Unit 9 Saving Energy

听力教程第三版 5       Unit 9 Saving Energy

1. KW; MW：kilowatt；megawatt.             measurement unit

2. lb：pound

3. icicle：a pointed piece of ice 冰柱

4. crisis：a time of great danger

5. technology：scientific knowledge used in practical ways in industry

6. solar roof：roof top   太阳能solar来源于：sun太阳

7. photovoltaic：producing a voltage when exposed to radiant energy (especially light) 光伏发电

8. prototype：the first design of sth from which other forms are copied or developed

9. chemical reactor：an apparatus for holding substances that are undergoing a chemical reaction

10. electro-chemical：电化学      electro-chemical reactor 电化学反应堆

11. fuel cell：cell that produces electricity by oxidation of fuel

12. power grid：a system of high tension cables by which electrical power is distributed throughout a region

grid同义词：network

1. wine：an alcoholic drink 

2. vine：a climbing plant that produces grapes

3. formula：a series of letters, numbers or symbols that represent a rule or law

4. hydrogen：a chemical element.

5. premium：high quality

6. maneuverable：manoeuvrable；flexible

7. Sonoma County:

• 是位于California加利福尼亚州northern著名的wine-producing regions葡萄酒产区,

• 距离San Francisco金门大桥Golden Gate Bridge北部仅30公里,

• 毗邻Marin、Napa、Lake和Mendocino县,

• 依傍太平洋the pacific ocean以及圣帕布鲁湾(San Pablo Bay)。

1. short-circuited短路：a wrong connection or damaged wire causes electricity to travel along the wrong route and damage the device.

2. unveiled：revealed

3. astronomy：the scientific study of the sun, moon, stars, planets, etc.

4. astronomically：enormously

5. beneath：under

A  DriWater - a unique method to irrigate  【Vineyard-grapes planting】【葡萄园葡萄种植】

Vineyard workers pop a premium(high-quality) wine grapevine out of its package and plant it in the soil of Sonoma County, California.【northern】 Then they plant a package of water right along side. It's DriWater.   located in Tipton, IA葡萄园工人从包装中取出优质葡萄藤，种植在加利福尼亚州索诺玛县的土壤中。然后他们在旁边种了一包水。这是干水。

Sonoma County：

• 是位于California加利福尼亚州著名的wine-producing regions葡萄酒产区,

• 距离San Francisco金门大桥Golden Gate Bridge北部仅30公里,

• 毗邻Marin、Napa、Lake和Mendocino县,

• 依傍太平洋the pacific ocean以及圣帕布鲁湾(San Pablo Bay)。

James Walker (Buchanan Vineyard Services, Inc.): It allows us to put the plant in with the water supply that it needs to go through the growing season. We can plant it and walk away.它使我们能够为植物提供生长季节所需的供水。

詹姆斯·沃克James Walker 公司: Buchanan Vineyard Services, Inc.【位于Sonoma County】

有限公司 Inc. : incorporated

DriWater 含义：the water that supply in the growing season. 

Like a slowly melting icicle, the package of jellied water will release moisture to the plant for two to three months. Harold Jensen invented it.就像一根慢慢融化的冰柱，这包冻水将向植物释放水分两到三个月。这是哈罗德·詹森发明的。

冰柱 icicle：a pointed piece of ice

冻水作用 jellied water： release moisture to the plant for 2 to 3 months.

哈罗德·詹森的发明 Harold Jensen： invented jellied water

发明DriWater.原因：Creating forests

发明的时间和人员 Harold Jensen:

• Every night and every weekend, 每天晚上和每个周末

• two of my daughters would come over and my wife, 女儿和妻子

• and two daughters and I had four blenders going, 四台搅拌机

• and we made many thousand cups of DriWater. 几千杯干水

Finally, they hit on the right formula. 找到了正确的公式

Harold Jensen: And that is ready to put in the soil, next to the root ball of a plant. This is 97.85% water, 2% vegetable gum, and 0.15% aluminum sulfate.这已经准备好放在土壤里了，在植物的根球旁边。这是97.85%的水、2%的植物胶和0.15%的硫酸铝。

Harold Jensen's patented the idea. Once in the ground, bacteria eat away at the jell, releasing the water. 他为这个想法申请了专利。一旦进入地面，细菌就会吃掉凝胶，释放水分。

James Walker's vineyard service will put ten thousand【10，000】 packages of DriWater into the ground with new vines in Sonoma County.

