Smarter Transportation

1、Unit EightSmarter TransportationLead-in questionnThe car had a significant effect on the American lifestyle. Car ownership came to be associated with independence, freedom, and increased social status. nDo you want to have a car? Why or why not?Group DiscussionnThe benefits of owning a car:nThe prob

2、lems caused by private cars:nThe ways to solve traffic congestion in cities: How to solve the problem of congestion: nWe can address this problem from two aspects: one from the car itself and the other from the road.nAs to cars, new technology can help make cars smarter and smaller. For example, rad

3、ars will warn a driver ; GPS guides drivers ; Cars are made foldable.nAs to the roads, one solution is to widen the roads. Regulations are important too. Traffic lights, cameras, rush hour lanes, and the like, may work together to reduce congestions.David Bjerklie: na senior reporter at TIME, cover

4、a broad range of stories for the science section since 1984 on topics as cold fusion, cloning, ice age art, vegetarianism, bioethics, the origin of life, and also cover obesity, fetal development, mental health, women and heart disease, diabetes and dietqHe studied biology, anthropology and limnolog

5、y at the University of North Dakota and University of Minnesota.nHe also contributes science articles to TIMEs sister publication, TIME For Kids magazine.Background informationnIn the United States, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) supports different programs and projects t

6、o save lives, prevent injuries, and reduce car crashes. Its Occupant Protection Division provides national leadership in planning and developing traffic injury control programs in the areas of safety belt and child safety seat use, and automatic occupant protection systems (e.g. air bags)Text: The H

7、idden Danger of Seat BeltsnThis article introduces to the readers a sociological research on occupant protection means. It tells us that technology is important, yet technology is not everything.seat beltnA seat belt or seatbelt, sometimes called a safety belt, is a safety harness designed to secure

8、 the occupant of a vehicle against harmful movement that may result from a collision or a sudden stop. As part of an overall automobile passive safety system, seat belts are intended to reduce injuries by stopping the wearer from hitting hard interior elements of the vehicle, or other passengers (th

9、e so-called second impact), are in the correct position for the airbag to deploy and prevent the passenger from being thrown from the vehicle. Seat belts also absorb energy by being designed to stretch during any sudden deceleration, so that there is less speed differential between the passengers bo

10、dy and their vehicle interior, and also to spread the loading of impact on the passengers body.A lap (2-point) belt in an airplane A 3-point seat beltDifficult sentences (1)nSeat belts still decrease our risk of dying in an accident, but the statistics are not all black and white. n座椅安全帶固然能降低我們在車禍中死

11、亡的危險，但從統(tǒng)計數(shù)據(jù)看，情況并不是那么絕對。Difficult sentences (2)nWhat he found was that contrary to conventional wisdom, mandating the use of seat belts in 18 countries resulted in either no change or actually a net increase in road accident deaths. (Para. 2)n他的發(fā)現(xiàn)與人們的普遍看法恰恰相反在18個強制使用安全帶的國家，要么交通事故死亡率根本沒有變化，要么實際上反而導致了死

12、亡率的凈增長。John AdamsnHe was a professor of Geography at University College, London. nIn 1981, he wrote a paper “The efficacy of seatbelt legislation: A comparative study of road accident fatality statistics from 18 countries”. nThe paper was published in 1982 by the Society of Automotive Engineers.2 nT

13、he paper showed that in the countries studied, which included states with and without seat belt laws, there was no correlation between the passing of seat belt legislation and the total reductions in injuries or fatalities. When all associated fatalities and injuries in road accidents were included,

14、 it appeared that some accidents were being displaced from car drivers to pedestrians and other road users.Difficult sentences (3)nAdams interpretation of the data rests on the notion of risk compensation, the idea that individuals tend to adjust their behavior in response to what they perceive as c

15、hanges in the level of risk. (Para. 3)n亞當斯用風險補償?shù)母拍顏斫忉屵@些數(shù)據(jù)資料，這個概念就是：人們往往會根據(jù)他們意識到的風險程度的改變來相應地調(diào)整自己的行為。Risk compensation:nIn ethology, risk compensation is an effect whereby individual people may tend to adjust their behavior in response to perceived changes in risk. It is seen as self-evident that indi

16、viduals will tend to behave in a more cautious manner if their perception of risk or danger increases. nSome have proposed that the number of deaths was influenced by the development of risk compensation, which says that drivers adjust their behavior in response to the increased sense of personal sa

17、fety wearing a seat belt provides. rest on nThe greater part of our knowledge does not rest on reasoning or on experiment, but on authority. nSuch a view rests on a number of incorrect assumptions.nHer eyes rested on her husbands face when she listened.nBut if we rest on our laurels, we risk losing

18、our vitality. Difficult sentences (4)nThe point, stresses Adams, is that drivers who feel safe may actually increase the risk that they pose to other drivers, bicyclists, pedestrians and their own passengers. (Para. 4)n，問題在于自我感覺安全的司機們實際上對其他司機、騎自行車者、行人和自己車上的乘客來說是更大的危險。pose sth to sb : causenpose a pr

19、oblem/ threat/ challengenHeavy traffic poses a problem in many big cities.nPollution poses a big threat to the existence of some species on the earth.Difficult sentences (5)nIn the case of seat belts, instead of a simple, straightforward reduction in deaths, the end result is actually a more complic

20、ated redistribution of risk and fatalities. (Para. 4)n至于安全帶，它并非簡單、直截了當?shù)販p少死亡人數(shù)，而是對風險和死亡事故進行了更加復雜的再分配。Difficult sentences (6)nIn everyday life, risk is a moving target, not a set number as statistics might suggest. (Para. 5)n在日常生活中，風險是不斷移動的靶子，而并不像統(tǒng)計數(shù)據(jù)那樣是個固定的數(shù)字。Difficult sentences (7)nAnd still others

21、are fatalists who may believe that a higher power devises mortality schedules that fix a predetermined time when our number is up. (Para. 5)n還有一些人是宿命論者，他們會認為，有一種更強大的力量設計了死亡時間表，預先確定了我們的死期。Difficult sentences (8)nConsequently, any single measurement assigned to the risk of driving a car is bound to be

22、 only the roughest sort of benchmark. (Para. 5)n因此，對駕車風險做任何單一的測算所得到的肯定只是最粗略的基準數(shù)據(jù)。Difficult sentences (9)nTally up all these factors and consider them independently, and you could arrive at a statistical prediction that a disturbed, drunken young man driving in the middle of the night is 2.7 million

23、times more likely to be involved in a serious accident than would a sober, middle-aged woman driving to church seven hours later.Difficult sentences (10)nThe bottom line is that risk doesnt exist in a vacuum and that there are a host of factors that come into play, including the rewards of risk, whe

24、ther they are financial, physical or emotional.n問題的要點就在于風險并不是孤立存在的，它會受到許多因素的影響，包括承擔風險所帶來的種種回報無論是財產(chǎn)方面的、身體方面的，還是情感方面的。Difficult sentences (11)nOur reaction to risk very much depends on the degree to which it is voluntary, unavoidable, or imposed, the degree to which .n我們對風險的反應多半取決于它在多大程度上是自發(fā)的行為、是不可避免的、還是強加給我們的；取決于我們認為在多大程度上是我們能控制的或是由別人控制的，還取決于這種潛在危險在多大程度上是出于好意、無意的或惡意的。Difficult sentences (12)nWe make dozens of risk calculations daily, but you can book odds that most of them are so automatic or visceral-that we barely notice them. (Para. 6)n我們每天要做幾十遍風險計算，但是可以確信的是，多數(shù)時候人們