Behold, the bus of the future
It looks rather like a futuristic stretch limousine, but its actual function is rather more populist: the Superbus is a novel publictransport system being developed in the Netherlands by the Delft University of Technology. It is an electric bus designed to be able to switch seamlessly between ordinary roads and dedicated "supertracks", on which it can reach speeds of 250kph (155mph). It could thus present an alternative to much more expensive magneticlevitation trains.
Though it is as wide and long as a standard city bus, the Superbus is only 1.7 meters high, or roughly the same height as a sportsutility vehicle. Joris Melkert, the project’s manager, explains that the designers managed to keep the Superbus this small by doing away with the central aisle usually found in today’s buses, a vestigial design feature that allows passengers to stand upright, but also gives conventional buses the aerodynamic profile of a brick.
The lowriding Superbus, in contrast, has a separate door for each of its 30odd seats. The low ceiling and the use of lightweight materials make for a far more streamlined vehicle, which in turn requires only a modest electric motor: though engineers have not yet decided whether the Superbus will be powered by fuel cells or batteries, they estimate that it will be able to accelerate from rest to 100kph in a leisurely 36 seconds.
The individual doors also allow for rapid loading and unloading of passengers, which will need to be fast if the Superbus is to live up to its promised doortodoor mission: instead of making predetermined stops, the vehicle will pick up and drop off passengers based on their textmessaged requests. This kind of flexibility is a central tenet of the project; the estimated threeyear lifespan of a Superbus (as opposed to thirteen years for a standard European bus) will also allow the latest technologies to be phased in quickly as they become available.
To start with, that might include satellitebased tracking to keep the Superbus on course, sensors to scan the road for obstacles up to 300 meters ahead and a smart suspension system that remembers the rough spots in the road.
Some detractors have suggested that making so many stops would erode the Superbus’s speed advantage, and others question whether a new cog in the Netherlands’ alreadyintricate transport infrastructure is even needed. Furthermore, the Superbus does not yet exist, whereas maglev trains are already operating successfully in Shanghai.
The future of the project is uncertain. Its intended route, a new transport link connecting Amsterdam with the northern city of Groningen, was recently scrapped by the Dutch government (although the Superbus was deemed the most feasible of all the options considered, which also included a maglev train). In spite of the setback, the project has since received an extra 7m ($9m) in government funding, plus 1m from Connexxion, a local bus company. The Superbus team’s latest plan is to unveil a fully functional prototype at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. With its combination of low emissions, high speed and snazzy design, this might prove to be a bus that is.
alternative
a.兩者挑一的;n.可供選擇的事物，替換物，選擇對(duì)象
[真題例句] I have discovered, as perhaps Kelsey will after her muchpublicized resignation from the editorship of She after a buildup of stress, that abandoning the doctrine of "juggling your life", and making the alternative (a.) move into "downshifting" brings with it far greater rewards than financial
success and social status.[2001年閱讀5]
[例句精譯] 我已經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn)(由于壓力過(guò)大，凱爾茜已多次公開(kāi)宣稱(chēng)要辭去《她》雜志編輯的職務(wù)，在這之后她也許會(huì)有同樣發(fā)現(xiàn))放棄"忙忙碌碌"的生活哲學(xué)，轉(zhuǎn)而過(guò)一種"放慢生活節(jié)奏"的生活所帶來(lái)的回報(bào)，比經(jīng)濟(jì)成功和社會(huì)地位更有價(jià)值。
magnetic
a.①磁的，有磁性的;②有吸引力的
conventional
a.慣例的，常規(guī)的
[真題例句] Reporters tend to be part of a broadly defined social and cultural elite, so their work tends to reflect the conventional values of this elite.
[2001年閱讀3]
[例句精譯] 記者們往往屬于廣義的社會(huì)文化精英的一個(gè)部分，因此他們的工作往往反映了這些精英傳統(tǒng)的價(jià)值觀。
flexibility
n.彈性，適應(yīng)性
[真題例句] Another line of thought assumes a memory storage system of limited capacity that provides adaptive flexibility specifically through forgetting.