詹姆斯·沃克（James Walker）的葡萄园服务公司将在Sonoma County种植新的葡萄树，向地下注入一万包干水。

Using jelled, bottled water to grow new vines in a vineyard, is one thing. But it's quite another to attempt to grow a whole forest in a desert. That's what they're trying to do in Egypt.  在葡萄园里用冻瓶装水种植新葡萄是一回事。但在沙漠中种植一整片森林完全是另一回事。这就是他们在埃及想要做的。

埃及Egypt： Northeast Africa、 the traffic hub of the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa、Ancient Egypt is one of the four ancient civilizations in the world

Egyptians planted two million【2,000,000】 trees around a new town in the Sahara Desert. Each tree survives on just two quarts of DriWater for months at a time until their roots reach ground water.   埃及人在撒哈拉沙漠的一个新城镇周围种植了200万棵树。每棵树一次只能在两夸脱的干水中存活数月，直到它们的根到达地下水。

Sahara Desert：形成于约2.5million年前，是世界biggest的沙质荒漠Sandy desert，面积约9320000 km² 或 9060000 km²，位于 northern Africa。

夸脱quart ： a unit of volume that is equal to two pints.

Creating forests is the reason Jensen invented DriWater.

Harold Jensen: When I drive out in the desert in Egypt among two million little trees, it's pretty awesome.

All you need are seedlings, a desert, and a little DriWater.

B  Wind power - renewable energy

A study says wind power will lead the growth in the use of renewable energy in the United States and Canada over the next ten years. Renewable energy also includes forms like power from the sun. Navigant Consulting in the United States carried out the study. Energy companies helped pay for much of the research. 

Navigant Consulting：NCI 是 Navigant Consulting, Inc. 全称

                                           Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois  总部在伊利诺伊州 芝加哥城

The use of wind energy has grown in the United States, but remains less than 1% of all the energy produced.

Lisa Frantzis led the study.   She says the researchers expect additions of as much as 1500 megawatts from wind power projects each year. That is about equal to the energy production of one nuclear power station.

兆瓦megawatts： 通常缩略为MW

The study says there have been major improvements in the performance of all renewable energy technologies in the past 20 years.  For example, the study reports a 90% drop in the price of electricity produced from wind. In the 1980s, a kilowatt hour of wind power cost about 38 cents.

Now, a kilowatt hour is closer to 3 cents. 

The study found that government support must continue and grow to permit renewable energies to compete in the power industry.

However, some renewable energy companies face criticism. In fact, wind energy producers usually have to deal with opposition from communities they try to enter. 

Cape Cod is a geographic cape extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of Massachusetts.Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months.The name Cape Cod, coined in 1602 by Bartholomew Gosnod, is the ninth oldest English.科德角这个名字由巴塞洛缪·戈斯诺德于1602年创造，是英国第九古老的名字。

a wind energy company is trying to set up business in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. The Cape Wind Company wants to place more than 100 windmills in nearby waters. The windmills are hundreds of meters tall. Cape Wind says the project could provide Cape Cod with 75% of its electricity needs. And, it would not create pollution. 

人们不想要风能的原因

But, a number of people who live on or visit the Cape say they do not

want the windmills. They say Cape Cod is a national treasure that should not be open to industry. They argue that building the windmills would hurt fish and birds in the area. And, they say it would hurt tourism. They say the windmills will ruin the beauty of looking out to sea from the coast.

Environmental groups, however, look at the situation differently. They argue that a source of energy that does not cause pollution would protect natural environments like Cape Cod. 

