2016职称英语理工B级译文（Word版）

2016年职称英语等级考试教材短文及译文（理工类B级）

目录

第二部分 阅读判断 第一篇 Inventor of LED 第二篇 El Nino 第三篇 Smoking

第四篇 Engineering Ethics 第五篇 Recue Platform

* 第六篇 Microchip Research Center Created * 第七篇 Moderate Earthquake Strikes England * 第八篇 What is dream

* 第九篇 Dangers Await Babies with Altitude * 第十篇 Thy biology of music 第三部分 概括大意和完成句子

第一篇 More Than 8 Hours Sleep Too Much of a Good Thing 第二篇 Soot and Snow: a Hot Combination 第三篇 Icy Microbes 第四篇 Compact Disks 第五篇 LED Lighting

* 第六篇 How We Form First Impression * 第七篇 Screen Test

* 第八篇 The Mir Space Station

* 第九篇 More Rural Research Is Needed

* 第十篇 Washoe Learned American Sign Language 第四部 阅读理解

第一篇Ford Abandons Electric Vehicles

第二篇 World Crude Oil Production May Peak a Decade Earlier Than Some Predict 第三篇 Citizen Scientists 第四篇 Motoring Technology 第五篇 Late-Night Drinking 第六篇 Making Light of Sleep

第七篇 Sugar Power for Cell Phones 第八篇 Eiffel Is an Eyeful

第九篇An Essential Scientific Process

第十篇 Young Female Chimps Outlearn Their Brothers 第十一篇 When Our Eyes Serve Our Stomach 第十二篇 Florida Hit by Cold Air Mass 第十三篇 Invisibility Ring

第十四篇 Japanese Car Keeps Watch for Drunk Drivers 第十五篇 Winged Robot Learns to Fly

第十六篇 Japanese Drilling into Core of Earth *第十七篇 A Sunshade for the Planet *第十八篇 Thirst for Oil

*第十九篇 Musical Robot Companion Enhances Listener Experience *第二十篇 Explorer of the Extreme Deep *第二十一篇 Plant Gas

*第二十二篇Real-World Robots

*第二十三篇 Powering a City? It's a Breeze.

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*第二十四篇 Underground Coal Fires -- a Looming Catastrophe *第二十五篇 Eat to Live

*第二十六篇 Male and Female Pilots Cause Accidents Differently *第二十七篇 Driven to Distraction

*第二十八篇 Sleep Lets Brain File Memories *第二十九篇 I will Be Bach *第三十篇 Digital Realm *第三十一篇 Hurricane Katrina

*第三十二篇 Mind-reading Machine

*第三十三篇 Experts Call for Local and Regional Control of Sites for Radioactive 第五部分 补全短文 第一篇 Mobile phones

第二篇 Baby Talk (2016新增)

第三篇 Common Questions About Dreams (2016新增) 第四篇 The Bilingual Brain

第五篇 A Record-BreakingRover

* 第六篇 The Apgar Test (2016新增)

* 第七篇 Ice Cream Taster Has Sweet Job (2016新增) * 第八篇 Watching Microcurrents Flow * 第九篇 Lightening Strikes

* 第十篇 How deafiness Makes It Easier to Hear 第六部分 完型填空

第一篇 Captain Cook Arrow Legend 第二篇 Avalanche and Its Safety 第三篇 Giant Structures

第四篇 Animal's \

第五篇 Singing Alarms Could Save the Blind

* 第六篇 Car Thieves Could Be Stopped Remotely * 第七篇 An Intelligent Car

* 第八篇 Why India Needs Its Dying Vultures * 第九篇 Wonder Webs

* 第十篇 Chicken Soup for the Soul：Comfort Food Fights Loneliness

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第一篇 Inventor of LED

When Nick Holonyak set out to create a new kind of visible lighting using semiconductor alloys, his 1

colleagues thought he was unrealistic. Today, his discovery of light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, are used in everything from DVDs to alarm clocks to airports. Dozens of his students have continued his work, developing lighting used in traffic lights and other everyday technology.

On April 23, 2004, Holonyak received the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize at a ceremony in Washington. This marks the 10th year that the Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has given the award to prominent inventors.

“Any time you get an award, big or little, it?s always a surprise.” Holonyak said.

Holonyak, 75, was a student of John Bardeen, an inventor of the transistor, in the early 1950s. After 34graduate school, Holonyak worked at Bell Labs. He later went to General Electric, where he invented a switch 5now widely used in house dimmer switches.

Later, Holonyak started looking into how semiconductors could be used to generate light. But while his colleagues were looking at how to generate invisible light, he wanted to generate visible light. The LEDs he invented in 1962 now last about 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs, and are more environmentally friendly and cost effective.

