历史英雄名人演讲 第98期:汽车的未来(1)

 　　10. The Future of Cars

　　10. 汽车的未来

　　The fact is, when we do our market research around the world, we see that there's nearly a universal aspiration¹ on the part of people to own an automobile². And 750 million people in the world today own a car. And you say, boy, that's a lot. But you know what? That's just 12 percent of the population. We really have to ask the question: Can the world sustain that number of automobiles³? And if you look at projections⁴ over the next 10 to 15 to 20 years, it looks like the world car park could grow to on the order of 1.1 billion vehicles. Now, if you Parked those end to end and wrapped them around the Earth; that would stretch around the Earth 125 times.

　　实际上，我们在做世界范围的市场调研时，发现人们都是对车充满渴望的。现在全球有7亿5千万人拥有汽车。你可能觉得，哇，这么多!但你们知道么?这个数字仅仅占全球人口的12%。我们不得不问这样一个问题：地球能承受得了这么多车么?如果你注意到对未来10年、15年至20年的预测，你会发现世界上停车场的数量将会增长到能容纳下11亿车辆。如果将这些车首尾相连绕地球停放，那么其长度将是地球周长的125倍。

　　Now, we've made great progress with automobile technology over the last 100 years. Cars are dramatically cleaner, dramatically safer, more efficient and radically⁵ more affordable⁶ than they were 100 years ago. But the fact remains⁷: the fundamental DNA⁸ of the automobile has stayed pretty much the same. If we are going to reinvent the automobile today, rather than 100 years ago, knowing what we know about the issues associated with our product and about the technologies that exist today, what would we do?

　　在过去的100年里，汽车技术飞速发展。汽车变得更加清洁、安全、高效，而且价格更加低廉，而不是让我们望而兴叹的东西。但实际上，汽车的基本构造功能没变。如果我们今天来重新发明汽车，而不是在100年前，在已经知道汽车的各种缺陷之后，结合现在的各种先进技术，我们会如何制造汽车？

　　What we've targeted for ourselves--and we're making great progress for this goal--is to have a propulsion system based on hydrogen and fuel cells, designed and validated⁹, that can go head-to-head with the internal combustion¹⁰ engine.

　　我们的目标是制造一个以氢燃料电池为基础的推进系统，这个目标正在进展中并且不断得到改进。经过设计及验证后，这个推进系统将能与内燃机媲美。

1 aspiration   

n.志向，志趣抱负；渴望；(语)送气音；吸出

参考例句：

• Man's aspiration should be as lofty as the stars.人的志气应当象天上的星星那么高。
• Young Addison had a strong aspiration to be an inventor.年幼的爱迪生渴望成为一名发明家。

2 automobile   

n.汽车，机动车

参考例句：

• He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
• The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。

3 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》

4 projections   

预测( projection的名词复数 )； 投影； 投掷； 突起物

参考例句：

• Their sales projections are a total thumbsuck. 他们的销售量预测纯属估计。
• The council has revised its projections of funding requirements upwards. 地方议会调高了对资金需求的预测。

5 radically   

ad.根本地，本质地

参考例句：

• I think we may have to rethink our policies fairly radically. 我认为我们可能要对我们的政策进行根本的反思。
• The health service must be radically reformed. 公共医疗卫生服务必须进行彻底改革。

6 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

7 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。

8 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

9 validated   

v.证实( validate的过去式和过去分词 )；确证；使生效；使有法律效力

参考例句：

• Time validated our suspicion. 时间证实了我们的怀疑。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The decade of history since 1927 had richly validated their thesis. 1927年以来的十年的历史，充分证明了他们的论点。 来自辞典例句

10 combustion   

n.燃烧；氧化；骚动

参考例句：

• We might be tempted to think of combustion.我们也许会联想到氧化。
• The smoke formed by their combustion is negligible.由它燃烧所生成的烟是可忽略的。