Cars, Buses and Trucks
(Tài liệu chưa được thẩm định)
Nguồn:
Người gửi: Trương Quốc Phú (trang riêng)
Ngày gửi: 14h:27' 07-10-2009
Dung lượng: 4.3 MB
Số lượt tải: 0
Mô tả:
Nguồn:
Người gửi: Trương Quốc Phú (trang riêng)
Ngày gửi: 14h:27' 07-10-2009
Dung lượng: 4.3 MB
Số lượt tải: 0
Mô tả:
Cars, Buses and Trucks
Voice 1
Thank you for listening to Spotlight, I’m Sara DeKoster.Voice 2
And I’m Rebekah Schipper. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.Voice 1
Right now, many people around the world are concerned about a similar issue. They are concerned about the rising cost of oil. But why? How does the cost of oil affect people like you and me?Voice 2
Well, the cost of oil affects people in many ways. But today we want to talk about how oil affects people who drive an automobile! Automobiles include buses, trucks, motorcycles and cars. People use automobiles to get from place to place. Many people even drive automobiles, like public buses and taxi cars, to earn money to live. People use oil to produce gasoline. Gasoline gives power, or fuels an automobile. So, when the price of oil goes up, so does the cost of driving an automobile! In some places in the world right now it costs over fifty [50] dollars just to fill one small car with gasoline. And that may only fuel the car for one week!Voice 1
The rising cost of oil around the world makes people think differently about driving automobiles. Today’s Spotlight is on the history and the future of this important method of transportation.Voice 2
Today, it is difficult to imagine a world before there were automobiles. Automobiles are everywhere! But it was not that long ago when automobiles did not even exist. A busy city street today may sound something like this. But just about two hundred [200] years ago it probably sounded more like this.Voice 1
Nicholas Cugnot built the first automobile in the late seventeen hundreds [1700's]. It used steam power for fuel. And it could drive at speeds of about seven [7] kilometres per hour. But steam engines were very large. They needed two [2] different parts to work. One part of the engine would heat the water. Then the steam from the heated water would go to another part of the engine to push the car forward. Many other inventors tried to build a smaller steam-powered automobile that was easier to use. But automobiles did not become popular until someone invented a different kind of engine.Voice 2
The engine that powers almost all of the automobiles you see on the road today is called an internal combustion engine. The internal combustion engine was invented and developed by four [4] men from Germany in 1886. Internal combustion engines are smaller than steam engines because they create heat and power all in the same place. Internal combustion engines use gasoline to fuel the engine from the inside. That same engine burns the fuel and creates the power to push the automobile forward.Voice 1
This new engine made automobiles more popular around the world. But for a long time, it was still only the very wealthy who could buy one. Automobiles cost a lot of money because of the way people made them. Each automobile was handmade by one [1] or two [2] people. So automobiles took a long time to make. And they cost a lot of money to fix.Voice 2
But in the early 1900's a man from the United States changed how automobiles were made. You may have heard his name before - Henry Ford. Ford was busy making his own automobile in the United States when he had an idea. His idea was to make producing automobiles easier and faster. He did this by designing one car model that many different people could help him make. He used simple parts. He made them all the same color. Then his workers simply followed the same design plan for every car. This let Ford produce many cars that were all the same in a short amount of time.Voice 1
Ford’s method changed the way industry works around the world. He designed a system that made it easy to produce large amounts of his product. And he paid his workers enough money so that they could buy his product. Ford made it possible for many people to buy an automobile.Voice 2
Ford’s most popular car was called the Model T. By the 1920's, Ford had produced over fifteen million [15,000,000] Model T cars. Cars like Ford’s Model T had become popular in the United States and around the world.Voice 1
So now that we know a little bit about the history of the automobile, what is the future of this important form of transportation?Voice 2
Well, as we said at the beginning of this program, automobiles require gasoline to operate. The gasoline industry plays a large part in the future of the automobile.Voice 1
There are many reasons why the automobile industry’s dependence on gasoline for fuel is a problem. Gasoline comes from oil. The amount of oil in the world is limited. It will not last forever. This is one of the reasons why the price of gasoline keeps rising around the world.Voice 2
And it is also a reason why more and more automobile makers are trying to develop cars that do not need gasoline.Voice 1
For example, it is possible to fuel an automobile with hydrogen. Many large automobile companies are researching this new technology. Right now, it is difficult to use hydrogen because it does not last very long. One tank full of hydrogen may only be able to fuel a car for a very short time. But people are hopeful that new technologies will help make hydrogen a source of fuel in the future.Voice 2
Some automobile producers have designed electric cars. These cars receive power from a battery. But the battery must be recharged every eighty [80] kilometres. So you would not be able to take a long trip with an electric car. For this reason, electric cars are not very popular.Voice 1
But there is a new kind of automobile that is becoming more and more popular around the world. It is called a hybrid. Hybrid cars use technology from both gasoline-powered and electric engines. Hybrids have gasoline-powered engines like normal cars. But the engines do not give power to push the car forward. Instead, they give power to the battery. The battery makes the car go forward. You do not need to recharge the battery in a hybrid car. The gasoline engine provides the power to the battery.Voice 2
Hybrid engines are smaller. They require less gasoline to operate. And they are better for the environment. Right now there is a waiting list to get a hybrid car in the United States. And many people hope that hybrid automobiles become more popular around the world in the future.Voice 1
Transportation is an important issue in the world today. You may have heard another program in this transportation series about trains. Listen for more Spotlight programs in the future about different forms of transportation.Voice 2
This program is called Cars, Buses and Trucks. We love to hear comments and questions from our listeners. You can email us at radio @ english . net. Good-bye!
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