【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 4 General Motors and Honda ceased production of batterypowered cars in 1999, to focus on fuel cell and hybrid electric gasoline engines, which are more attractive to the consumer. Ford has now announced it will do the same. Three years ago, the pany introduced the Think City twoseater car and a golf cart called the THINK, or Think neighbor. It hoped to sell 5,000 cars each year and 10,000 carts. But a lack of demand means only about 1,000 of the cars have been produced, and less than 1,700 carts have been sold so far in 20xx. “The bottom line is we don?t believe that this is the future of environment transport for the mass market,” Tim Holmes of Ford Europe said on Friday. “We feel we have given electric our best shot.” The Think City has a range of only about 53 miles and up to a sixhour battery recharge time General Motor?s EVI electric vehicle also had a limited range, of about 100 miles. The very expensive batteries also mean electric cars cost much more than petrolpowered alternatives. An electric Toyota RAV4 EV vehic le costs over $42,000 in the US, pared with just $17,000 for the petrol version. Toyota and Nissan are now the only major auto manufacturers to produce electric vehicles. “There is a feeling that battery electric has been given its chance. Ford now has to move on with its hybrid program, and that is what we will be judging them on,” Roger Higman, a senior transport campaigner at UK Friends of the Earth, told the Environment News Service. Hybrid cars introduced by Toyota and Honda in the past few years have sold well. Hybrid engines offer greater mileage than petrolonly engines, and the batteries recharge themselves. Ford says it thinks such vehicles will help it meet planned new guidelines on vehicle emissions in the US. However, it is not yet clear exactly what those guidelines will permit. In June, General Motors and Daimler Chrysler won a court injunction, delaying by two years Californian legislation requiring carmakers to offer 100,000 zeroemission and other lowemission vehicles in the state by 20xx. Car manufactures hope the legislation will be rewritten to allow for more lowemission, rather than zeroemission, vehicles. 第二篇 世界原油產(chǎn)量可能提前十年達到峰值 科威特科學(xué)家預(yù)測世界常規(guī)原油產(chǎn)量將在 20xx 年達到峰值，這一發(fā)現(xiàn)可能會促進儲存石油的努力。這一預(yù)測比其他預(yù)測提前了將近十年，已經(jīng)發(fā)表在美國化學(xué)學(xué)會《能量與燃料》雜志上。 伊布赫姆納夏威和同事們指出，全球石油消耗的快速增長使人們對“石油峰值”預(yù)測的興趣越來越濃?！笆头逯怠敝傅氖鞘?油產(chǎn)量達到最大值后開始下降的時間點。科學(xué)家已經(jīng)構(gòu)建了幾個模型來預(yù)測這一時間，有些模型認為這一時間在 2020 年或更晚。其中最著名的預(yù)測模型之一是赫伯特模型。赫伯特模型認為世界石油產(chǎn)量呈鐘形曲線，與此相關(guān)的概念是“石油峰值”。這一術(shù)語指的是世界石油產(chǎn)量達到峰值的那一刻，之后將呈現(xiàn)無法逆轉(zhuǎn)的下降趨勢。 赫伯特模型精確地預(yù)測到美國石油產(chǎn)量于 1970 年達到峰值。這一模型從此受到歡迎，已經(jīng)用于預(yù)測世界石油生產(chǎn)。 但是，最近研究表明，這一模型不足以解釋某些國家更加復(fù)雜的石油生產(chǎn)周期。科學(xué)家稱，這些生產(chǎn)周期受到技術(shù)變化、政 策和其他因素的很大影響。 最近研究描述了赫伯特模型的新版本，提供了更加實際、更加準確的石油生產(chǎn)預(yù)測?？菩聳|方在線 [ ] 20xx 職稱英語強化班網(wǎng)絡(luò)課堂電子教材系列 閱讀理解中文朗讀 5 學(xué)家使用新模型評估了 47 個主要產(chǎn)油國家的石油生產(chǎn)趨勢，這 47 個國家是世界常規(guī)原油的主要提供者?？茖W(xué)家預(yù)計全球常規(guī)原油產(chǎn)量將于 20xx 年達到峰值，比之前預(yù)計的要早很多年?？茖W(xué)家還指出，世界石油儲量正在以 %的速度逐年減少，他們認為新模型會幫助做出與能源相關(guān)的決定，幫助進行國家政策辯論。 