高阶科技|第77集：自动驾驶

这位同学你好呀 欢迎来到百日听力训练 高阶 第二节。上节课的作业都踏踏实实完成了么？:) 今天我们挑战一下哈，因为咱们要听的是「四六级听力真题源头」里语速最快的。“语速快”遇到“能量密度高” 才是真正的高级，这不就是我们最后高阶部分的目标么? 所以今天你也来探探底，感受一下所谓语速最快的听力内容。其实，你只要踏踏实实学完之前 76 期，你会发现，也就那么回事：）。

开始了哈，咱们先完整听一遍！准备好耳朵，时长 1分 30 秒 开始！

[努力听懂大意]

(听力文本及翻译在整个课程最末尾，先别看，检验并挑战自己！)

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️ 像上节课一样听写：

1

con_________

2

w_________ down their _________-_________ lists

3

get m_________ si_________

4

catch some q_________ _________s

知识点讲解：

1

congestion

拥堵 塞车

+ A couple of cars have tangled in traffic

+ There’s a minor tie-up

on the north long beach…

+ The city would grind to a halt.

2

whittling down to-do lists

完成工作任务

+ whittler of wood

+ woodcarving

+ We whittled it down.

3

motion sickness

晕动症

+ Like how some people love roller coasters,

but other people suffer from

terrible motion sickness.

+ It’s motion sickness,

I get it all the time.

+ 晕车 car sick

+ 晕船

sea____

I got sea___ on the boat.

sea s____

I don't have any sea_____ss medicine for you.

sea l____

+ got / lose

What’s the matter? Losing sea legs?

4

catch some quality zzzs

好好眯一会

+ s____ / d____

[听力音频文本]

标题

Self-Driving Cars Probably Won't Boost Commuter Productivity

无人驾驶车辆或许不会提高乘客工作效率

Advocates for self-driving cars love to tout the benefits the cars would bring, such as fewer accidents and less congestion. Another alleged value of being a passenger rather than a driver is more productivity—you could work rather than concentrate on driving. But most people might not spend their newfound free time in self-driving cars whittling down their to-do lists.

倡导自动驾驶的人们喜欢吹捧自动驾驶汽车的好处，如引发的交通事故较少，不易造成拥堵。另一个说法是乘客比司机更高效——因为你可以更加集中精力用于工作而不是开车。但是，大多数人可能不会说“啊，我把工作时间节省了，省下来的时间可以待在无人驾驶车里干别的。”

That’s according to a study by Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle at The University of Michigan’s Sustainable Worldwide Transportation program.

以上结论是根据一项研究得出。该研究由密歇根大学的可持续全球运输计划的 MS 和 BS 所做。

The researchers surveyed people in the U.S., Australia, China, India, Japan and the U.K. And about 62 percent of respondents said self-driving cars would not make them more productive. For one thing, 23 percent of the group said they won’t ride in a self-driving car in the first place. And then there are the people who get motion sickness—they obviously can’t work. Plus, another 36 percent said they’d be too concerned to do anything but watch the road.

研究人员调查了美国人、澳大利亚、中国、印度、日本和英国，大约62%的受访者表示，无人驾驶汽车不会使他们更加高效。首先，23%的人群表示他们首先就不会去乘坐一辆无人驾驶汽车。还有一些人会晕车——显然，在车上他们啥也干不了。还有另外36%的人群表示，他们除了看路，无法集中做任何事情。

The researchers also noted that most trips average 19 minutes—not really long enough to get anything truly substantial done. Or to catch some quality zzzzz’s.

研究人员还指出，大多数行程平均下来需要19分钟——这么短的时间，根本干不了啥，想好好眯一觉也很不够啊。

Of course, the level of apprehension people experience in self-driving cars , or about getting into them, may change in the long-run. But this study is another reminder that there’s still a lot to be figured out before automatic autos rule the roadways.

当然，在未来，人们对于无人驾驶车的体验或者了解水平会有所改变。但是这个研究也是一个提醒，在无人驾驶车辆统治道路之前，还有很多事情有待解决。

[课程制作] 00

[新闻出处] scientificamerican.com

[新闻朗读] Erika Beras

[音乐] Willows On the Water by Enya