【原版杂志阅读】17期 Day 1 （The economist）Why driverless cars may mean jams tomorrow

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Why driverless cars may mean jams tomorrow

They will spare the world neither traffic congestion nor infrastructure expense

1. THE most distractingly unrealistic feature of most science fiction—by some margin—is how the great soaring cities of the future never seem to struggle with traffic. Whatever dystopias lie ahead, futurists seem confident we can sort out congestion. If hope that technology will fix traffic springs eternal, history suggests something different. Transport innovation, from railways to cars, reshaped cities and drove economic advance. But it also brought crowded commutes. Now, as tech firms and carmakers aim to roll out fleets of driverless cars, it is worth asking: might this time be different? Alas, artificial intelligence (AI) is unlikely to succeed where steel rails and internal-combustion engines failed.

词汇部分：

● soaring  /ˈsɔːrɪŋ/ adj. 猛增的，不断升高的

● dystopia /dɪˈstoʊ.pi.ə/反乌托邦，反面假想国，敌托邦

● congestion/kənˈdʒestʃ(ə)n/ n.拥堵

● eternal/ɪˈtɝː.nəl/ adj. 永远的，永恒的；长期的

● fleet /fliːt/船队；（一国的）全部舰队，海军

● combustion  /kəmˈbʌs.tʃən/ 燃烧（过程）

● Hope springs eternal 希望常在

语法部分：

1)表语（从句）：表语的识别－在be 动词之后就是表语。如果be 动词之后是个句子，那就是表语从句（既是表语，又是从句）。表语是说明主语情况的。

e.g. You are beautiful. ——beautiful 表语。

原文：THE most distractingly unrealistic feature of most science fiction—by some margin—is how the great soaring cities of the future never seem to struggle with traffic（表语从句）

2)If 引导的条件状语从句＋同位语从句

a.If 引导的真实条件句，时态通常为主讲从现。

e.g. If you work hard enough, you will get what you want.

b. 同位语从句识别：名词＋that(并且that在后面从句中不做成分)

If hope that technology will fix traffic springs eternal（条件句）, history suggests something different.（结果句）

参考翻译：

在大多数科幻小说中，最不切实际乃至让人出戏的一个特征，无疑就是未来那些宏伟高耸的城市似乎从来不用为堵车操心。不管人类面临着什么样的灾难，未来派似乎都对消除拥堵信心满满。如果说对技术能够解决交通问题的希望永不熄灭，历史经验却并不乐观。从铁路到汽车，交通创新重塑了城市，带动了经济发展，但也带来了拥挤的通勤。如今，既然科技公司和汽车制造商希望推出无人驾驶车队，那就值得问一问：这次会不同吗？唉，可惜在钢轨和内燃引擎战败之地，人工智能（AI）也不太可能成功。

2. More's the pity. In America alone, traffic congestion brings economic losses estimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars each year. Such costs will rise unless existing transport systems receive badly needed investment. For example, fixing New York's beleaguered, overcrowded subway will take at least $100bn, according to one recent estimate. A driverless deus ex machina might seem to spare governments some difficult decisions.

词汇部分：

● More's the pity!太不行了，太可惜了。

● beleaguered/bɪˈliː.ɡɚd/adj. 被烦扰的；处于困境的

● deus ex machina /ˌdeɪ.əseks ˈmɑː.kɪ.nə/（故事或事件）不真实的结局，过于简单的结局

语法部分：

过去分词做后置定语：

● 识别方式（名词＋过去分词），

● 功能：相当于形容词，修饰前面的名词。

● 类比：马之千里者

traffic congestion brings economic losses estimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars each year

参考翻译：

这可真不幸。仅在美国，交通堵塞每年就会带来数千亿美元的经济损失。除非现有运输系统获得急需的投资，这种成本还会上升。例如，根据最近的一项估计，要修理纽约那问题重重而过度拥挤的地铁至少需要1000亿美元。无人驾驶这个救星看起来好像可以让政府少做几个困难的决定。

3. But congestion is a near-inevitable side-effect of urban growth. Cities exist because being near to other people brings enormous advantages. Proximity allows people to find friends, mates and business partners, to discuss ideas and generate new ones, and to trade (and so to capture the benefits of specialisation). Regrettably, clumping leads to crowding: the more people an area houses, the greater the competition for its scarce resources, from seats at a hot new restaurant to space on public roadways. Each new arrival enhances a city’s magic but also adds to congestion. Cities grow until costs outstrip benefits.

词汇部分：

● inevitable/ˌɪnˈev.ə.t̬ə.bəl/ adj. 不可避免的；必然发生的

● enormous/əˈnɔːr.məs/ adj. 极大的；巨大的；庞大的

● Proximity /prɑːkˈsɪm.ə.t̬i/ n. 接近，邻近；临近

● Clump /klʌmp/ v. 簇拥；（使）成簇；（使）聚集一丛

● scarce/skers/ adj. 难得的，稀有的，罕见的

参考翻译：

但拥堵是城市发展一个近乎不可避免的副作用。城市之所以存在，是因为人们相互接近带来巨大的好处。这种接近性让人们找到朋友、伴侣和商业伙伴，讨论并创造新想法，并相互交易（以获得专业分工的好处）。令人遗憾的是，聚集会导致拥挤：在一个地区居住的人越多，对稀缺资源的竞争就越大——无论是热门新餐厅的座位还是公共道路上的空间。每个新到来的人都让城市更加迷人，但也让拥堵更甚。城市会一直增长，直到代价超过收益。