【课文译文】Smart Cars(综合教程4Unit2)
2017-10-09 16:44阅读：
说明：加粗单词和短语为课后习题中的Words and Phrases to
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全新版大学英语（第二版）综合教程4
Unit 2 Smart Cars
Smart cars that can see, hear, feel, smell, and talk? And
drive on their own? This may sound like a dream, but the computer
revolution is set to turn it into a reality.
能看、能听、有知觉、具嗅觉、会说话的智能汽车？还能自动驾驶？这听起来好像是在做梦，但计算机革命正致力于把这一切变为现实。
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Text A
Smart Cars
智能汽车
Michio Kaku加来道雄
1 Even the automobile
industry, which has remained largely unchanged f
or the last seventy years, is about to feel the effects of the
computer revolution.
即便是过去70年间基本上没有多少变化的汽车工业，也将感受到计算机革命的影响。
2 The automobile industry ranks as
among the most lucrative and powerful industries of the
twentieth century. There are presently 500 million cars on earth,
or one car for every ten people. Sales of the automobile industry
stand at about a trillion dollars, making it the world's biggest
manufacturing industry.
汽车工业是20世纪最赚钱、最有影响力的产业之一。目前世界上有5亿辆车，或者说每10人就有1辆车。汽车工业的销售额达一万亿美元左右，从而成为世界上最大的制造业。
3 The car, and the roads it travels
on, will be revolutionized in the twenty-first century. The key to
tomorrow's 'smart cars' will be sensors. 'We'll see vehicles and
roads that see and hear and feel and smell and talk and act,'
predicts Bill Spreitzer, technical director of General Motors
Corporation's ITS program, which is designing the smart car and
road of the future.
汽车及其行驶的道路，将在21世纪发生重大变革。未来“智能汽车”的关键在于传感器。“我们会见到能看、能听、有知觉、具嗅觉、会说话并能采取行动的车辆与道路，”正在设计未来智能汽车和智能道路的通用汽车公司ITS项目的技术主任比尔•斯普雷扎预言道。
4 Approximately 40,000 people
are killed each year in the United States in traffic accidents. The
number of people that are killed or badly injured in car accidents
is so vast that we don't even bother to mention them in the
newspapers anymore. Fully half of these fatalities come from drunk
drivers, and many others from carelessness. A smart car could
eliminate most of these car accidents. It can sense if a
driver is drunk via electronic sensors that can pick up alcohol
vapor in the air, and refuse to start up the
engine. The car could also alert the police and provide its
precise location if it is stolen.
美国每年有大约4万人死于交通事故。在汽车事故中死亡或严重受伤的人数太多，我们已经不屑在报纸上提及。这些死亡的人中至少有半数是酒后开车者造成的，另有许多死亡事故是驾驶员不小心所导致。智能汽车能消除绝大多数这类汽车事故。它能通过会感测空气中的酒精雾气的电子传感器检测开车者是否喝醉酒，并拒绝启动引擎。这种车还能在遇窃后通报警方，告知车辆的确切地点。
5 Smart cars have already been built
which can monitor one's driving and the driving conditions nearby.
Small radars hidden in the bumpers can scan for nearby cars. Should
you make a serious driving mistake (e.g., change lanes when
there is a car in your 'blind spot') the computer would sound an
immediate warning.
能监控行车过程以及周围行车状况的智能汽车已经建造出来。藏在保险杠里的微型雷达能对周围的汽车作扫描。如果你发生重大行车失误（如变道时有车辆你“盲点”内），计算机立即会发出警报。
6 At the MIT Media Lab, a
prototype is already being built which will determine how
sleepy you are as you drive, which is especially important for
long-distance truck drivers. The monotonous, almost hypnotic
process of staring at the center divider for long hours is a
grossly underestimated, life-threatening hazard. To
eliminate this, a tiny camera hidden in the dashboard can be
trained on a driver's face and eyes. If the driver's eyelids close
for a certain length of time and his or her driving becomes
erratic, a computer in the dashboard could alert the driver.
在麻省理工学院媒介实验室，业已制造出能测知你行车时有多少睡意的样车，这对长途卡车司机意义尤其重要。一连数小时注视着中夹分道线这样一个单调、几乎能催眠的过程是被严重低估的威胁生命的重大隐患。为消除这一隐患，藏在仪表板里的一架微型相机可对准开车者的脸部及眼睛。如果司机的眼帘合上一定时间，行车变得不稳，仪表板里的计算机就会向司机发出警报。
7 Two of the most frustrating things
about driving a car are getting lost and getting
stuck in traffic. While the computer revolution is
unlikely to cure these problems, it will have a positive impact.
