VOA标准英语2008年-Expensive Fuel Brings Change to Transportation

As rising fuel costs drive up the cost of transportation, the transportation industry itself is being forced to change. America's biggest carmaker is closing factories where its largest vehicles are made, and expanding plants that build small cars. Airlines are raising fares, cutting services, merging¹ with other airlines or going bankrupt. On the other hand, railways are in greater demand as an alternative. Kent Klein has more in this report on the rising cost of transportation. (Part 4 of 5)

Terry Schachstschneider is about to lose his job. He works at the General Motors factory in the north-central U.S. city of Janesville, Wisconsin, building some of GM's biggest and least-fuel-efficient vehicles. Sales are down, and the company will close the plant soon.

"Well, they have three plants making these big things, the gas mileage² [fuel economy] is terrible on them," he says.

America's two largest car companies, General Motors and Ford³, have recently posted huge losses and slumping⁴ U.S. sales. So chairman Rick Wagoner says G.M., like Ford, will close some factories where its least fuel-efficient vehicles are made.

"We cannot sit back and wait for U.S. conditions to improve," he says. "We need to be proactive and even take some very tough actions to ensure our survival and success."

The auto⁵ industry is shifting its focus to smaller, more fuel-efficient cars, and developing vehicles that run on other sources of energy.

The world's airlines are also going through major change, largely because of high fuel prices. Delta⁶ and Northwest Airlines are proposing a merger⁷ that would create the world's largest airline. Many U.S. airlines are cutting flights and service while raising fares. Several airlines have announced big staff cuts, including Australia's usually-profitable Qantas. It plans to trim 1,500 jobs next year. The International Air Transport Association says 24 airlines collapsed⁸ in the first half of this year.

Airline analyst⁹ Philip Baggaley, with Standard and Poor's in New York, says America's airlines, especially the big ones, are in financial trouble, and more could go out of business.

"If the fuel prices stay high, the economy remains¹⁰ weak, we could see some bankruptcies¹¹ some time in 2009," he says.

Glen Tilton, the chief executive officer of one of the biggest U.S. airlines, United, recently told Congress he sees it the same way.

"It is, for us in our industry, a crisis," he said. "It really can not be called anything else. We are going to lose 30,000 jobs in our industry this year as a result of this extraordinary pressure from these unprecedented¹² oil prices."

Analyst Philip Baggaley says the picture is somewhat brighter outside the United States."On the other hand, a lot of the big Asian, European and Middle Eastern airlines are pretty strong financially," he says.

Even so, high oil prices are causing challenges for Korea's two major airlines - Korean Air and Asiana Airlines. Both airlines' sales are up but high fuel costs have driven their profits down. So both are cutting flights and raising prices.

In some parts of the world, train travel is becoming more popular.
　
New Delhi railway station

For years the huge, subsidized rail system was a symbol of socialist¹³ India, keeping fares low but piling up huge losses. Since then, Indian Railways has offered bigger, better trains, to carry larger freight loads and more passengers. Last year, Indian Railways turned a profit of more than $6 billion.

Sudhir Kumar is leading the railways' turnaround. He says soaring fuel prices make freight trains more efficient than trucks.

"Rising oil prices may be bad news for the country, and for the trucking industry, but it is wonderful news for Indian Railways, because if my competitors consume nine liters of diesel¹⁴ per unit of transport, I consume only one," he says.

Trains may be one of the most fuel-efficient ways to haul freight. One major U.S. railroad claims that its trains can move a ton of freight 681 kilometers on four liters of fuel.

Meanwhile, the main U.S. passenger rail carrier, government-funded Amtrak, has had a nearly 17 percent increase in riders over the past two years.

Freight train usage is also growing. But congestion¹⁵ is a major obstacle to greater reliance on trains in the U.S. Passenger and freight trains share tracks in the United States. One-track rail lines force trains to wait hours. Experts predict the situation will get worse.

One problem is that about 40 percent of all U.S. rail freight goes through Chicago. Trains can take as long as two days to move through the city.

Some experts believe a solution would take decades to implement¹⁶ and would cost billions of dollars. Others say larger, more modern train cars and newer computer systems would ease the strain.

 

1 merging   

合并（分类）

参考例句：

• Many companies continued to grow by merging with or buying competing firms. 许多公司通过合并或收买竞争对手的公司而不断扩大。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• To sequence by repeated splitting and merging. 用反复分开和合并的方法进行的排序。

2 mileage   

n.里程，英里数；好处，利润

参考例句：

• He doesn't think there's any mileage in that type of advertising.他认为做那种广告毫无效益。
• What mileage has your car done?你的汽车跑了多少英里？

3 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

4 slumping   

大幅度下降，暴跌( slump的现在分词 )； 沉重或突然地落下[倒下]

参考例句：

• Hong Kong's slumping economy also caused a rise in bankruptcy applications. 香港经济低迷，破产申请个案随之上升。
• And as with slumping, over-arching can also be a simple postural habit. 就像弯腰驼背，过度挺直也可能只是一种习惯性姿势。

5 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

6 delta   

n.（流的）角洲

参考例句：

• He has been to the delta of the Nile.他曾去过尼罗河三角洲。
• The Nile divides at its mouth and forms a delta.尼罗河在河口分岔，形成了一个三角洲。

7 merger   

n.企业合并，并吞

参考例句：

• Acceptance of the offer is the first step to a merger.对这项提议的赞同是合并的第一步。
• Shareholders will be voting on the merger of the companies.股东们将投票表决公司合并问题。

8 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

9 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

10 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

11 bankruptcies   

n.破产( bankruptcy的名词复数 )；倒闭；彻底失败；（名誉等的）完全丧失

参考例句：

• It's a matter of record that there were ten bankruptcies in the town last year. 去年这个城市有十家破产是事实。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Business bankruptcies rose 50 percent over the previous year. 破产企业的数量比前一年增加５０％。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

12 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

13 socialist   

n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的

参考例句：

• China is a socialist country,and a developing country as well.中国是一个社会主义国家，也是一个发展中国家。
• His father was an ardent socialist.他父亲是一个热情的社会主义者。

14 diesel   

n.柴油发动机，内燃机

参考例句：

• We experimented with diesel engines to drive the pumps.我们试着用柴油机来带动水泵。
• My tractor operates on diesel oil.我的那台拖拉机用柴油开动。

15 congestion   

n.阻塞，消化不良

参考例句：

• The congestion in the city gets even worse during the summer.夏天城市交通阻塞尤为严重。
• Parking near the school causes severe traffic congestion.在学校附近泊车会引起严重的交通堵塞。

16 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。