Holonyak, now a professor of electrical and computer engineering and physics at the University of Illinois, said he suspected that LEDs would become as commonplace as they are today, but didn?t realize how many uses they would have.

“You don?t know in the beginning. You think you?re doing something important, you think it?s worth

doing, but you really can?t tell what the big payoff is going to be, and when, and how. You just don?t know.” he said.

The Lemelson-MIT Program also recognized Edith Flanigen, 75, with the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award for her work on a new generation of “molecular sieves,” that can separate molecules by size.

第一篇 LED的发明者

当 Nick Holonyak着手用半导体含金创造一种新的可视照明设备的时候，同事们都认为他不现实。今天，他发现的发光二极管，或叫 LED，使用范围覆盖从 DVD到机场警钟的一切东西。他的许多学生继续着他的工作，发明了交通灯中使用的照明设备和其他的日用技术。

2004年 4月 23号，Holoyak在华盛顿的一次典礼上被授予 Lemelson-MIT项目的 50万美元的奖金。这是麻省理工的 Lemelson-MIT项目第十年颁奖给杰出的发明人。

“任何时候你得了奖，不论是大是小，总是一分惊喜。” Holonyad说。

Holonyak，75岁，是 20世纪 50年代初期晶体管的发明者 John Bardeen的学生。从研究生院毕业之后， Holonyak在 Bell实验室工作。之后去了通用电器公司，在那里他发明了一种开关，现在家用减光开关中普遍使用。

后来， Holonyak开始研究如何应用半导体发电。当他的同事们正在研究如何发出看不见的光时，他却想要看得见的光。 1962年他发明的 LED，现在的使用寿命可以比白炽灯泡长十倍，而且更环保、更经济。

Holonyak现在是伊利诺斯大学电子、计算机工程和物理专业的教授，他说他预料到 LED的使用有可能像今天这样普遍，但没有意识到它会有多少用途。

“开始的时候你并不知道，你认为你在做一件很重要的事情，你认为它值得做，但是你不能说出要付出多大的代价，什么时候付出，怎样付出。你并不知道。”他说。

Lemelson-MIT项目同样授予 75岁的 Edith Flanigen 10万美元的终身成就奖，她的成就是创造新一代的“分子筛”，也就是可以通过大小来分离分子。

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第二篇 El Nino

While some forecasting methods had limited success predicting the 1997 El Nino a few months in advance1, the Columbia University researchers say their method can predict large El Nino events up to two years in advance. That would be good news for governments, farmers and others seeking to plan for the droughts and heavy rainfall that El Nino can produce in various parts of the world.

Using a computer, the researchers matched sea-surface temperatures to later El Nino occurrences between 1980 and 2000 and were then able to anticipate El Nino events dating back to 1857, using prior sea-surface temperatures. The results were reported in the latest issue of the journal Nature.

The researchers say their method is not perfect, but Bryan C. Weare, a meteorologist at the University of California. Davis, who was not involved in the work, said it “suggests2 El Nino is indeed predictable.”

“This will probably convince others to search around more for even better methods,” said Weare. He added that the new method “makes it possible to predict El Nino at long lead times3.” Other models also use sea-surface temperatures, but they have not looked as far back because they need other data, which is only available for recent decades, Weare said.

The ability to predict the warming and cooling of the Pacific is of immense importance4. The 1997 El Nino, for example, caused an estimated $20 billion in damage worldwide, offset by beneficial effects in other areas, said David Anderson, of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts in Reading, England. The 1877 El Nino, meanwhile, coincided with a failure of the Indian monsoon and a famine that killed perhaps 40 million in India and China, prompting the development of seasonal forecasting, Anderson said.

When El Nino hit in 1991 and 1997, 200 million people were affected by flooding in China alone, according to a 2002 United Nations report.

While predicting smaller El Nino events remains tricky, the ability to predict larger ones should be increased to at least a year if the new method is confirmed.

El Nino tends to develop between April and June and reaches its peak between December and February. The warming tends to last between 9 and 12 months and occurs every two to seven years.

The new forecasting method does not predict any major El Nino events in the next two years, although a weak warming toward the end of this year is possible.

