大学英语综合教程第四册 7
[00:00.00] Smart cars that can see,hear,feel,smell,and talk?And drive on their own?
[00:10.71]This may sound like a dream,but the computer revolution is set to turn it into a reality.
[00:18.81]SMART CARS by Michio Kaku
[00:23.25]Even the automobile industry,which has remained largely unchanged for the last seventy years,
[00:30.54]is about to feel the effects of the computer revolution.
[00:35.16]The automobile industry ranks as among the most lucrative and powerful industries of the twentieth century.
[00:42.89]There are presently 500 million cars on earth,or one car for every ten people.Sales of the automobile industry
[00:52.53]stand at about a trillion dollars,making it the world's biggest manufacturing industry.
[00:59.66]The car,and the roads it travels on,will be revolutionized in the twenty-first century.
[01:06.95]The key to tomorrow's"smart cars"will be sensors."We'll see vehicles and roads that see and hear and feel and
[01:16.35]smell and talk and act,"predicts Bill Spreitzer,technical director of General Motors Corporation's ITS program,
[01:25.49]which is designing the smart car and road of the future.
[01:30.17]Approximately40,000people are killed each year in the United States in traffic accidents.The number of people
[01:39.00]that are killed or badly injured in car accidents is so vast that we don't even bother to mention them
[01:46.55]in the newspapers anymore.Fully half of these fatalities come from drunk drivers,and many others from carelessness.
[01:55.84]A smart cat could eliminate most of these car accidents.It can sense if a driver is drunk via electronic sensors
[02:06.06]that can pick up alcohol vapor in the air,and refuse to start up the engine.
[02:11.65]The car could also alert the police and provide its precise location if it is stolen.
[02:18.28]Smart cars have already been built which can monitor one's driving and the driving conditions nearby.
[02:25.60]Small radars hidden in the bumpers can scan for nearby cars.Should you make a serious driving mistake
[02:35.13](e.g.,change lanes when where is a car in your"blind spot")the computer would sound an immediate warning.
[02:43.05]At the MIT Media Lab,a prototype is already being built which will determine how sleepy you are as you drive,
[02:51.88]which is especially important for long-distance truck drivers.The monotonous,almost hypnotic process of
[03:00.37]staring at the center divider for long hours is a grossly underestimated,life-threatening hazard.
[03:08.20]To eliminate this,a tiny camera hidden in the dashboard can be trained on a driver's face and eyes.
[03:16.38]If the driver's eyelids close for a certain length of time
[03:21.45]and his or her driving becomes erratic,a computer in the dashboard could alert the driver.
[03:28.21]Two of the most frustrating things about driving a car are getting lost and getting stuck intraffic.
[03:35.71]While the computer revolution is unlikely to cure these problems,it will have a positive impact.
[03:42.92]Sensors in your car tuned to radio signals from orbiting satellites can locate your car precisely at
[03:50.60]any moment and warn of traffic jams.We already have twenty-four Navstar satellites orbiting the earth,
[04:00.08]making up what is called the Global Positioning System.
[04:04.63]They make it possible to determine your location on the earth to within about a hundred feet.At any given time,
[04:13.75]there are severalGPS satellites orbiting overhead at a distance of about11,000miles.Each satellite contains four atomic clocks
[04:25.37]which vibrate at a precise frequency,according to the laws of the quantum theory.
[04:31.85]As a satellite passes overhead,it sends out a radio signal that can be detected by a receiver in car's computer.
[04:41.04]The car's computer can then calculate how far the satellite is by measuring how long it took for the signal to arrive.
[04:49.61]Since the speed of light is well known,any delay in receiving the satellite's signal can be converted into a distance.
[04:58.15]In Japan there are already over a million cars with some type of navigational capability.
[05:05.57](some of them locate a car's position by correlating the rotations in the steering wheel to its position on a map.)
[05:13.51]With the price of microchips dropping so drastically,future applications of GPS are virtually limitless.
[05:21.98]"The commercial industry is poised to explode,"says Randy Hoffman of Magellan Systems Corp.,
[05:30.36]which manufactures navigational systems.Blind individuals could use GPS sensors in walking sticks,
[05:39.14]airplanes could land by remote control,
[05:43.29]hikers will be able to locate their position in the woods-the list of potential uses is endless.
[05:50.66]GPS is actually but part of a larger movement,called "telematics,"
[05:55.96]which will eventually attempt to put smart cars on smart highways.Proto-types of such highways already exist in Europe,
[06:05.94]and experiments are being made in California to mount computer chips,sensors,
[06:12.63]and radio transmitters on highways to alert cars to traffic jams and obstructions.
[06:19.84]On an eight-mile stretch of Interstate 15 ten miles north of San Diego,
[06:25.90]traffic engineers are installing an MIT-designed system which will introduce the "automated driver."