C  Self-sufficient energy

Sally Kemmerer has, so far, escaped Northern California's rolling blackouts. But up on the roof of her Oakland【West of California】home, workers are tapping into, perhaps, the most reliable power source. The sun. It could mean no more worries about blackouts or power rates. 到目前为止，萨莉·凯默尔躲过了北加利福尼亚州的连续停电。但在她奥克兰家的屋顶上，工人们正在接入最可靠的电源。太阳。这可能意味着不再担心停电或电价。

Sally Kemmerer (homeowner房主): I hope that we are going to be able to zero out our electric bill, I mean that's definitely our goal. Turning the sun's rays into electricity is nothing new. But California's power crisis has cast a new light on the technology.我希望我们能够把电费归零，我的意思是，这绝对是我们的目标。当然，将太阳光转化为电能并不是什么新鲜事。但加州的电力危机给这项技术带来了新的曙光。

Gary Gerber (a solar power contractor太阳能承包商):

I might have been getting, say 3 phone calls a week in a couple of months ago. I'm getting 6 a day now. 替代能源Alternative energy is even more attractive, thanks to a state rebate program.退税计划 So far this month, California's Energy Commission has received 200 project applications, more than all of last year. Putting in a solar roof is still a relatively expensive proposition. This project cost around 45 000 dollars. Even taking into account the state subsidy of 12 000 dollars, that leaves a net cost 净成本to the homeowner of around 33 000 dollars.

Sally Kemmerer: We were happy to find out that, the system should pay for itself, 20 years, maybe.

Aaron Wellendorf has had a p-v (or photovoltaic generator光伏发电机) for more than a year. Like most solar systems, his is not off the grid completely. The utility still kicks in at night, or when there's no sun. But when there is bright light.  Aaron Wellendorf拥有一台p-v（或光伏发电机）已经一年多了。和大多数太阳能系统一样，它并没有完全脱离电网。在晚上或者没有太阳的时候，这个实用程序仍然有效。但是当有亮光的时候。

Aaron Wellendorf: Now I'm turning my meter backward with extra power that I'm generating. 现在我可以把我的电表倒转，产生额外的能量。

Backward? That's right! Wellendorf's meter tracks how much power

goes back into the utility grid. Last year all he paid for electricity was a

service charge, around 5 dollars a month.去年，他支付的电费只有服务费，大约每月5美元。

In fact, even after powering his super-efficient household appliances and

his converted electric truck, Wellendorf generated a net surplus of more than 2 000-kilowatt hours.事实上，即使在为他的超高效家用电器和改装的电动卡车供电后，韦伦多夫也产生了超过2000千瓦时的净盈余。

Unfortunately, state law doesn't require the utility to pay him for that.不幸的是，州法律并不要求公用事业公司为此向他支付费用。

Aaron Wellendorf: I don't get it in money, I just get the satisfaction of

helping out the power grid. And, the satisfaction of being energy self-sufficient. 亚伦·韦伦多夫：我不是从钱里得到的，我只是从帮助电网中得到满足。能量自给自足的满足感。

D  Fuel cell cars

Beneath the skin of this ordinary looking prototype sits an electro-chemical reactor: a hand built, astronomically expensive power plant known as a fuel cell. It's expected to be running ordinary family cars on California's roads within three years.  在这个外观普通的原型之下，坐落着一座电化学反应堆：一座手工建造、造价昂贵的发电厂，被称为燃料电池。预计三年内，它将在加利福尼亚州的道路上运行普通家用汽车。

Rocket scientists have been using fuel cells ever since the United States went to the moon【登月July 20th, 1969】 more than 30 years ago. But they're generally too complicated and expensive for much other than a government-sponsored space program.自从30多年前美国登月以来，火箭科学家一直在使用燃料电池。但它们通常过于复杂和昂贵，不适合政府资助的太空项目。

The California fuel cell partnership says it's about to change that.加州燃料电池合作组织表示，他们即将改变这种状况。

Firoz Rasul (Ballard Power Systems电力系统): A fuel cell, very simply described, is a power generator. It makes electricity, and it makes electricity on demand, and it makes electricity through the combination of hydrogen, which can come from  various sources, and oxygen from the air.  燃料电池，简单地说，就是一台发电机。它发电，按需发电，通过各种来源的氢气和空气中的氧气的组合发电。

That creates electricity, water, and heat, but no exhaust emissions.这会产生电、水和热，但不会产生废气排放。

