VOA常速英语2014--商用无人机：一个悄然快速增长的产业

 

Commercial Drone Industry Poised¹ for Fast Growth 商用无人机：一个悄然快速增长的产业

U.S. regulators have approved the first use of commercial drones in the United States, giving an industry that is expected to create thousands of jobs and reap billions of dollars a step forward.  The unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, will inspect oil facilities in remote Alaska. But it's just the first step toward creating rules intended to maintain safety in crowded skies while still allowing entrepreneurs to create a whole new industry.

华盛顿 — 美国相关部门已经首次批准了商用无人机在美国的使用。预计，这将为此项产业创造数千个工作岗位，并带来数十亿美金的收益。作为第一步，这些无人驾驶飞行器，简称UAV，将首先被用来监测阿拉斯加偏远地区的石油设施。随后，在不影响企业家们创造一个全新产业的前提下，政府将出台一系列法规，以此来保证空中安全。专家指出，这项产业正在悄然地快速增长。

Camera drones can create stunning² videos, giving viewers the sensations of effortless flight.

配有摄像机的无人飞机可以录制令人惊叹的画面，给人们一种在空中自由飞翔的感觉。

Creating such pictures for movies or television once required expensive manned aircraft.  But rapidly improving computers, software, communications and electronics - along with much experimentation³ by entrepreneurs - means an unmanned vehicle costing a few thousand dollars can do the job and perform a fast-growing number of other tasks.  Online retail⁴ giant Amazon is experimenting with drones to deliver packages.

在以前，当电影或电视里需要这种镜头的时候，人们通常会使用昂贵的有人驾驶飞机。不过，随着电脑、软件和通信等电子产业的迅速发展，加之企业家们大胆的尝试，无人机已经可以胜任同样的工作，而且它的花费也仅仅只有几千美金而已。此外，无人机同样也可以胜任其他大量的工作。在线零售商巨头亚马逊正在试验利用无人机来送货上门。

The University of California, Davis is experimenting with Japanese drones to spray insecticide, in the hope that it will be more precise and cheaper than manned aircraft or ground operations.

加州大学戴维斯分校正在试验利用日本无人机来喷洒农药。相对于传统的飞机和地面喷洒模式，无人机的喷洒将会更加精准，也会更加廉价。

The head of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Michael Toscano hopes U.S. officials will soon make rules that allow these and other drones to operate safely away from other planes - and allow this infant industry to blossom and grow.  

国际无人机系统协会主席迈克·多斯卡诺希望，美国官员可以尽快立法，使商用无人机和其他飞机能够安全地彼此飞行，并且使这个正在起步的产业能够蓬勃发展。

 “In the first three years there would be over $13.6 billion of economic benefit and about 70,000 new jobs," he said.

多斯卡诺说： “在三年之内，商用无人机将带来136亿美元的经济收益，并创造出7万个工作岗位。”

Experts say the drone industry involves small entrepreneurs as well as large technology companies and is growing at an exponential rate.

专家指出，小型企业和大型科技公司都能在无人机产业分得一杯羹，而且这项产业将会以惊人的速度增长。

The head of drone company Team BlackSheep, Raphael Pirker, says his work is maturing from an entertaining hobby to a serious business.

 黑羊团队是一家无人机公司。它的负责人拉斐尔·皮克尔（Raphael Pirker）在香港通过Skype接受访问时说，他的这个业余爱好正在转变成为一项不容被忽视的产业。

“Now it’s getting more to the point where business is getting involved and the bottom line matters," he said. "They will calculate the cost of, for example, a film crew in a real helicopter versus⁵ a film crew with a drone and the benefits of that, how good is the picture quality."

皮克尔说：“ 如今，无人机已经带来了商机，能否盈利自然也就非常重要。制作电影时，制片人肯定会计算一下成本和收益，也要关注画质，以此来决定是使用传统的直升机还是无人机。”

A key expert says companies will find more and more uses for smaller, relatively⁶ inexpensive drones, and those new ways of doing business may change our society.

一位资深专家指出，各个公司将会更多的使用体积小且廉价的无人机。这种新的经商模式将改变我们的社会。

“It just makes a difference, a significant difference, not necessarily a revolution in the way we organize society," said Professor Keith Hayward of the Royal Aeronautical⁷ Society in London Hayward.

伦敦英国皇家航空学会的基思·海沃德（Keith Hayward）教授通过Skype接受了采访。海沃德说：“这将带来巨大的变化和意义深刻的影响，但是并不一定会对我们组织社会的方式产生变革。”

Military unmanned vehicles are built and operated by the United States and many other nations.  They have played a controversial role in spying and fighting wars.  In many cases, military UAVs resemble combat aircraft in their complexity⁸, large size and multi-million-dollar costs.   

美国和许多其他国家都在制造并使用军用无人机。它们在作战和侦察上所起到的作用一直以来都饱受争议。大部分的军用无人机构造的复杂性、体积和昂贵的造价都和战斗机相差无几。

Most commercial drones evolved from radio-controlled model aircraft.  They are relatively cheap, usually weigh a kilogram or so, and are more likely to carry a package or a pizza than a bomb.

大部分的商用无人机都是从无线遥控的飞机模型演变而来。它们的造价相对低廉，重量也不过只有一公斤左右。这些无人机更加适合送包裹或者 比萨饼，而不是炸弹。

1 poised   

a.摆好姿势不动的

参考例句：

• The hawk poised in mid-air ready to swoop. 老鹰在半空中盘旋，准备俯冲。
• Tina was tense, her hand poised over the telephone. 蒂娜心情紧张，手悬在电话机上。

2 stunning   

adj.极好的；使人晕倒的

参考例句：

• His plays are distinguished only by their stunning mediocrity.他的戏剧与众不同之处就是平凡得出奇。
• The finished effect was absolutely stunning.完工后的效果非常美。

3 experimentation   

n.实验，试验，实验法

参考例句：

• Many people object to experimentation on animals.许多人反对用动物做实验。
• Study and analysis are likely to be far cheaper than experimentation.研究和分析的费用可能要比实验少得多。

4 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

5 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

6 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

7 aeronautical   

adj.航空（学）的

参考例句：

• Many of the pilots were to achieve eminence in the aeronautical world. 这些飞行员中很多人将会在航空界声名显赫。 来自辞典例句
• The advent of aircraft brought with it aeronautical engineering. 宇宙飞船的问世导致了航天工程的出现。 来自辞典例句

8 complexity   

n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物

参考例句：

• Only now did he understand the full complexity of the problem.直到现在他才明白这一问题的全部复杂性。
• The complexity of the road map puzzled me.错综复杂的公路图把我搞糊涂了。