VOA常速英语2019--动实验室旨在加速向更加绿色能源的过渡

Floating Lab Aims to Accelerate a Transition to Greener Energies

Atop the Thames River, against the backdrop of historic London, floats what is quite possibly the future of green energy.“Millions of boats are transporting everything from what we’re wearing to what we eat, to what we put over our heads, you know, our homes etc. Everything is transported via maritime¹ transport and so it’s really important that we find a solution to limit their impacts on the planets.”The 30-meter Energy Observer visited 25 countries since leaving France in 2017.The craft is powered only by electricity sourced from the sun, wind and the water on which it glides². Oh, and it moves silently while contributing nothing to greenhouse gases. “This here is the electrolyzer, it’s a very important piece of equipment, so that famous H2O molecule³ were able to split it as in split the oxygen from the hydrogen.”

掩映在历史悠久的伦敦城之中、漂浮在泰晤士河上的船很可能就是绿色能源的未来。“数百万艘船运送着我们吃、穿、头戴、家用等各种东西。每件东西都通过海运运输，因此我们要找到办法限制其对地球的影响，这一点非常重要。”自2017年离开法国以来，这个30米的能量观察者已经参观了25个国家。这艘船动力来源是太阳、风和其滑行的水发电。啊，而且它悄悄移动的同时又不产生任何温室气体。“这里是电解槽，这是该设备非常重要的零件，这样著名的水分子能够将其分解，就像从氢中分解氧气一样。”

This machine draws water and breaks it down to its elemental state which then becomes backup fuel when the sun hides or the wind stills. “When we don’t have any energy, like for example during the night time, we can make use of the hydrogen that we stored on the boat.” They store that hydrogen in fuel cells, and if that sounds a bit troubling, you are not alone.“Even though the system we have here is extremely reliable, storing hydrogen and gas forms, there are still quite a few safety issues that we need to work through.”The captain says that a hydrogen powered cargo⁴ ship would provide a different challenge than this much smaller vessel⁵, but says the hard work is worth the payoff.“This summer we had scientists on board, and we were able to observe global warming through melting glaciers⁶, simple as that, it’s astounding⁷, it’s not cyclical, climate change is exponential.”The craft costs just over six point five million dollars and the captain says that like any new technology the high price of its pieces will drop in coming years.

这个机器能抽取水并将其分解为基本状态，当没有太阳或风的时候，就能成为备份燃料。“当我们没有能量时，比如在夜间时候，我们可以用储存在船上的氢气。”他们把氢储存在燃料电池里，如果这听起来有点麻烦的话，你并不孤单。“即使我们的系统非常可靠，可以储存氢气和气体形态，但仍有很多安全问题需要我们去解决。”船长说氢动力货船的挑战与这个很小的船不同，但是他说努力工作值得回报。“这个夏天我们有科学家在船上，我们能通过冰川融化观测全球变暖，就那样简单，非常令人震惊，不是周期性的，全球变暖越来越快。”该船仅花费了六千五百万多美金，船长说就像任何新技术一样，其高昂的配件价格在未来几年内会下降。

1 maritime   

adj.海的，海事的，航海的，近海的，沿海的

参考例句：

• Many maritime people are fishermen.许多居于海滨的人是渔夫。
• The temperature change in winter is less in maritime areas.冬季沿海的温差较小。

2 glides   

n.滑行( glide的名词复数 )；滑音；音渡；过渡音v.滑动( glide的第三人称单数 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔

参考例句：

• The new dance consists of a series of glides. 这种新舞蹈中有一连串的滑步。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The stately swan glides gracefully on the pond. 天鹅在池面上优美地游动。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 molecule   

n.分子，克分子

参考例句：

• A molecule of water is made up of two atoms of hygrogen and one atom of oxygen.一个水分子是由P妈̬f婘̬ 妈̬成的。
• This gives us the structural formula of the molecule.这种方式给出了分子的结构式。

4 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。

5 vessel   

n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管

参考例句：

• The vessel is fully loaded with cargo for Shanghai.这艘船满载货物驶往上海。
• You should put the water into a vessel.你应该把水装入容器中。

6 glaciers   

冰河，冰川( glacier的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Glaciers gouged out valleys from the hills. 冰川把丘陵地带冲出一条条山谷。
• It has ice and snow glaciers, rainforests and beautiful mountains. 既有冰川，又有雨林和秀丽的山峰。 来自英语晨读30分（高一）

7 astounding   

adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊，使大吃一惊astound的现在分词)

参考例句：

• There was an astounding 20% increase in sales. 销售量惊人地增加了20%。
• The Chairman's remarks were so astounding that the audience listened to him with bated breath. 主席说的话令人吃惊，所以听众都屏息听他说。 来自《简明英汉词典》