【正文】 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(dá)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(dá)到峰值，這一發(fā)現(xiàn)可能會(huì)促進(jìn)儲(chǔ)存石油的努力。 伊布赫姆“石油峰值”指的是石 油產(chǎn)量達(dá)到最大值后開始下降的時(shí)間點(diǎn)。其中最著名的預(yù)測模型之一是赫伯特模型。這一術(shù)語指的是世界石油產(chǎn)量達(dá)到峰值的那一刻，之后將呈現(xiàn)無法逆轉(zhuǎn)的下降趨勢。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)?？茖W(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?？菩聳|方在線 [ ] 20xx 職稱英語強(qiáng)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(gè)主要產(chǎn)油國家的石油生產(chǎn)趨勢，這 47 個(gè)國家是世界常規(guī)原油的主要提供者?？茖W(xué)家還指出，世界石油儲(chǔ)量正在以 %的速度逐年減少，他們認(rèn)為新模型會(huì)幫助做出與能源相關(guān)的決定，幫助進(jìn)行國家政策辯論。 Energy amp。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。 但是生態(tài)學(xué)家不可能去到世界的各個(gè)角落 ，所以他們向非科學(xué)家求助，這些非科學(xué)家有時(shí)也被稱作公民科學(xué)家。因?yàn)樵谑澜缟嫌腥绱硕嗟牡胤?，沒有足夠的科學(xué)家來觀察它們。公民科學(xué)家運(yùn)動(dòng)鼓勵(lì)普通人根據(jù)自己的興趣來觀察某一個(gè)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(gè)巨大的數(shù)據(jù)庫來供專業(yè)科學(xué)家研究。 就像公民記者幫助報(bào)道傳統(tǒng)新聞報(bào)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 。 一群科學(xué)家和教育家在去年發(fā)起了一個(gè)叫做紐約國家物候?qū)W的組織。 其中一個(gè)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) 。參與這一項(xiàng) 目的人們 ——這一計(jì)劃對所有人開放 ——把他們的觀察記錄在花季追蹤計(jì)劃網(wǎng)站上。 ”Jennifer Schwartz新東方在線 [ ] 20xx 職稱英語強(qiáng)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(xiàng)計(jì)劃的教育顧問 。 ” Citizen Scientists Understanding how nature responds to climate change will require monitoring key life cycle event—flowering, the appearance of leaves, the first frog calls of the spring—all around the world. But ecologists can?t be everywhere so they?re turning to nonscientists, sometimes called citizen scientists, for help. Climate scientists are not present everywhere. Because there are so many places in the world and not enough scientists to observe all of them, they?re asking for your help in observing signs of climate change across the world. The citizen scientist movement encourages ordinary people to observe a very specific research interest — birds, trees, flowers budding, etc. — and send their observations to a giant database to be observed by professional scientists. This helps a small number of scientists track a large amount of data that they would never be able to gather on their own. Much like citizen journalists helping large publications cover a hyperlocal beat, citizen scientists are ready for the conditions where they live. All that?s needed to bee one is a few minutes each day or each week to gather data and send it in. A group of scientists and educators launched an anization last year called the National Phenology Network. “Phenology” is what scientists call the study of the timing of events in nature. One of the group?s first efforts relies on scientists and nonscientists alike to collect data about plant flowering and leafing every year. The program, called Project BudBurst, collects life cycle data on a variety of mon plants from across the United States. People participating in the project—which is open to everyone—record their observations on the Project BudBurst website. “People don?t have to be plant experts they just have to look around and see what?s in their neighborhood,” says Jennifer Schwartz, an education consultant with the project. “ As we collect this data, we?ll be able to make an estimate of how plants and munities of plants and animals will respond as the climate changes. ” 第四篇 汽車 技術(shù) 每年，全世界有 120 萬起路面交通死亡事故，以及五千萬起路面交通傷殘事故。而有些關(guān)于電動(dòng)機(jī)車和生物燃料的研究旨在達(dá)到更快的速度。一項(xiàng)在機(jī)動(dòng)車安全前沿領(lǐng)域的研究是有關(guān)車內(nèi)數(shù)字化輔助設(shè)施的。通過運(yùn) 用人工智能軟件，這些輔助設(shè)施可監(jiān)控行車過程并確保在關(guān)鍵時(shí)刻司機(jī)不會(huì)被手機(jī)或廣播干擾注意力。 一些行車安全方面的改 進(jìn)力圖改善司機(jī)的視野。 對安全帶、剎車板控制和車胎的改進(jìn)也使行車過程變得更／頃暢、安全。 從礦物燃料中提取的汽油的替代物，例如植物油，也是研究中的一個(gè)熱門區(qū)域。 新東方在線 [ ] 20xx 職稱英語強(qiáng)化班網(wǎng)絡(luò)課堂電子教材系列 閱讀理解中文朗讀 7 但不管燃料箱中盛為何物，你可不想在駕駛座上坐的是一個(gè)竊賊。 當(dāng)發(fā)生車禍時(shí)，這些通訊系統(tǒng)也可起作用，自動(dòng)地呼叫幫助。但在一暢通卻繁忙的路段上，汽車間也有很多的細(xì)微互動(dòng)，從而導(dǎo)致可能的阻塞。被編程的機(jī)器人可使交通流動(dòng)更順暢，并有朝一日有望成為每個(gè)人的私家司機(jī)。 Motoring Technology million road deaths worldwide occur each year, plus a further 50 million injuries. To reduce car crash rate, much research now is focused on safety and new fuels － though some electric vehicle and biofuel research aims at going faster. Travelling at speed has always been risky. One cutting edge area of r