万花筒2008-03-20:汽车飞上天：海陆空三栖全能！（在线收听）

A designer in Russia has created a vehicle that can travel on land, water, and even in the sky

What is it? Well, it's a flying pod, and it goes by the name of Evolution. It certainly looks a lot different from the first automobiles, and like all good evolution stories, it's way ahead of its predecessors.   

Inventor and chief designer Alexander Begak says it can travel on land, slide through water and snow, and even fly, thanks to a gliding parachute that acts as a portable wing.  

" It's great for fishing or hunting, especially the two-seater. Its flying speed can be very slow. It can be set at 15 kilometers per hour, so it'll practically stay still, that's good for hunting. "  

With its 30-horsepower motor, Evolution can reach speeds of 160 kilometers an hour in the air, and 80 on land. But Begak says a new machine he and his team are working on can go even faster than this on land, and reach speeds of 450 kilometers an hour in the air.  

As well as being an inventor and designer, Begak also sounds like he's putting his creative energy into a novel marketing campaign. He plans to give his first Evolution to Russia's outgoing President Vladimir Putin, hoping the gift will inspire him to back the country's evolving light aircraft industry.  

Michelle Carlile-Alkhouri, Reuters. 

WORDS IN THE NEWS     

1. -seater : comb in adj

-seater combines with numbers to form adjectives and nouns which indicate how many people something such as a car has seats for.

eg: a three-seater sofa