[1995年閱讀5]
[例句精譯] 另一種思路則假定人的記憶存儲(chǔ)系統(tǒng)儲(chǔ)量有限，這個(gè)系統(tǒng)專(zhuān)門(mén)通過(guò)遺忘提供適應(yīng)的靈活性。
available
a.①可用的，可得到的;②可以見(jiàn)到的，隨時(shí)可來(lái)的
[真題例句] However, there are still no forecasts for when fasterthanlight travel will be available (①), or when human cloning will be perfected, or when time travel will be possible.[2001年翻譯]
[例句精譯] 然而，對(duì)于何時(shí)能夠進(jìn)行超光速旅行，何時(shí)人類(lèi)克隆技術(shù)能夠完善，何時(shí)時(shí)間旅行成為可能，仍未作出預(yù)測(cè)。
scrap
n.①碎片;②廢料;v.廢棄，報(bào)廢
Little Tips:
荷蘭發(fā)明了兼具跨市列車(chē)速度和巴士行駛靈活度的21世紀(jì)環(huán)?！俺?jí)巴士”。它外表像蝙蝠俠的“蝙蝠車(chē)”，時(shí)速近250公里。研制它的荷蘭宇航科技教授奧克爾斯形容，它將是未來(lái)舉足輕重的大眾運(yùn)輸。
“超級(jí)巴士”跟普通巴士一樣長(zhǎng)。它兩邊各有8道門(mén)，其流線型車(chē)身僅高1.6米，以便盡量發(fā)揮空氣動(dòng)力學(xué)效用，既能在一般公路行駛，也可在專(zhuān)設(shè)的高速快線以250公里行駛。它靠司機(jī)用電腦系統(tǒng)輔助自動(dòng)駕駛，由電力驅(qū)動(dòng)。為使行車(chē)流暢，它將采用能適應(yīng)凹凸路面的先進(jìn)避震系統(tǒng)，及使用先進(jìn)雷達(dá)探測(cè)前面幾百米路面的阻礙物和意外。
看呀! 未來(lái)的巴士
乍看之下超級(jí)巴士更像一輛未來(lái)派風(fēng)格的加長(zhǎng)型豪華轎車(chē)，但是它實(shí)際的作用卻更加平易近人：這輛超級(jí)巴士是荷蘭代夫特理工大學(xué)開(kāi)發(fā)的新一代公共交通系統(tǒng)。這是一種能夠在普通路面和專(zhuān)用“超級(jí)車(chē)道”間平穩(wěn)過(guò)渡的電動(dòng)巴士，在“超級(jí)車(chē)道”上時(shí)速可達(dá)250公里(相當(dāng)于155英里)。這樣，它或許能夠成為替代價(jià)格昂貴的磁懸浮列車(chē)的另一種選擇途徑。
盡管超級(jí)巴士車(chē)身的長(zhǎng)與寬同標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的城市巴士沒(méi)什么兩樣，但是它的高度只有1.7米，差不多是一輛運(yùn)動(dòng)型多功能車(chē)的高度。項(xiàng)目負(fù)責(zé)人Joris Melkert解釋說(shuō)，設(shè)計(jì)者們?nèi)サ袅爽F(xiàn)有巴士里常有的中間過(guò)道的設(shè)計(jì)，從而使得超級(jí)巴士體積非常小巧。盡管中間過(guò)道的設(shè)計(jì)給乘客提供了站立的空間，但是因?yàn)榇u類(lèi)外形上也同樣給普通巴士帶來(lái)了空氣動(dòng)力學(xué)的包袱。
相比之下，低底盤(pán)的超級(jí)巴士為車(chē)上30個(gè)單人座各配備了一個(gè)車(chē)門(mén)。低車(chē)頂和輕質(zhì)材料令車(chē)身更符合流線型，這樣的汽車(chē)對(duì)電力發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)的要求不高：雖然工程師們還沒(méi)有決定是讓超級(jí)巴士采用燃料電池還是蓄電池，但他們估計(jì)該汽車(chē)靜止加速到時(shí)速100公里僅僅需要36秒。
單獨(dú)的車(chē)門(mén)設(shè)計(jì)便于快速上下客，因?yàn)檫@對(duì)于實(shí)現(xiàn)許諾的“門(mén)對(duì)門(mén)”服務(wù)是必不可少的：汽車(chē)會(huì)根據(jù)乘客提供的文本消息的命令決定上下客，而不需要事先設(shè)定車(chē)站。這種靈活性體現(xiàn)了這一項(xiàng)目的主要原則;據(jù)估計(jì)一輛超級(jí)巴士的使用壽命是3年(與此相對(duì)應(yīng)，一輛標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的歐洲巴士的使用壽命達(dá)13年)，這使得各種最新的技術(shù)一旦成型便可以迅速投入使用。
超級(jí)巴士在啟動(dòng)加速前會(huì)采用一系列技術(shù)手段：衛(wèi)星跟蹤技術(shù)追蹤行駛中的超級(jí)巴士、傳感器掃描巴士前方300米內(nèi)的障礙物以及智能懸浮減震系統(tǒng)記錄路面上起伏顛簸的地點(diǎn)。
一些批評(píng)者認(rèn)為，?？康恼军c(diǎn)過(guò)多會(huì)抵消超級(jí)巴士高速度的優(yōu)勢(shì)，另一些反對(duì)者質(zhì)疑荷蘭本已錯(cuò)綜復(fù)雜的基礎(chǔ)交通系統(tǒng)是否需要這個(gè)新“玩意”。此外，超級(jí)巴士還未存在，而磁懸浮列車(chē)已在上海成功服役了。
該項(xiàng)目的前景還難以預(yù)料。最近，荷蘭政府駁回了該項(xiàng)目計(jì)劃建設(shè)的一條連接阿姆斯特丹同北部城市格羅寧根的交通線(雖然人們認(rèn)為超級(jí)巴士是包括磁懸浮列車(chē)在內(nèi)的所有備選方案中可行性的)。盡管遭受挫敗，但那之后該項(xiàng)目同時(shí)獲得了政府提供的700萬(wàn)歐元(900萬(wàn)美元)的額外資助和一家當(dāng)?shù)匕褪抗綜onnexxion提供的100萬(wàn)歐元。超級(jí)巴士研究小組的近期打算是在2008年北京奧運(yùn)會(huì)上向公眾展示一款功能完備的原型。由于超級(jí)巴士集低排放、高速度和超時(shí)尚設(shè)計(jì)于一身，它或許能夠被證明是一款值得人們翹首以待的巴士。
