Satellite Navigation Systems(在线收听

   NB: This is not a word for word transcript

  Alice: Hello, I'm Alice.
  Stephen: And I'm Stephen.
  Alice: And this is 6 Minute English! This week we’re talking about sat navs.
  Stephen: Sat navs – that’s short for satellite navigation systems.
  Alice: They’re the gadgets people put in their cars to help give them directions.
  Engineers have been asking if we’re becoming too reliant on them. Before we
  find out more, here’s a question for you, Stephen:
  Stephen: Ok – I’m ready and waiting.
  Alice: When we talk about ‘satellite navigation’ in English, there is an abbreviation
  we use called GPS. Do you know what it stands for? I’ll give you some choices.
  Is it:
  a) greater place signal
  b) global positioning signal, or
  c) global positioning system
  Stephen: I’m pretty sure I know the answer – but I won’t spoil it for everyone else. I’ll
  tell you at the end of the programme.
  Alice: That’s fine. Sat navs using GPS have become very popular in recent years. But
  they can sometimes get people into trouble. The BBC News website has lots of
  examples about people driving into rivers or getting stuck on roads which are
  too narrow. This woman is talking about the lorries which keep getting stuck
  under a 15th century stone archway in her town because they’re following
  directions on their sat navs.
  Insert 1: Woman
  The amount of lorries that we see nearly every day - they get to that point and there’s no
  signs anywhere. At the bottom of the road, it doesn’t say: “Don’t go down there - there’s
  a bridge.” And they get to this point here and every one of them have to reverse - and
  there’s cars everywhere. It’s just absolute mayhem.
  Alice: Oh dear – she says it’s mayhem. Lorries either get stuck under the bridge or
  they cause lots of problems trying to turn around - or to go backwards, to
  reverse - on a very narrow road. She says it’s absolute mayhem.
  Stephen: Mayhem – chaos.
  Alice: In another incident, a car got stuck on the edge of a steep hill when its sat nav
  directed it down a path which wasn’t suitable for vehicles any more. Antony
  Chmarny, who works for a satellite navigation manufacturer, says the gadgets
  should only be used as an aid to driving:
  Insert 2:
  Sat nav voice: Turn around when possible – then turn right.
  Antony Chmarny: If it doesn’t look suitable, don’t drive down it, don’t drive down a
  one-way street the wrong way if a sat nav tells you to do that.
  Alice: I think he means, use your common sense – don’t drive down a one-way street
  the wrong way even if a sat nav tells you to do it!
  Stephen: I like the sat navs which you can programme with different voices – so you can
  have your favourite singer or actor with you in the car as your navigator!
  Alice: What a good idea! Let’s hear now from an engineer who is worried that we’re
  becoming too reliant on sat nav and GPS technology. Professor Martyn
  Thomas from the Royal Academy of Engineering says the weak radio signal it
  uses can easily be messed up.
  Stephen: Messed up – that’s interfered with, or destroyed.
  Insert 3:
  Professor Martyn Thomas: You can get interference – either deliberate or accidental
  interference, because it is a very weak radio signal.
  BBC interviewer Justin Webb: Yes, it’s quite easy, isn’t it, to mess it up?
  Professor Martyn Thomas: Oh, extremely, yes. The radio signal is about the strength…
  in light terms, it’s like looking at a 100 watt bulb from 12,000 miles away.
  Justin Webb: So someone who really wanted to put out a large area – satellite
  navigation systems, could do so?
  Professor Martyn Thomas: Yes, you could. It would essentially have to be
  jammed line-of-sight, so you’d have to do it from high ground.
  Alice: Researchers were able to interfere with GPS signals on a ship using a
  transmitter on high ground.
  Stephen: A transmitter produces radio signals or interference - signals which, if strong
  enough, can block other signals.
  Alice: Professor Martyn Thomas said all kinds of things went wrong with the onboard
  equipment on the ship.
  Stephen: Without saying anything was wrong – incorrect – the ship reported that it was
  travelling ten miles inland and moving faster than the speed of sound:
  Insert 4: Professor Martyn Thomas
  All kinds of things went wrong. The onboard equipment, that was reporting where they
  were, at one point said that they were ten miles inland and moving faster than the speed
  of sound. But more alarmingly, quite often the onboard systems, without saying
  anything was wrong, was reporting their position as being just subtly wrong. And of
  course, the onboard systems would broadcast that position and information to other
  ships.
  Alice: Professor Martyn Thomas from the Royal Academy of Engineering who thinks
  we should be careful about becoming too reliant on GPS and sat navs, because
  they can be interfered with. Apparently some people buy blocking gadgets to
  put on their sat navs in company cars, so their employers won’t know where
  they’ve been! Well, before we go, Stephen, can you tell us about the
  abbreviation ‘GPS’?
  Stephen: So, does it stand for global positioning system?
  Alice: Yes, well done. So, before we go - a chance to hear some of the words and
  phrases we’ve heard in the programme today: would you mind, Stephen?
  Stephen: Sure.
  satellite navigation systems
  gadgets
  abbreviation
  mayhem
  to reverse
  aid
  common sense
  navigator
  messed up
  interfere with
  Alice: Thanks, Stephen.
  Stephen: You’re welcome.
  Alice: Well, that’s all we have time for today. We’ll have more 6 Minute English next
  time.
  Both: Bye!
  原文地址:http://www.tingroom.com/guide/6min/150657.html