1)Driverless Cars Coming Soon

by Victoria Ciccarelli翻译：折耳猫

去年年底，无人驾驶公交已在深圳上路，对于无人驾驶汽车有些人可能或多或少存有担心：车内连个方向盘都没有，真的安全吗？但事实是无人驾驶汽车可能更安全。不信？看看便知。

You are driving to school. You look up to see a pretty, hot air balloon.2)Whoa! You almostwent througha stop sign! In a driverless car, you can look at the balloon. The car sees the stop signwithoutyour help and stops the car. Car makers are already testing driverless cars or AVs (3)automated4)vehicles) in the U.S. and other countries. Some companies are working together on driverless technology. Google (USA) and Nissan (Japan) are making their own driverless cars.

Driverless cars are a great idea. Blind people could use them and old people wouldn’t have togive uptheir cars. With driverless cars, people can just choose a place they want to go and program the car. Then5)pusha6)buttonand the car takes you there.

As cars get more driverless technology, they will be safer than cars with a driver. Driverless cars can move closer together on the road than cars with drivers.This may make driving on busy roads safer. Also, AVs don’t getsleepyor7)texton their phones while driving.Google’s driverless cars have never caused a8)majoraccident on the road since 2010.

There are some problems with AVs.9)Hackersmaytake overthe car. There will probably be fewer jobs for people who drive taxis and trucks.

In the future, both vehicles with drivers and vehicles without drivers may share the road. You will have a choice. You can be the driver of your car, or you can look out the window while the car drives you.

1) driverless ['draɪvəlɪs]adj. 无人驾驶的

2) whoa [wəʊ] int. 惊叹声

3) automated ['ɔːtəmeɪtɪd]adj. 自动的

4) vehicle ['viːɪkl] n. 车辆

5) push [pʊʃ]v. 按；按下（按钮、开关等）

6) button ['bʌtn] n. 按钮

7) text [tekst] v. 发短信

8) major ['meɪdʒə] adj. 主要的

9) hacker ['hækə] n. 黑客

词组加油站

★go through穿过；通过

★take over接管

参考译文

你正开着车去学校。抬头看了下前方的一个漂亮的热气球。啊！你差点冲过了停车标识！在无人驾驶的汽车里，你可以看气球。因为汽车会自动识别停车标识并停下来。在美国以及其他国家，汽车制造商们已经在测试无人驾驶汽车或是自动驾驶汽车了。有些公司正联合研发无人驾驶汽车。谷歌（美国）和日产汽车公司（日本）便正联合制造无人驾驶汽车。

无人驾驶汽车是一个伟大的想法。盲人可以开，老年人也不用被迫放弃驾驶。人们只需选好目的地，设置好程序，按下按钮，车子就会把你载到目的地。

随着无人驾驶技术的提升，无人驾驶的汽车的安全性亦将高于有人驾驶的汽车。无人驾驶汽车在路上的行车距离更短，在拥挤的道路上其安全性也比有人驾驶的汽车更胜一筹。而且，自动驾驶汽车不会出现疲劳驾驶或者在驾驶期间发短信的情况。谷歌的无人驾驶汽车自2010年以来从未发生过重大交通事故。

但是自动驾驶汽车也存在一些问题，如汽车可能会被黑客劫持，出租车和卡车司机可能就业困难。

将来，马路上无人驾驶和有人驾驶汽车将会共存。你可以二择其一。你既可以自己开车也可以选择坐看窗外风景，任由汽车载你遨游。

名师考点小结

1.without在文中用作介词，意为“无；没有”，常用来表示假设或伴随情况，后接名词、代词或动名词，其反义词为with。例如：

Without water, we can not live.（表假设）没有水，我们无法生存。

She may live better without them as neighbors.（伴随）没有这些邻居，她也许会过得更愉快一些。

He played all day without playing the piano.（伴随）他玩了一整天，没有练钢琴。

2.give up是动词短语，表示“放弃”，可单独使用，后也可接名词、代词以及动名词形式。例如：John gave up his good job and looked after his mother at home.

为了在家照顾妈妈，约翰放弃了他的好工作。

My doctor advised me to give up smoking without delay. 我的医生劝我立即戒烟。

当代词作宾语时要放在give和up的中间。例如：

English is hard to learn, but we can’t give it up. 英语虽然难学，但我们不能放弃。

拓展：由give构成的其他常用短语：give away 赠送；give back 归还；

give in 屈服； give off 发出；give out 分发

3.sleepy是形容词，意为“困倦的；不活跃的”，在句中既可作表语，也可作定语。例如：

I’m too sleepy to watch the end of the show.（作表语）我太困倦了，没能看完演出。

She always has a sleepy expression.（作定语）她总是一副懒洋洋的表情。

拓展：asleep也是形容词，意为“睡着的”，在句中只能作表语，不能作定语。例如：

The girl was so tired that she fell asleep at her desk. 那女孩太累了，以至于趴在书桌上睡着了。