BBC 6分钟英语学习 交通的未来

From BBC, learning English. Hello, I'm Rob, and this is Six Minute English, the show that brings you an interesting topic, authentic listening practice, and some vocabulary to help you improve your language skills.

And Hello, I'm Neil. Our topic today is transport.

How do you think you'll be traveling to work and, say, 30 years time?

Rob Well, not only will homeworking be more prevalent, that means common, but I hope I won't be working in 30 years time.

Good answer. But if we look back and see how transport has changed in the last 30 years, it makes you wonder what the future holds.

Yes, we've seen how air travel has become commonplace for many people.

Commonplace means not unusual. And there's been the development of high speed train travel.

But the main priority has been speed going faster to make your journeys quicker.

That's true, and we'll be discussing some ideas for making transport even faster soon.

But let's not waste any time and speed on to today's quiz question.

Ah yes, time waits for no one, not even you, neil.

So can you answer this question?

According to Guinness World Records, in which country has the fastest ever train been recorded?

Is it in A, china, B, japan or C, france?

Hmm. All these countries have fast trains, but I've heard the Chinese trains go particularly fast, so I'm going to say A China.

Well, you'll have to wait until the end of the program to see if you're right.

But let's talk more now about the future of transport.

One development we hear much about is automation.

Automation means using machines to do work that humans normally do.

And in terms of transport, this means driverless vehicles.

It won't be too long before we become the passenger in a driverless car.

Scary, and the French train engineering company Allston is planning to test automated freight trains later this year.

The automated train prototype can travel for about 100 km without driver intervention.

A prototype is the 1st version of something which can be tested before it's produced in large quantities.

Of course, some trains are already driven by computers, but there's an exciting plan to develop a form of driverless vehicle that could move you around at 1000, 123 km/h.

Come on, near that sounds a bit far fetched, like flying cars that we see in sci fi movies.

It's difficult to believe, because it's unlikely to happen.

Well, you say that, but it's already being tested in Nevada in the USA, and has a name Hyperloop One.

Ah, tell me more. The idea is you get loaded into a pod, and then you're pushed through a metal tube at high speed, taking you to your destination in minutes, rather than hours.

Anita San Gupta is the lead systems engineer, and says there's nothing scary about it.

The hyperloop is a magle of train in a vacuum system or a vacuum tube.

And so you can also think of it as an aircraft flying at 200000 ft.

So people don't have any issue flying in airplanes, and people don't have any issue going and maglav trains.

This is simply combining the two and allows you to be more energy efficient.

So Anita Sanguter explained the type of technology the High Polo used 1st.

She mentioned maglev that's a short way of saying magnetic levitation.

It's when trains travel on magnetic track rather than conventional rails.

And then she mentioned a vacuum system.

A vacuum is a space that has all the air and other gases removed from it, so the tube these pods travel in have no air, so there's no resistance.

And these technologies are more efficient and they save energy, which is a good thing.

This sounds like a great way to travel.

But will it take off? Well, BBC Technology correspondent Rorie Kethlin Jones isn't so sure.

He thinks it will be quite challenging to convince governments to allow long metal tubes to be built on or below ground.

But we have to try these new technologies.

ROBB If we didn't, we'd still be traveling around on horse and cart.

Hmm, A good point, neil, and we wouldn't have been able to travel at the great speeds mentioned in today's question.

Now, earlier, I asked you, according to Guinness World Records, in which country has the fastest ever train traveled?

Is it in A, china, B, japan or C, france?

And I said, A China. Ah, and you are wrong.

China does have some very fast trains, but the fastest recorded train was a Maglev from the Central Japan Railway Company, which ran on a test tracks at a speed of 603 km/h.

Now, that would make my commute to work very quick.

OK, shall we recap some of the vocabulary we've heard today, starting with commonplace?

Yes, which means not unusual or often seen, e.g., free wi fiing coffee shops, is commonplace these days, and very useful.

It is too. Next, we had automation, meaning using a machine to do something instead of a human.

Automation in the car making industry has led to the loss of hundreds of jobs.

Of course, when you build a new car, you need to make a prototype that's the 1st version of something which can be tested before it's produced in large quantities.

The prototype of a new solar powered bike has been so successful that it's now going into mass production.

Come on, rob that sounds a bit far fetched, and by that, I mean so unbelievable it's unlikely to happen.

Well, something people once thought far fetched is now a reality, and that's magleve that short for magnetic levitation, and is how some of the world's fastest trains travel.

Finally, we discussed the word vacuum.

It's a space that has had all the air and other gases removed from it, basically an empty space.

The plan for virgins Hyperloop one is to make a maglev even faster by putting it in a vacuum tube.

And that brings us to the end of today's six minute English don't forget to check out our youtube, facebook, twitter and Instagram pages, and we'll see you next time.

Goodbye. Bye.

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