It looks rather like a futuristic stretch limousine, but its actual function is rather more populist: the Superbus is a novel publictransport system being developed in the Netherlands by the Delft University of Technology. It is an electric bus designed to be able to switch seamlessly between ordinary roads and dedicated "supertracks", on which it can reach speeds of 250kph (155mph). It could thus present an alternative to much more expensive magneticlevitation trains.
Though it is as wide and long as a standard city bus, the Superbus is only 1.7 meters high, or roughly the same height as a sportsutility vehicle. Joris Melkert, the project’s manager, explains that the designers managed to keep the Superbus this small by doing away with the central aisle usually found in today’s buses, a vestigial design feature that allows passengers to stand upright, but also gives conventional buses the aerodynamic profile of a brick.
The lowriding Superbus, in contrast, has a separate door for each of its 30odd seats. The low ceiling and the use of lightweight materials make for a far more streamlined vehicle, which in turn requires only a modest electric motor: though engineers have not yet decided whether the Superbus will be powered by fuel cells or batteries, they estimate that it will be able to accelerate from rest to 100kph in a leisurely 36 seconds.
The individual doors also allow for rapid loading and unloading of passengers, which will need to be fast if the Superbus is to live up to its promised doortodoor mission: instead of making predetermined stops, the vehicle will pick up and drop off passengers based on their textmessaged requests. This kind of flexibility is a central tenet of the project; the estimated threeyear lifespan of a Superbus (as opposed to thirteen years for a standard European bus) will also allow the latest technologies to be phased in quickly as they become available.
To start with, that might include satellitebased tracking to keep the Superbus on course, sensors to scan the road for obstacles up to 300 meters ahead and a smart suspension system that remembers the rough spots in the road.
Some detractors have suggested that making so many stops would erode the Superbus’s speed advantage, and others question whether a new cog in the Netherlands’ alreadyintricate transport infrastructure is even needed. Furthermore, the Superbus does not yet exist, whereas maglev trains are already operating successfully in Shanghai.