[06:34.21]The plan calls for computers,aided by thousands of three-inch magnetic spikes buried in the highway,
[06:41.62]to take complete control of the driving of cars on heavily trafficked roads.
[06:48.65]Cars will be bunched into groups often to twelve vehicles,only six feet apart,traveling in unison,and controlled by computer.
[06:58.13]Promoters of this computerized highway have great hopes for its future.By 2010,
[07:06.96]telematics may well be incorporated into one of the major highways in the United States.If successful,by2020,
[07:16.79]as the price of microchips drops to below a penny a piece,
[07:22.01]telematics could be adopted in thousands of miles of highways in the United States.
[07:27.70]This could prove to be an environmental boon as well,saving fuel,reducing traffic jams,decreasing air pollution,
[07:36.95]and serving as an alternative to highway expansion.
[07:41.52]turn into automobile lucrative presently
[07:47.78]成为现实 汽车 赚钱 现在
[07:54.04]trillion amnufacturing revolutionize sensor
[07:58.56]万亿 制造业 彻底改革 传感器
[08:03.07]approximately fatality eliminate alcohol
[08:07.35]大概 死亡 消灭 酒精
[08:11.62]vapor in the air start up alert
[08:15.76]气 空气中 开始 使注意
[08:19.90]radar bumper lane prototype
[08:24.33]雷达 保险杠 车道 样品
[08:28.75]monotonous similar grossly dashboard
[08:33.14]单调的 分开 十足 毛的
[08:37.53]eyelid erratic be stuck in satellite
[08:43.85]眼皮 不可靠的 停留 卫星
[08:50.17]frequency quantum send out conert
[08:54.74]频率 量子 发送 改变
[08:59.32]navigational capability correlate rotation
[09:04.20]导航 能力 相互关联 旋转
[09:09.09]microchip drastically application poise
[09:13.71]芯片 极端 运用 做好准备
[09:18.33]hiker telematics highway mount
[09:22.80]徒步旅行 远程信息学 公路 将…固定住
[09:27.27]transmitter obstruction interstate automate
[09:32.09]发射机 障碍物 州与州之间的 使自动化
[09:36.91]magnetic spike take control of traffic
[09:42.33]磁性 大钉 控制 在…上通行
[09:47.75]bunch promoter incorporate boon
[09:52.15]使成一束 助长者 将…包括进去 利益
[10:00.74]也 减少 污染 发展
[00:10.71]This may sound like a dream,but the computer revolution is set to turn it into a reality.
[00:18.81]SMART CARS by Michio Kaku
[00:23.25]Even the automobile industry,which has remained largely unchanged for the last seventy years,
[00:30.54]is about to feel the effects of the computer revolution.
[00:35.16]The automobile industry ranks as among the most lucrative and powerful industries of the twentieth century.
[00:42.89]There are presently 500 million cars on earth,or one car for every ten people.Sales of the automobile industry
[00:52.53]stand at about a trillion dollars,making it the world's biggest manufacturing industry.
[00:59.66]The car,and the roads it travels on,will be revolutionized in the twenty-first century.
[01:06.95]The key to tomorrow's"smart cars"will be sensors."We'll see vehicles and roads that see and hear and feel and
[01:16.35]smell and talk and act,"predicts Bill Spreitzer,technical director of General Motors Corporation's ITS program,
[01:25.49]which is designing the smart car and road of the future.
[01:30.17]Approximately40,000people are killed each year in the United States in traffic accidents.The number of people
[01:39.00]that are killed or badly injured in car accidents is so vast that we don't even bother to mention them
[01:46.55]in the newspapers anymore.Fully half of these fatalities come from drunk drivers,and many others from carelessness.
[01:55.84]A smart cat could eliminate most of these car accidents.It can sense if a driver is drunk via electronic sensors
[02:06.06]that can pick up alcohol vapor in the air,and refuse to start up the engine.
[02:11.65]The car could also alert the police and provide its precise location if it is stolen.
[02:18.28]Smart cars have already been built which can monitor one's driving and the driving conditions nearby.
[02:25.60]Small radars hidden in the bumpers can scan for nearby cars.Should you make a serious driving mistake
[02:35.13](e.g.,change lanes when where is a car in your"blind spot")the computer would sound an immediate warning.
[02:43.05]At the MIT Media Lab,a prototype is already being built which will determine how sleepy you are as you drive,
[02:51.88]which is especially important for long-distance truck drivers.The monotonous,almost hypnotic process of
[03:00.37]staring at the center divider for long hours is a grossly underestimated,life-threatening hazard.
[03:08.20]To eliminate this,a tiny camera hidden in the dashboard can be trained on a driver's face and eyes.
