you put out a fire like this, a lithium-ion fire?

WHITACRE: The first thing you want to do is isolate⁵ the thing that's on fire. Put it in a nonflammable container. If you had a metal garbage can, for example, you would do that. If you could completely submerge it in something like water or something else that would - that's going to completely squelch⁶ the flame, that would be another thing to do.

SIMON: So put your laptop in a full bathtub if something happens?

WHITACRE: Sit it in a bathtub that's full or just put it in the bathtub when it's empty and contain where the fire is. No, seriously, these are - they burn very hot and very fast.

SIMON: You know, interviewing you, I suddenly wonder should we - should we be taking laptops and tablets on airplanes?

WHITACRE: Yes, I think it's impractical⁷ for us to say you shouldn't do that. It would be - there'd be, I think, a major mutiny if that was asked of the public in the first place. But more importantly, these are - the frequency of this issue, especially in laptops and cellphones, is very, very low. And if it happens with somebody who can do something about it, usually even on an airplane you can contain it and it will maybe force a landing but not - certainly not down the airplane. Both the U.N. and the, you know, the North American Transportation Authority have been very focused on increasing the scrutiny⁸ on lithium-ion battery air shipment and making the rules more stringent⁹ and, I think, for good reason. If it's in an unmanned cargo¹⁰ hold where there's lots of cells next to each other and something goes wrong, it could be a real problem.

SIMON: Jay Whitacre, at Carnegie Mellon University, thanks so much for being with us.

WHITACRE: Thank you. It's a real pleasure.

1 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》

2 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

3 rupture   

n.破裂；(关系的)决裂；v.(使)破裂

参考例句：

• I can rupture a rule for a friend.我可以为朋友破一次例。
• The rupture of a blood vessel usually cause the mark of a bruise.血管的突然破裂往往会造成外伤的痕迹。

4 confluence   

n.汇合，聚集

参考例句：

• They built the city at the confluence of two rivers.他们建造了城市的汇合两条河流。
• The whole DV movements actually was a confluence of several trends.整个当时的DV运动，实际上是几股潮流的同谋。

5 isolate   

vt.使孤立，隔离

参考例句：

• Do not isolate yourself from others.不要把自己孤立起来。
• We should never isolate ourselves from the masses.我们永远不能脱离群众。

6 squelch   

v.压制，镇压；发吧唧声

参考例句：

• The President wants to squelch any perception that the meeting is an attempt to negotiate.总统想要消除任何视本次会议为谈判尝试的看法。
• You cannot squelch wanting.你不能压制要求。

7 impractical   

adj.不现实的，不实用的，不切实际的

参考例句：

• He was hopelessly impractical when it came to planning new projects.一到规划新项目，他就完全没有了实际操作的能力。
• An entirely rigid system is impractical.一套完全死板的体制是不实际的。

8 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。

9 stringent   

adj.严厉的；令人信服的；银根紧的

参考例句：

• Financiers are calling for a relaxation of these stringent measures.金融家呼吁对这些严厉的措施予以放宽。
• Some of the conditions in the contract are too stringent.合同中有几项条件太苛刻。

10 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。