The future of the project is uncertain. Its intended route, a new transport link connecting Amsterdam with the northern city of Groningen, was recently scrapped by the Dutch government (although the Superbus was deemed the most feasible of all the options considered, which also included a maglev train). In spite of the setback, the project has since received an extra 7m ($9m) in government funding, plus 1m from Connexxion, a local bus company. The Superbus team’s latest plan is to unveil a fully functional prototype at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. With its combination of low emissions, high speed and snazzy design, this might prove to be a bus that is.
alternative
a.兩者挑一的;n.可供選擇的事物，替換物，選擇對(duì)象
[真題例句] I have discovered, as perhaps Kelsey will after her muchpublicized resignation from the editorship of She after a buildup of stress, that abandoning the doctrine of "juggling your life", and making the alternative (a.) move into "downshifting" brings with it far greater rewards than financial
success and social status.[2001年閱讀5]
[例句精譯] 我已經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn)(由于壓力過(guò)大，凱爾茜已多次公開(kāi)宣稱(chēng)要辭去《她》雜志編輯的職務(wù)，在這之后她也許會(huì)有同樣發(fā)現(xiàn))放棄"忙忙碌碌"的生活哲學(xué)，轉(zhuǎn)而過(guò)一種"放慢生活節(jié)奏"的生活所帶來(lái)的回報(bào)，比經(jīng)濟(jì)成功和社會(huì)地位更有價(jià)值。
magnetic
a.①磁的，有磁性的;②有吸引力的
conventional
a.慣例的，常規(guī)的
[真題例句] Reporters tend to be part of a broadly defined social and cultural elite, so their work tends to reflect the conventional values of this elite.
[2001年閱讀3]
[例句精譯] 記者們往往屬于廣義的社會(huì)文化精英的一個(gè)部分，因此他們的工作往往反映了這些精英傳統(tǒng)的價(jià)值觀。
flexibility
n.彈性，適應(yīng)性
[真題例句] Another line of thought assumes a memory storage system of limited capacity that provides adaptive flexibility specifically through forgetting.
[1995年閱讀5]
[例句精譯] 另一種思路則假定人的記憶存儲(chǔ)系統(tǒng)儲(chǔ)量有限，這個(gè)系統(tǒng)專(zhuān)門(mén)通過(guò)遺忘提供適應(yīng)的靈活性。
available
a.①可用的，可得到的;②可以見(jiàn)到的，隨時(shí)可來(lái)的
[真題例句] However, there are still no forecasts for when fasterthanlight travel will be available (①), or when human cloning will be perfected, or when time travel will be possible.[2001年翻譯]
[例句精譯] 然而，對(duì)于何時(shí)能夠進(jìn)行超光速旅行，何時(shí)人類(lèi)克隆技術(shù)能夠完善，何時(shí)時(shí)間旅行成為可能，仍未作出預(yù)測(cè)。
scrap
n.①碎片;②廢料;v.廢棄，報(bào)廢
Little Tips:
荷蘭發(fā)明了兼具跨市列車(chē)速度和巴士行駛靈活度的21世紀(jì)環(huán)?！俺?jí)巴士”。它外表像蝙蝠俠的“蝙蝠車(chē)”，時(shí)速近250公里。研制它的荷蘭宇航科技教授奧克爾斯形容，它將是未來(lái)舉足輕重的大眾運(yùn)輸。
“超級(jí)巴士”跟普通巴士一樣長(zhǎng)。它兩邊各有8道門(mén)，其流線型車(chē)身僅高1.6米，以便盡量發(fā)揮空氣動(dòng)力學(xué)效用，既能在一般公路行駛，也可在專(zhuān)設(shè)的高速快線以250公里行駛。它靠司機(jī)用電腦系統(tǒng)輔助自動(dòng)駕駛，由電力驅(qū)動(dòng)。為使行車(chē)流暢，它將采用能適應(yīng)凹凸路面的先進(jìn)避震系統(tǒng)，及使用先進(jìn)雷達(dá)探測(cè)前面幾百米路面的阻礙物和意外。
看呀! 未來(lái)的巴士
乍看之下超級(jí)巴士更像一輛未來(lái)派風(fēng)格的加長(zhǎng)型豪華轎車(chē)，但是它實(shí)際的作用卻更加平易近人：這輛超級(jí)巴士是荷蘭代夫特理工大學(xué)開(kāi)發(fā)的新一代公共交通系統(tǒng)。這是一種能夠在普通路面和專(zhuān)用“超級(jí)車(chē)道”間平穩(wěn)過(guò)渡的電動(dòng)巴士，在“超級(jí)車(chē)道”上時(shí)速可達(dá)250公里(相當(dāng)于155英里)。這樣，它或許能夠成為替代價(jià)格昂貴的磁懸浮列車(chē)的另一種選擇途徑。
盡管超級(jí)巴士車(chē)身的長(zhǎng)與寬同標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的城市巴士沒(méi)什么兩樣，但是它的高度只有1.7米，差不多是一輛運(yùn)動(dòng)型多功能車(chē)的高度。項(xiàng)目負(fù)責(zé)人Joris Melkert解釋說(shuō)，設(shè)計(jì)者們?nèi)サ袅爽F(xiàn)有巴士里常有的中間過(guò)道的設(shè)計(jì)，從而使得超級(jí)巴士體積非常小巧。盡管中間過(guò)道的設(shè)計(jì)給乘客提供了站立的空間，但是因?yàn)榇u類(lèi)外形上也同樣給普通巴士帶來(lái)了空氣動(dòng)力學(xué)的包袱。
相比之下，低底盤(pán)的超級(jí)巴士為車(chē)上30個(gè)單人座各配備了一個(gè)車(chē)門(mén)。低車(chē)頂和輕質(zhì)材料令車(chē)身更符合流線型，這樣的汽車(chē)對(duì)電力發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)的要求不高：雖然工程師們還沒(méi)有決定是讓超級(jí)巴士采用燃料電池還是蓄電池，但他們估計(jì)該汽車(chē)靜止加速到時(shí)速100公里僅僅需要36秒。
單獨(dú)的車(chē)門(mén)設(shè)計(jì)便于快速上下客，因?yàn)檫@對(duì)于實(shí)現(xiàn)許諾的“門(mén)對(duì)門(mén)”服務(wù)是必不可少的：汽車(chē)會(huì)根據(jù)乘客提供的文本消息的命令決定上下客，而不需要事先設(shè)定車(chē)站。這種靈活性體現(xiàn)了這一項(xiàng)目的主要原則;據(jù)估計(jì)一輛超級(jí)巴士的使用壽命是3年(與此相對(duì)應(yīng)，一輛標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的歐洲巴士的使用壽命達(dá)13年)，這使得各種最新的技術(shù)一旦成型便可以迅速投入使用。
超級(jí)巴士在啟動(dòng)加速前會(huì)采用一系列技術(shù)手段：衛(wèi)星跟蹤技術(shù)追蹤行駛中的超級(jí)巴士、傳感器掃描巴士前方300米內(nèi)的障礙物以及智能懸浮減震系統(tǒng)記錄路面上起伏顛簸的地點(diǎn)。
一些批評(píng)者認(rèn)為，?？康恼军c(diǎn)過(guò)多會(huì)抵消超級(jí)巴士高速度的優(yōu)勢(shì)，另一些反對(duì)者質(zhì)疑荷蘭本已錯(cuò)綜復(fù)雜的基礎(chǔ)交通系統(tǒng)是否需要這個(gè)新“玩意”。此外，超級(jí)巴士還未存在，而磁懸浮列車(chē)已在上海成功服役了。
該項(xiàng)目的前景還難以預(yù)料。最近，荷蘭政府駁回了該項(xiàng)目計(jì)劃建設(shè)的一條連接阿姆斯特丹同北部城市格羅寧根的交通線(雖然人們認(rèn)為超級(jí)巴士是包括磁懸浮列車(chē)在內(nèi)的所有備選方案中可行性的)。盡管遭受挫敗，但那之后該項(xiàng)目同時(shí)獲得了政府提供的700萬(wàn)歐元(900萬(wàn)美元)的額外資助和一家當(dāng)?shù)匕褪抗綜onnexxion提供的100萬(wàn)歐元。超級(jí)巴士研究小組的近期打算是在2008年北京奧運(yùn)會(huì)上向公眾展示一款功能完備的原型。由于超級(jí)巴士集低排放、高速度和超時(shí)尚設(shè)計(jì)于一身，它或許能夠被證明是一款值得人們翹首以待的巴士。