[03:16.38]If the driver's eyelids close for a certain length of time
[03:21.45]and his or her driving becomes erratic,a computer in the dashboard could alert the driver.
[03:28.21]Two of the most frustrating things about driving a car are getting lost and getting stuck intraffic.
[03:35.71]While the computer revolution is unlikely to cure these problems,it will have a positive impact.
[03:42.92]Sensors in your car tuned to radio signals from orbiting satellites can locate your car precisely at
[03:50.60]any moment and warn of traffic jams.We already have twenty-four Navstar satellites orbiting the earth,
[04:00.08]making up what is called the Global Positioning System.
[04:04.63]They make it possible to determine your location on the earth to within about a hundred feet.At any given time,
[04:13.75]there are severalGPS satellites orbiting overhead at a distance of about11,000miles.Each satellite contains four atomic clocks
[04:25.37]which vibrate at a precise frequency,according to the laws of the quantum theory.
[04:31.85]As a satellite passes overhead,it sends out a radio signal that can be detected by a receiver in car's computer.
[04:41.04]The car's computer can then calculate how far the satellite is by measuring how long it took for the signal to arrive.
[04:49.61]Since the speed of light is well known,any delay in receiving the satellite's signal can be converted into a distance.
[04:58.15]In Japan there are already over a million cars with some type of navigational capability.
[05:05.57](some of them locate a car's position by correlating the rotations in the steering wheel to its position on a map.)
[05:13.51]With the price of microchips dropping so drastically,future applications of GPS are virtually limitless.
[05:21.98]"The commercial industry is poised to explode,"says Randy Hoffman of Magellan Systems Corp.,
[05:30.36]which manufactures navigational systems.Blind individuals could use GPS sensors in walking sticks,
[05:39.14]airplanes could land by remote control,
[05:43.29]hikers will be able to locate their position in the woods-the list of potential uses is endless.
[05:50.66]GPS is actually but part of a larger movement,called "telematics,"
[05:55.96]which will eventually attempt to put smart cars on smart highways.Proto-types of such highways already exist in Europe,
[06:05.94]and experiments are being made in California to mount computer chips,sensors,
[06:12.63]and radio transmitters on highways to alert cars to traffic jams and obstructions.
[06:19.84]On an eight-mile stretch of Interstate 15 ten miles north of San Diego,
[06:25.90]traffic engineers are installing an MIT-designed system which will introduce the "automated driver."
[06:34.21]The plan calls for computers,aided by thousands of three-inch magnetic spikes buried in the highway,
[06:41.62]to take complete control of the driving of cars on heavily trafficked roads.
[06:48.65]Cars will be bunched into groups often to twelve vehicles,only six feet apart,traveling in unison,and controlled by computer.
[06:58.13]Promoters of this computerized highway have great hopes for its future.By 2010,
[07:06.96]telematics may well be incorporated into one of the major highways in the United States.If successful,by2020,
[07:16.79]as the price of microchips drops to below a penny a piece,
[07:22.01]telematics could be adopted in thousands of miles of highways in the United States.
[07:27.70]This could prove to be an environmental boon as well,saving fuel,reducing traffic jams,decreasing air pollution,
[07:36.95]and serving as an alternative to highway expansion.
[07:41.52]turn into automobile lucrative presently
[07:47.78]成为现实 汽车 赚钱 现在
[07:54.04]trillion amnufacturing revolutionize sensor
[07:58.56]万亿 制造业 彻底改革 传感器
[08:03.07]approximately fatality eliminate alcohol
[08:07.35]大概 死亡 消灭 酒精
[08:11.62]vapor in the air start up alert
[08:15.76]气 空气中 开始 使注意
[08:19.90]radar bumper lane prototype
[08:24.33]雷达 保险杠 车道 样品
[08:28.75]monotonous similar grossly dashboard
[08:33.14]单调的 分开 十足 毛的
[08:37.53]eyelid erratic be stuck in satellite
[08:43.85]眼皮 不可靠的 停留 卫星
[08:50.17]frequency quantum send out conert
[08:54.74]频率 量子 发送 改变
[08:59.32]navigational capability correlate rotation
[09:04.20]导航 能力 相互关联 旋转
[09:09.09]microchip drastically application poise
[09:13.71]芯片 极端 运用 做好准备
[09:18.33]hiker telematics highway mount
[09:22.80]徒步旅行 远程信息学 公路 将…固定住
[09:27.27]transmitter obstruction interstate automate
[09:32.09]发射机 障碍物 州与州之间的 使自动化
[09:36.91]magnetic spike take control of traffic
[09:42.33]磁性 大钉 控制 在…上通行
[09:47.75]bunch promoter incorporate boon
[09:52.15]使成一束 助长者 将…包括进去 利益
[10:00.74]也 减少 污染 发展