Eight of the world's biggest automobile makers, along with energy

companies and fuel cell builders, will work side by side in this Sacramento, California Center to learn how to build fuel cell vehicles that work as well ascars with gasoline engines. 世界上八家最大的汽车制造商，以及能源公司和燃料电池制造商，将在加利福尼亚州萨克拉门托的这个中心并肩工作，学习如何制造燃料电池汽车，使其与汽油发动机的汽车一样工作。

Sacramento: the  capital  city of California and the largest city of Sacramento County. the sixth-largest city in California and the ninth largest  capital in  the  United States. 萨克拉门托：加利福尼亚州首府，萨克拉门托县最大的城市。加利福尼亚州第六大城市，美国第九大首都。

John Wallace (Ford Motor Company福特汽车公司): We still have technical challenges getting this extremely complex system to work properly, the way customers expect it to work. There are challenges in using new fuels, and providing the new fuel infrastructure. 要让这个极其复杂的系统按照客户期望的方式正常工作，我们仍然面临技术挑战。在使用新燃料和提供新的燃料基础设施方面存在挑战。

And before fuel cell vehicles hit the road, there will have to be a network of hydrogen stations that will allow drivers to fill up with the flammable gas, under 3 600 pounds of pressure.在燃料电池汽车上路之前，必须有一个氢气站网络，让司机在3600磅的压力下加注可燃气体。

Manufacturers are confident they can build fuel cell powered vehicles. 制造商有信心制造燃料电池驱动的汽车。The questions they hope to answer here are: how reliable can they make them, and can they make them cheap enough so people can buy them. 他们希望在这里回答的问题是：他们能制造出多可靠的产品，他们能制造出足够便宜的产品，让人们可以购买。

E  An environment-friendly car

U.S. and Indian officials have unveiled a small electric car to be marketed in India where pollution is a serious problem in many cities. 

The prototype car called the Reeva is small, quiet and very maneuverable.这款名为Reeva的原型车体积小，安静，操控性强。

According to its makers, it can carry two adults, two children and a cargo for 80 kilometers per battery charge and reach speeds of 70 kilometers per hour. The car is the product of a joint effort by Indian concern, Mini Group Industries, and the U.S. firm Amerigon Incorporated. In a news conference at the U.S. 据制造商称，它可以携带两名成年人、两名儿童和一件货物，每次充电80公里，速度可达70公里/小时。这款汽车是印度企业、迷你集团工业公司和美国公司Amerigon Incorporated共同努力的产物。在美国的新闻发布会上。

Embassy, Amerigon chairman said the electric car meets the needs of the typical Indian commuter. 美国大使馆主席说，电动汽车满足了典型的印度通勤者的需求。

"We have quite an efficient vehicle and with the present battery strength, that is about 80 kilometers, and to put that in perspective, uh, that's about three times across most of the medium-sized to larger-sized cities in India, so three times across without recharging. It is about four to five times the average driving distance of a person in a day.”“我们有一辆相当高效的汽车，目前的电池电量约为80公里，从长远来看，印度大多数中大型城市的电池电量约为80公里的三倍，因此在不充电的情况下，电池电量为80公里的三倍。这大约是一个人一天平均行驶距离的四到五倍。”

The electric car is priced at $5 000, somewhere between the traditional

Indian passenger car and the less expensive motor bike. During a test drive, the Reeva proved to be very quiet, but had enough pickup to move quickly. Chirgin Takana, the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, was among those who tried out the car.                 capital and north-central of India.

电动汽车的价格为5000美元，介于传统的印度乘用车和较便宜的摩托车之间。在一次试驾中，Reeva被证明非常安静，但有足够的皮卡快速移动。德里副州长奇尔金·塔卡纳（Chirgin Takana）也参与了这辆车的试用。

I thought it drove very well, very smooth and very easy to maneuver. And also the pickup, you know, is good, so if you are at a traffic intersection, you can take off very quickly. 我觉得它开得很好，非常，非常平稳，很容易操控。而且皮卡车也很好，所以如果你在交通路口，你可以很快起飞。acceleration

U.S. officials say commercial production of the Reeva is expected to begin

soon in India. Production of the prototype car was supported by the U.S.

Agency for International Development. The United States has pledged to

cooperate with India in environmental matters. Indian cities suffer from serious air pollution. Experts blame the problem on heavy vehicle traffic and the use of poorly refined fuels.