大学英语综合教程全新版第四册第2单元课文.doc

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？这听起来或许像是在做梦，但计算机革命正致力于把这一切变为现实。 Smart Cars Michio Kaku 1 Even the automobile industry, which has remained largely unchanged for the last seventy years, is about to feel the effects of the computer revolution.智能汽车 米其奥·卡库 ??????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 worlds 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 tomorrows smart cars will be sensors. Well see vehicles and roads that see and hear and feel and smell and talk and act, predicts Bill Spreitzer, technical director of General Motors Corporations 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 dont 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