World Crude Oil Production May Peak a Decade Earlier Than Some Predict In a finding that may speed efforts to conserve oil, scientists in Kuwait predict that world conventional crude oil production will peak in 20xx. This prediction is almost a decade earlier than some other predictions. Their study is in ACS39。 Energy amp。 Fuels1. Ibrahim Nashawi and colleagues point out that rapid growth in global oil consumption has sparked a growing interest in predicting peak oil. Peak oil is the point where oil production reaches a maximum and then declines. Scientists have developed several models to forecast this point, and some put the date at 2020 or later. One of the most famous forecast models is called the Hubbert model2. It assumes that global oil production will follow a bell shaped curve3. A related concept is that4 of Peak Oil. The term Peak Oil indicates the moment in which world wide production will peak, afterwards to start on irreversible decline. The Hubbert model accurately predicted that oil production would peak in the United States in1970. The model has since gained in popularity and has been used to forecast oil production worldwide. However, recent studies show that the model is insufficient to account for5 more plex oil production cycles of some countries. Those cycles can be heavily influenced by technology changes, politics, and other factors, the scientists say. The new study describes development of a new version of the Hubbert model that provides a more realistic and accurate oil production forecast. Using the new model, the scientists evaluated the oil production trends of 47 major oilproducing countries, which supply most of the world39。s conventional crude oil6. They estimated that worldwide conventional crude oil production will peak in 20xx, years earlier than anticipated. The scientists also showed that the world39。s oil reserves7 are being reduced at a rate of percent a year. The new model could help inform energyrelated decisions and public policy debate, theysuggest. 第三篇 公民科學(xué)家 理解大自然對氣候變化有怎樣的反應(yīng)需要監(jiān)視世界各個角落的關(guān)鍵生命周期事件 ——花開、葉子的出現(xiàn) 、 第一只青蛙叫出春天的到來 。 但是生態(tài)學(xué)家不可能去到世界的各個角落 ，所以他們向非科學(xué)家求助，這些非科學(xué)家有時也被稱作公民科學(xué)家。 氣象科學(xué)家不可能足跡遍及天下。因為在世界上有如此多的地方，沒有足夠的科學(xué)家來觀察它們。所以他們請求你來幫助觀察全世界氣候變化的跡象。公民科學(xué)家運動鼓勵普通人根據(jù)自己的興趣來觀察某一個特定的方面 ——鳥兒 、 樹木 、 花開等等 ——并把他們的觀察結(jié)果發(fā)送到一個巨大的數(shù)據(jù)庫來供專業(yè)科學(xué)家研究。這 有助于數(shù)量有限的科學(xué)家得到如果只靠他們自己根本收集不到的巨大數(shù)據(jù) 。 就像公民記者幫助報道傳統(tǒng)新聞報道方式所忽略的小型社區(qū)的相關(guān)信息一樣 ， 公民科學(xué)家也對他們所居住的環(huán)境很熟悉 。 所需要的就是每天或每周留出幾分鐘來搜集數(shù)據(jù)并發(fā)送過來 。 一群科學(xué)家和教育家在去年發(fā)起了一個叫做紐約國家物候?qū)W的組織。 ”物候?qū)W ”就是科學(xué)家們所說的在自然中研究每個事件的時間。 其中一個小組的首要嘗試就是依靠科學(xué)家和非科學(xué)家來收集關(guān)于每年植物開花和長葉子的數(shù)據(jù) 。 這一項目叫做花季追蹤計劃 ， 它收集遍布美國的各種各樣的植物生長周期的數(shù)據(jù) 。參與這一項 目的人們 ——這一計劃對所有人開放 ——把他們的觀察記錄在花季追蹤計劃網(wǎng)站上。 “人們不需要是植物學(xué)家 ——他們僅僅需要環(huán)視四周看看周 圍有什么 。 ”Jennifer Schwartz新東方在線 [ ] 20xx 職稱英語強化班網(wǎng)絡(luò)課堂電子教材系列 閱讀理解中文朗讀 6 說 ， 她 是這項計劃的教育顧問 。 ”通過收集數(shù)據(jù) ， 我們就能夠估算出氣候變化對植物和生物群落會有怎樣的影響。 ” Citizen Scientists Understanding how nature responds to climate change will require monitoring ke