Sensors in your car tuned to radio signals from
orbiting satellites can locate your car precisely at
any moment and warn of traffic jams. We already have twenty-four
Navstar satellites orbiting the earth, making up what is called the
Global Positioning System. They make it possible to determine your
location on the earth to within about a hundred feet. At any given
time, there are several GPS satellites orbiting overhead at a
distance of about 11,000 miles. Each satellite contains four
'atomic clocks,' which vibrate at a precise
frequency, according to the laws of the quantum
theory.
开车最头疼的两大麻烦是迷路和交通堵塞。虽然计算机革命不可能彻底解决这两个问题，但却会带来积极的影响。你汽车上与绕轨道运行的卫星发出的无线电信号调谐的传感器能随时精确地确定你汽车的方位，并告知交通阻塞情况。我们已经有24颗环绕地球运行的导航卫星，组成了人们所说的全球卫星定位系统。通过这些卫星我们有可能以小于100英尺的误差确定你在地球上的方位。在任何一个特定时间，总有若干颗全球定位系统的卫星在11000英里的高空绕地球运行。每颗卫星都装有4个“原子钟”，它们根据量子理论法则，以精确的频率振动。
8 As a satellite passes overhead, it
sends out a radio signal that can be detected
by a receiver in a car's computer. The car's computer can then
calculate how far the satellite is by measuring how long it
took for the signal to arrive. Since the speed of light is well
known, any delay in receiving the satellite's signal can be
converted into a distance.
卫星从高空经过时发出能被汽车上计算机里的接收器辨认的无线电信号。汽车上的计算机就会根据信号传来所花的时间计算出卫星有多远。由于光速为人熟知，接收卫星信号时的任何时间迟缓都能折算出距离的远近。
9 In Japan there are already over a
million cars with some type of navigational capability. (Some of
them locate a car's position by correlating the rotations in
the steering wheel to its position on a map.)
在日本，具有某种导航能力的汽车已有一百万辆之多。（有些导航装置通过将方向盘的转动与汽车在地图上的位置并置来测定汽车的方位。）
10 With the price of microchips
dropping so drastically, future applications of GPS are
virtually limitless. 'The commercial industry is poised to
explode,' says Randy Hoffman of Magellan Systems Corp. , which
manufactures navigational systems. Blind individuals could use GPS
sensors in walking sticks, airplanes could land by remote
control, hikers will be able to locate their position in the woods
-- the list of potential uses is endless.
随着微芯片价格的大幅度下降，未来对全球卫星定位系统的应用几乎是无限的。“制造这一商品的工业定会飞速发展，”生产导航系统的麦哲伦航仪公司的兰迪•霍夫曼说。盲人可以在手杖里装配全球卫星定位系统传感器，飞机可以通过遥控着陆，徒步旅行者可以测定自己在林中的方位—其潜在的应用范围是无止境的。
11 GPS is actually but part of a
larger movement, called 'telematics,' which will eventually attempt
to put smart cars on smart highways. Prototypes of such highways
already exist in Europe, and experiments are being made in
California to mount computer chips, sensors, and radio
transmitters on highways to alert cars to traffic jams and
obstructions.
全球卫星定位系统其实只是叫做“远程信息学”的这一更大行动的一部分，这一行动最终将把智能汽车送上智能高速公路。这种高速公路的样品已经在欧洲问世，加州也在进行试验，在高速公路上安装计算机芯片、传感器和无线电发射机，以便向汽车报告交通拥挤堵塞情况。
12 On an eight-mile stretch of
Interstate 15 ten miles north of San Diego, traffic engineers are
installing an MIT-designed system which will introduce the
'automated driver.' The plan calls for computers, aided by
thousands of three-inch magnetic spikes buried in the
highway, to take complete control of the
driving of cars on heavily trafficked roads. Cars will be
bunched into groups of ten to twelve vehicles, only six feet
apart, traveling in unison, and controlled by
computer.
在圣迭戈以北10英里的15号州际公路一段8英里长的路面上，交通工程师正在安装一个由麻省理工学院设计的引进“自动司机”的系统。这一计划要求计算机在公路上埋设的数千个3英寸长的磁钉的协助下，在车辆极多的路段完全控制车辆的运行。车辆会编成10辆或12辆一组，车距仅6英尺，在计算机的控制下一齐行驶。
13 Promoters of this
computerized highway have great hopes for its future. By
2010, telematics may well be incorporated into one of the
major highways in the United States. If successful, by 2020, as the
price of microchips drops to below a penny a piece, telematics
could be adopted in thousands of miles of highways in the United
States. This could prove to be an environmental boon as well,
saving fuel, reducing traffic jams, decreasing air
pollution, and serving as an alternative to highway
expansion.
这种计算机化的公路的倡导者对其未来的应用充满希望。到2010年，远程信息技术很可能应用于美国的一条主要公路。如果成功的话，到2020年，当微芯片的价格降到一片一美分以下时，远程信息技术就会应用在美国成千上万英里的公路上。这对环保也会很有利，能节省燃油，减轻交通阻塞，减少空气污染，还可用作公路扩建的替代办法。
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