《英語輕鬆學》學好中級口語 #Lesson 50：Self-Driving Cars 自動駕駛汽車

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 中級口語 

搭配筆記聆聽短文 Listen to the text with the help of the notes given

 

再次聆聽並回答問題 Listen again and answer the questions below

Questions for discussion:

1. What is a self-driving car?

2. What does the speaker say about the self-driving car industry?

3. What are self-driving cars vulnerable to?

 

短文聽讀 Text 

                 A self-driving car is a car that can drive with little or no human input. It’s such a safe form of driving that it’s estimated thousands of lives would be saved each year if everyone used self-driving cars. However, more investment is needed so that companies can produce more self-driving cars. And the public needs to be convinced of their safety so that they are more willing to buy them.

                 No form of transport can be completely safe, but what are the specific concerns related to self-driving cars? The industry is currently unregulated, which means that there are no established safety standards. The transition from manual cars to self-driving cars could be chaotic, as there would be a mixture of vehicles on the road. And self-driving cars could be vulnerable to hacking and computer malfunctions. These safety issues need to be addressed so that the potential safety benefits can be unleashed. Only when this is done can self-driving cars possibly be the future of driving.

                 自動駕駛汽車（自駕車）是一種幾乎不需要人力操縱的汽車。這是一種很安全的駕駛模式，因此假若大家都開始使用自動駕駛汽車，估計每年可以挽回好幾千條性命。然而，這需要更多投資，如此一來企業才能生產更多自動駕駛汽車。而且它們的安全性必須讓大眾信服，這樣大家才會有更高的購買意願。

                 沒有一種交通工具是百分百安全的，但是與自動駕駛汽車相關的疑慮是什麼呢？這種產業目前沒有規範，這意味著沒有已建立完善的安全標準。從手動開車到自動駕駛的過度期可能會很混亂，因為路上會參雜各種車輛。自動駕駛汽車也可能容易受到駭客入侵和電腦故障的影響。這些安全問題需要被解決，才能使潛在的安全好處發揮作用。唯有這麼做，自動駕駛汽車才有可能是未來的開車方式。

 

單字片語 Vocabulary and Phrases

 1  self-driving 　 a. 自動駕駛的
     a self-driving car 自動駕駛汽車

 2  input 　  n. 投入，貢獻

 3  investment      n. 投資

 4  transport　 　n. 交通工具（英式用法，美式用法為transportation）

 5  unregulated　 　a. （政府或法律）無規範的

 6  establshed       a. 已建立的

 7  standard　 　n. 標準，水準
     safety standards      安全標準
     a high / low living standard      高 / 低生活水準

 8  transition　 　n. 過度，轉變
     transition from A to B      從 A 轉變為 B

 9  manual　 　a. 用手操作的；靠人工的

 10  chaotic　 　a. 毫無秩序的，紊亂的

 11  mixture　 　n. 混合（物）
     a mixture of A and B      A 和 B 的混合（物）

 12  vulnerable　 　a. 易受攻擊的；脆弱的
     be vulnerable to sth      易受某事的攻擊或傷害

 13  hack　 　vi. & vt. 入侵電腦系統
     hack into...      入侵（電腦系統）

 14  malfunction　 　n. 故障，失靈

 15  address　 　vt. 解決，處理
     address the issue / problem      解決問題

 16  potential　 　a. 潛在的，可能的

 17  unleash　 　vt. 釋放

 

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