VOA常速英语2016--年轻一代奇思妙想解决城市长久以来的老问题

Young Minds Solve a City's Old Problems 年轻一代奇思妙想解决城市长久以来的老问题

Every city has its problems, and hopefully is always looking for unique ways to solve them. One eastern U.S. city is hoping the creativity and outside the box thinking of young people can come to the rescue.

An oyster¹ habitat, abandoned houses converted to gardens, a cart that turns into a homeless shelter, a multi-layered rainwater filtering system — these are some of the products they came up with.

牡蛎的栖息地,废弃房屋摇身一变成花园,货车变成无家可归之人的避难所,多层雨水过滤系统—这些都是在最近的FabSlam数字制造大赛上诞生。

The inventors are students, from 10 to 17 years old, from the eastern US city of Baltimore, Maryland.

而这些发明家都是10至17岁的学生。

The idea is to get kids to identify urban problems, then work to solve them as part of a unique program called FabSlam.

Big problems, simple answers

Sixth grader Sydney Lane-Ryer and her team focused on the decreasing oyster population in the nearby Chesapeake Bay.

来自悉尼6年级的莱恩·雷耶尔表示她的团队重点关注减少切萨皮克湾附近的牡蛎数量。

"Our solution," she explained, "was to create an oyster habitat that will sit on the bottom of the ocean, or I guess the harbor in our case, that will be connected to a floating wetland that has a bunch of different plants that will also give nutrients² with their roots to the oysters³ to help them thrive, and it will also help filter out toxins⁴ and dirt and other things in the water."

“我们的解决方案是创造一个位于大海底部的牡蛎栖息地，或者在我们的情况下的这个港口,将连接到一块浮动的湿地,那里各种各样的植物会将根部营养送给牡蛎,帮助它们茁壮成长,而且它也将有助于过滤掉水中的毒素，污垢及其它东西。”

A high school team decided⁵ to tackle a different problem: how to deal with more than 16,000 abandoned homes in Baltimore.

这个高中团队想要通过超过16000座废弃的房屋解决巴尔的摩各种各样不同的问题:

"We wanted to convert abandoned row houses into greenhouses," said Natasha Dada, "that would serve as community gardens and also would produce food for homeless shelters and soup kitchens in the area."

“我们想把废弃的联排式房屋转换成温室,作为社区花园使用，同时还可以作为流动厨房为无家可归者制作食物。”

Thinking outside the box

The Digital Harbor Foundation, which sponsors youth technology programs, hosts FabSlam.

赞助这一青年技术项目的数字港基金会主持了这项赛事。

"The purpose of FabSlam is to give kids a chance to experiment with creative problem-solving," said Shawn Grimes, the Foundation's Technology Director.  "So we present a challenge to them that's very open, very vague, and we give them an opportunity to come up with their own solution to their own problem that they identify within that sort of constraint⁶."

“FabSlam的目的是给孩子们提供尝试创造性解决问题的机会。因此我们为他们设置了难题,很开放,也很模糊,而且我们给他们解决所受限制中自己问题的机会。”

The teams had six weeks to get everything done — from identifying a problem and doing research, to designing and developing a prototype or a product using a 3-D printer and other digital manufacturing techniques.

这个团队用时6周搞定一切，从发现问题到进行研究,设计并研发原型或产品并通过3-D打印机及其他数字制造技术呈现成品。

For Natasha and her team tackling abandoned homes, the problem was huge and the solution complicated.

"A lot of these houses... don't have gas or water or electricity," Natasha told VOA, "so we wanted to make the house self-sustaining. We have solar panels on the roof. ... We also have an irrigation system with rain collection and filtration that automatically waters the plants."

“这些房子有很多…没有煤气或水电,因此我们想让这座房子自给自足。我们在屋顶上安装了太阳能电池板。我们也有自动灌溉系统, 自动浇灌植物的雨水收集及过滤装置。”

The teams pitched their project to the judges and presented them to the audience.

这个团队把他们的项目交给裁判而后展现给他们的观众。

The winner was the Digital Oyster Foundation.

而后是宣布获胜者。

Judge Marty McGuire said his favorite part of the project "is that they essentially⁷ showed us something that they could put in the water right now and we can see how well it works."

这个数字牡蛎基础项目我最喜欢的部分是本质上它展现给我们的是现在他们可以放入水中,我们可以看到它是如何工作的。”

For sixth grader Sydney Lane-Ryer, the competition was eye-opening. "I really learned a good life lesson here," she said. "I learned that with the right technology and even with your own hands and your mind and creativity, you really could make something that could change the world."

“这真的是给我上了一堂很好的人生课。我学到通过正确的科学技术，再加上自己的双手，头脑及创造力,你真的可以做出改变世界的东西。”这些中学生表示他们相信自己会对本地及全世界产生巨大影响。

Let's hope so.

1 oyster   

n.牡蛎；沉默寡言的人

参考例句：

• I enjoy eating oyster; it's really delicious.我喜欢吃牡蛎，它味道真美。
• I find I fairly like eating when he finally persuades me to taste the oyster.当他最后说服我尝尝牡蛎时，我发现我相当喜欢吃。

2 nutrients   

n.（食品或化学品）营养物，营养品( nutrient的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a lack of essential nutrients 基本营养的缺乏
• Nutrients are absorbed into the bloodstream. 营养素被吸收进血液。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 oysters   

牡蛎( oyster的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We don't have oysters tonight, but the crayfish are very good. 我们今晚没有牡蛎供应。但小龙虾是非常好。
• She carried a piping hot grill of oysters and bacon. 她端出一盘滚烫的烤牡蛎和咸肉。

4 toxins   

n.毒素( toxin的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The seas have been used as a receptacle for a range of industrial toxins. 海洋成了各种有毒工业废料的大容器。
• Most toxins are naturally excreted from the body. 大部分毒素被自然排出体外。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

6 constraint   

n.(on)约束，限制；限制(或约束)性的事物

参考例句：

• The boy felt constraint in her presence.那男孩在她面前感到局促不安。
• The lack of capital is major constraint on activities in the informal sector.资本短缺也是影响非正规部门生产经营的一个重要制约因素。

7 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。