VOA慢速英语2012 Technology Report - Team From Ukraine Wins Top Honors at Microsoft’s Imagine Cup Finals

 

Technology Report - Team From Ukraine Wins Top Honors at Microsoft’s Imagine Cup Finals

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.

More than three hundred fifty students from seventy-five nations were in Sydney, Australia, last week for the Imagine Cup Finals. This is the tenth year Microsoft Corporation has organized the competition. Each year, the company invites students to use their love of technology to solve some of the world’s most difficult problems. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard welcomed the competitors.

JULIA GILLARD: “Welcome to Sydney. Congratulations on the achievements that brought you here. We look forward to seeing the fruits of your creative work this week in years to come. The world does have tough problems. We are fortunate to have people like you who have a passion to solve them. Enjoy the Imagine Cup!”

Microsoft’s Dan’l Lewin also spoke¹ at the opening ceremony.

DAN’L LEWIN: “Programs like the Imagine Cup and the DreamSpark program that you’ve all participated in are the foundation upon which young entrepreneurs², students like yourselves with big dreams, can make a difference in the world.”

This year, more than two hundred fifty thousand students registered for the Imagine Cup. One hundred six teams were invited to the finals. Pip Marlow is with Microsoft Australia. She was especially pleased at the number of women competing.

PIP MARLOW: “That’s why I was thrilled to hear that twenty percent of you in the competition this year are women. And so forget being the next Bill Gates, you could be the next Belinda Gates. So, I’m excited to see that represented today.”

Microsoft announced the winning teams last Tuesday at its World Festival and Awards Ceremony. A team from the Ukraine won the Imagine Cup’s top honor.

“It is with great pleasure and honor, the first place winner in the Software Design Category goes to team quadSquad from Ukraine.”

The team’s EnableTalk software program helps people who are totally or partially³ unable to hear. It changes sign language hand movements into speech. This is done using special gloves and a smartphone application. The gloves capture the sign language hand movements and send them to a smartphone equipped with a special app. The app compares those images to stored hand language signs and plays the words represented by the signs. The quadSquad team will receive twenty-five thousand dollars to support development of its idea.

A team from Drexel University in the United States won first place in the Game Design for Phone competition. The Drexel Dragons designed a game to help students better understand mathematics. 

And Team TANG Thai from Thailand won first place in the Game Design: Xbox/Windows competition. The team designed a game that helps teach young people about the world’s deforestation problem.

And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report, written by June Simms. Transcripts⁴, MP3s and podcasts of our reports are at www.voanews.cn. I'm Steve Ember.

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 entrepreneurs   

企业家( entrepreneur的名词复数 )； 主办人

参考例句：

• He is one of the entrepreneurs of the concert. 他是这场音乐会的主办人之一。
• Entrepreneurs are free to develop their businesses. 企业家们可以任意发展自己的企业。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

3 partially   

adv.部分地，从某些方面讲

参考例句：

• The door was partially concealed by the drapes.门有一部分被门帘遮住了。
• The police managed to restore calm and the curfew was partially lifted.警方设法恢复了平静，宵禁部分解除。

4 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句