美国多所高校禁用电动滑板

 　　One of the holiday's hottest presents is now considered contraband¹ at many U.S. colleges.

　　假日期间的一款热门礼物最近却被禁止在美国高校使用。

　　At least 20 universities have banned or restricted hoverboards on their campuses in recent weeks, saying the two-wheeled, motorized scooters are unsafe. Beyond the risk of falls and collisions, colleges are citing warnings from federal authorities that some of the self-balancing gadgets² have caught on fire.

　　最近几周，至少20所高校都以不安全为由，禁止学生在校园内使用电动滑板——一种驱动型两轮滑板车。除了担心学生摔倒或引发碰撞，校方的另一个忧虑来自美国政府的预警：这种自平衡装置易引发火灾。

　　"It's clear that these things are potentially dangerous," said Len Dolan, managing director of fire safety at Kean University in New Jersey³. The public school of 14,000 students issued a campus-wide ban this week, telling students in an email that any hoverboards found on campus would be confiscated⁴.

　　新泽西州基恩大学消防主管莱恩·多兰表示：“这种东西显然有潜在危险。”这座有1.4万名学生的公立学校本周颁布了禁令。它在给学生的邮件中称：全校范围内禁行电动滑板，一经发现，将予没收。

　　美国多所高校禁用电动滑板

　　"These things are just catching⁵ fire without warning, and we don't want that in any of our dorms," Dolan said.

　　多兰称：“这种东西毫无征兆地就会着起火来，我们不希望这种情况发生在任何一间宿舍。”

　　Outright⁶ bans also have been issued at schools such as American University and George Washington University, both in Washington, D.C. Other schools said they will forbid the scooters in dorm rooms or campus buildings, a policy adopted at colleges including Louisiana State University, the University of Iowa and the University of Arkansas.

　　位于华盛顿特区的美利坚大学和乔治华盛顿大学也颁布了全校范围内的禁令。还有一些学校表示会在宿舍和教学楼内禁用电动滑板。目前路易斯安那州立大学、艾奥瓦大学和阿肯色大学都是采取的这种部分禁令。

　　After banning hoverboards from dorms in December, officials at the University of Hartford in Connecticut are now considering a full ban because of concerns over how to store them safely, said David Isgu, a school spokesman. Some of the reported fires have occurred while the boards were being charged.

　　位于康涅狄格州的哈佛大学去年12月已针对电动滑板发布了宿舍禁令，目前正在考虑颁布全面禁令。该校发言人大卫·易思谷称，考虑全面禁令是因为担心这种东西不好储放。已有数起火灾是由滑板充电引起的。

　　Bryce Colegrove, a sophomore⁷ at Shawnee State University in Ohio, got an email from his school telling students to leave their hoverboards at home after the holidays. It was bad timing⁸ for Colegrove, who had just received one as a gift from his girlfriend and had even plotted his new routes to class.

　　布莱斯·科尔格罗夫是俄亥俄州立肖尼大学的大二学生，他收到了校方的邮件，要求他们假期后把滑板留在家里，不要带到学校。对科尔格罗夫来说，这一禁令太不是时候了，因为他刚从女友那里得到了一个滑板礼物，已经计划好去教室的新路线了。

　　"Honestly I was really disappointed," said Colegrove, 20. "I don't think it's right to ban them. I mean, it's a college campus; it's not a high school."

　　20岁的科尔格罗夫称：“老实说，我太失望了。我觉得学校不该禁滑板。这已经是大学了，又不是高中。”

　　Others took to social media to voice their frustration⁹, with some saying they planned to bring their scooters to school anyway.

　　还有学生到社交媒体上吐槽，有些人已经决定不顾禁令，照旧带滑板去学校。

　　Hoverboards already have been banned by the three largest U.S. airlines, citing potential fire danger from the lithium-ion batteries that power them.

　　美国已有三家大型航空公司禁止电动滑板登机，认为这种安了锂电池的装置有火灾隐患。

　　Vocabulary

　　contraband：禁运的；非法买卖的

　　hoverboard：根据文章看，这里指“电动滑板车”

1 contraband   

n.违禁品，走私品

参考例句：

• Most of the city markets were flooded with contraband goods.大多数的城市市场上都充斥着走私货。
• The customs officers rummaged the ship suspected to have contraband goods.海关人员仔细搜查了一艘有走私嫌疑的海轮。

2 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

3 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

4 confiscated   

没收，充公( confiscate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Their land was confiscated after the war. 他们的土地在战后被没收。
• The customs officer confiscated the smuggled goods. 海关官员没收了走私品。

5 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

6 outright   

adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的

参考例句：

• If you have a complaint you should tell me outright.如果你有不满意的事，你应该直率地对我说。
• You should persuade her to marry you outright.你应该彻底劝服她嫁给你。

7 sophomore   

n.大学二年级生；adj.第二年的

参考例句：

• He is in his sophomore year.他在读二年级。
• I'm a college sophomore majoring in English.我是一名英语专业的大二学生。

8 timing   

n.时间安排，时间选择

参考例句：

• The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
• The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。

9 frustration   

n.挫折，失败，失效，落空

参考例句：

• He had to fight back tears of frustration.他不得不强忍住失意的泪水。
• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。