1
VOA慢速英语随身听.听力口语双突破
1.5.7 7  Activists Call for International Ban on Fully A...
7 Activists Call for International Ban on Fully Autonomous Weapons 活动人士呼吁国际范围禁止使用全自主武器

978-7-111-52344-4-Chapter02-13.jpg

仔细听

An international coalition is calling for a ban on fully autonomous weapons known as“killer robots ”.The 45-member coalition proposed the ban to governments last month at a meeting of the United Nations Convention on Conventional Weapons in Geneva,Switzerland.

一个国际联盟目前正呼吁禁止使用一种被称为“杀人机器人”的全自主武器。上个月,这个拥有45名成员的联盟在瑞士日内瓦举行的联合国 《常规武器公约》会议上,向各国政府提出了这一禁令。

听力破解:播音员重读ban,表示这是本文的一个关键词,下文有可能与“禁止、禁令”紧密相关。

词汇宝典:propose这里是“提出,提议”的意思,但propose还可表示“计划”,如:Where do you propose to spend your winter vacation?你打算去哪里度寒假?propose还表示“求婚”,如:He proposed to Mary after their graduation.他们一毕业,他就向玛丽求婚了。

仔细听

The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots wants the U.N.organization to add fully autonomous weapons to its work program in 2014.Scientists have yet to develop fully autonomous killer robots.However,technology is moving toward increasing autonomy.Such weapons would identify and attack targets without human assistance.

此项禁用杀人机器的运动希望联合国机构能够将全自主武器列入 2014 年的工作项目中。尽管科学家们尚未开发出完全自动的杀人机器人,但是,技术正在使机器人的自主能力逐步提高。这种武器无须人为帮助便可识别目标并发起攻击。

听力破解:autonomous为autonomy(自治、自主)的形容词形式。另外,播音员重读了without,强调了杀人机器无须人工辅助的特性。

仔细听

Noel Sharkey is a founding member of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots.He also chairs the International Committee for Robot Arms Control.Mr Sharkey says autonomous weapons should be banned.

诺埃尔·夏基是阻止杀人机器人联盟的一名始创成员。他同时也任职于国际机器人武器控制委员会。夏基先生说,自主武器应当被禁止。

词汇宝典:chair一般用作名词,但此处作为动词,意为“主持,任职”,如:As the monitor,Peter should chair this class meeting.作为班长,彼得就应当主持这个班会。

仔细听

“The big problem for me is that there are no robot systems that can discrimi-nate between civilian targets and military targets unless they are very,very clearly marked in some way...so,the idea of having robots going out into the field and selecting their own targets is to me,is just horrifying.It cannot work.”

Activists say robotic systems with different degrees of autonomy are already in use by Britain,Israel,the United States and South Korea.They believe China and Russia are also moving toward these systems.

“对我来说,最大的问题在于,目前尚没有机器人系统能够区分平民目标和军事目标,除非他们被做了某种非常、非常明显的标记。因此,在我看来,让机器人自己在现场选择攻击目标是非常可怕的想法,这一想法是不可行的。”活动人士认为,拥有不同程度的自主能力的机器人系统已经在英国、以色列、美国和韩国得到了应用。他们相信,中国、俄罗斯也在探索这类系统。

978-7-111-52344-4-Chapter02-14.jpg

听力破解:本段为典型的口语,吞音现象较为严重:如that后接there,其清辅音[t]被吞掉;out的[t]也被吞掉,听时可注意一下。

学着说一说

1.call for a ban呼吁禁令

▶call for表示“呼吁,要求,提倡,需要”,如:

Your plan would call for a lot of money.你的计划需要很多钱。

▶另外,call for 也可表示“去取某物”,或者“去接某人”。如:

I'll call for the package on my way back home.我回家路上去取包裹。

She'll call for me at 6 o'clock so we can go to the theater together.

她六点来接我,这样我们可以一起去剧院了。

2.develop fully autonomous killer robots开发出完全自主杀人机器

▶develop多表示“开发,发展,生成,生长”,常用的短语有:

develop a film冲洗胶片

develop a business开发业务

a developing /developed country发展中国家/发达国家

▶在口语中develop还可以表示“冲洗(照片)”:

Don't worry,the photos need to be developed first.

别着急,照片需要先冲洗出来。

Do you know where I can develop my film?你知道可以在哪儿洗照片吗?(“底片”这个词的英文是film,一卷底片就是one roll of film。)

3.discriminate between区分

▶discriminate between A and B表示“A和B区分开”。

▶类似的表达还有:distinguish between;make/draw a distinction

between;differentiate between,如:

A:I want to choose some books for my son to read.

我想给我儿子选些书读。

B:You need help from Tom.He can really discriminate between

good ones and bad ones.

你找汤姆帮忙吧,他特别会区分哪些是好书,哪些是坏书。

4.in some way在某种意义上;在某个方面

▶这个短语在口语中经常会使用,表示“在某些方面,在某种程度上”,如:

A:What do you think of Rose?你觉得萝丝怎样?

B:She's nice and careful.But she always makes small mistakes in some

way.她很随和也很认真,但就是在某些方面总是犯些小错误。