VOA慢速英语2009年-Development Report - Bringing Light to

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Dave Irvine-Halliday in Mexico

More than one and a half billion people around the world live without electricity. Finding better ways to bring light to the poor is the goal of researchers like David Irvine-Halliday.

In the late nineteen nineties, the Canadian professor was working in Nepal when his return flight was canceled. A delay gave him time to take a fourteen-day hiking trip in the Himalayas.

As he tells it, one day he looked in the window of a school and noticed how dark it was. This is a common problem for millions of children around the world -- and not just at school, but also at home.

Many families use kerosene¹ oil lamps. There are many problems with these lamps. They produce only a small amount of light. They are dangerous to breathe. And they are a big fire danger, causing many injuries and deaths each year.

Kerosene costs less than other forms of lighting², but it is still costly³ in poor countries. Professor Irvine-Halliday says many people spend well over one hundred dollars a year on the fuel.

When he returned to Canada, he began researching ways to provide safe, clean and affordable⁴ lighting. He began experimenting with light-emitting diodes, LEDs, at his laboratory at the University of Calgary in Alberta. As a professor of renewable energy, he already knew about the technology.

Light-emitting diodes are small glass lamps that use much less electricity than traditional bulbs and last much longer.

Professor Irvine-Halliday used a one-watt bright white L.E.D. made in Japan. He found it on the Internet and connected it to a bicycle-powered generator⁵. He remembers thinking it was so bright, a child could read by the light of a single diode.

In two thousand, after much research and many experiments, he returned to Nepal to put the systems into homes. His Light Up the World Foundation has now equipped the homes of twenty-five thousand people in fifty-one countries.

DAVID IRVINE-HALLIDAY: "The one-time cost of our system -- which consists of a small solar panel⁶, a little motorcycle-sized battery and a couple of LED lamps, which basically live forever, as well as the solar panel -- is less than one hundred dollars. So, one year of kerosene would pay for a solid-state lighting system."

Now his aim is to develop a lower-cost lighting system. In January, David Irvine-Halliday is leaving the University of Calgary. He has also decided⁷ to give up leadership in the Light Up the World Foundation to start a company in India.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by June Simms with Rosanne Skirble. I’m Christopher Cruise⁸.

 

1 kerosene   

n.(kerosine)煤油，火油

参考例句：

• It is like putting out a fire with kerosene.这就像用煤油灭火。
• Instead of electricity,there were kerosene lanterns.没有电，有煤油灯。

2 lighting   

n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光

参考例句：

• The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
• The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。

3 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

4 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

5 generator   

n.发电机，发生器

参考例句：

• All the while the giant generator poured out its power.巨大的发电机一刻不停地发出电力。
• This is an alternating current generator.这是一台交流发电机。

6 panel   

n.面，板，专门小组，控制板，仪表盘

参考例句：

• The unusual control panel on the walls caught our attention.墙上不同寻常的控制板引起了我们的注意。
• The panel of judges included several well-known writers.评判小组中包括几位知名作家。

7 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。

8 cruise   

v.巡航，航游，缓慢巡行；n.海上航游

参考例句：

• They went on a cruise to Tenerife.他们乘船去特纳利夫岛。
• She wants to cruise the canals of France in a barge.她想乘驳船游览法国的运河。