第二篇 厄尔尼诺 当某些预报方法不能提前几个月成功预测 1997年厄尔尼诺现象的时候，哥伦比亚大学的研究人员说他们的方法可以提前两年预测厄尔尼诺现象。这对全世界各地的政府、农民和其他寻求为厄尔尼诺带来的干旱和大雨做准备的人来说是一条好消息。

研究人员使用计算机把 1980年初 2000年之间的海面温度和后来的厄尔尼诺的发生联系起来，进而

能够用之前的海面温度预测远至 1857年的厄尔尼诺现象。研究结果刊登在昀新的《自然》杂志上。 研究人员说他们的方法并不完美，但加利福尼亚大学的气象学家 Bryan C.Weare说这种方法显示出厄尔尼诺是可以预测的，尽管他们已并没有参加研究工作。

Weare说:“这会促使其他人去寻找里好的办法。”他还补充说，新的方法“使在提前很长的一段时间里预测厄尔尼诺现象成为可能。 ”其他的方法也使用海面温度，但他们没能回顾得那么久远是因为缺少其他的资料，而这些资料在近几十年才能够获得。 预测太平洋的升温和降温有极其重要的意义。英国 Reading的欧洲中级天气预报中心的 David Anderson说:以 1997年的厄尔尼诺为例，它导致了全球范围内约 200亿美元的损失，抵消了在其他一些地区的良性影响； 1877年的厄尔尼诺与印度遭受的

季风和饥荒同时发生，导致了印度和中国约四千万人丧生，结果剌激了季节性预报的发展。 根据 2002年的联合国报道， 1991年初和 1997年厄尔尼诺爆发的时候，仅中国就有 2亿人受到洪水的侵害。 然而小的厄尔尼诺预测还是难以捉摸的，如果新的方法被认可的话，对大型厄尔尼诺现象的预测至少应该被提前一年。 厄尔尼诺总是在 4月和 6月期间发展，在 12月初 2月之间达到高峰。气候总是在 9月初 12月之间变暖，并且每 2年到 7年出现一次。 尽管气温在年底的时候有可能微弱上升，新的预测方法预计未来两年不会出现大的厄尔尼诺现象。

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第三篇 Smoking

Since 1939, numerous studies have been conducted to determine whether smoking is a health hazard. The trend of the evidence has been consistent and indicates that there is a serious health risk. Research teams have conducted studies that show beyond all reasonable doubt that tobacco smoking is associated with a shortened life expectancy1.

Cigarette smoking is believed by most research workers in this field to be an important factor in the

development of cancer of the lungs and cancer of the throat and is believed to be related to cancer of some other organs of the body. Male cigarette smokers have a higher death rate from heart disease than non-smoking males. Female smokers are thought to be less affected because they do not breathe in the smoke so deeply.

Apart from statistics, it might be helpful to look at what smoking tobacco does to the human body. Smoke is a mixture of gases, vaporized chemicals, minute particles of ash and other solids. There is also nicotine, which is powerful poison, and black tar. As smoke is breathed in, all those components form deposits on the membranes of the lungs. One point of concentration is where the air tube and bronchus divides. Most lung cancer begins at this point.

Filters and low tar tobacco2 are claimed to make smoking to some extent safer, but they can only slightly reduce, not eliminate the hazards.

第三篇 抽烟

自 1939年以来，人们进行了无数次研究，以确定抽烟是否危害健康，证据的趋向是一致的，显示出抽烟对健康有严重危害。研究组进行的研究确凿无疑地表明抽烟与人的预期寿命的缩短有关。

这个领域的大部分研究人员部认为抽烟是肺癌和喉癌产生的重要原因，并且和人体其他某些器官的癌症有关。抽烟的男性因心脏病而死亡的机率高于不抽烟的男性。女性吸烟者被认为受的影响较小，因为她们不深吸烟。

除了统计之外，看一看吸烟对人体的影响也可能会有帮助。烟是各种气体、蒸发的化学物质、微小的灰和其他固体颗粒的混合物。里面还有很强的毒素尼古丁和黑焦油。当烟被吸入时，所有这些成分形成肺膜上的沉淀物，其集中的一点是气管和支气管分叉的地方。大部分肺癌开始于这一点。

过滤嘴和焦油含量低的烟草被宣称使抽烟在某种程度上安全一些，但是它们只能稍微降低而不是消除危害。

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第九篇 Dangers Await Babies with Altitude

Women who live in the world?s highest communities tend to give birth to underweight babies, a new study suggests. These babies may grow into adults with a high risk of heart disease and strokes.1

Research has hinted that newborns in mountain communities are lighter than average. But it wasn?t clear whether this is due to reduced oxygen levels at high altitudes or because their mothers are under-nourished — many people who live at high altitudes are relatively poor compared with those living lower down.

To find out more, Dino Giussani and his team at Cambridge University studied the records of 400 births in Bolivia during 1997 and 1998. The babies were born in both rich and poor areas of two cities: La Paz and Santa Cruz. La Paz is the highest city in the world, at 3.65 kilometers above sea level, while Santa Cruz is much lower, at 0.44 kilometers.

Sure enough, Giussani found that the average birthweight of babies in La Paz was significantly lower than in Santa Cruz. This was true in both high and low-income families. Even babies born to poor families in Santa Cruz were heavier on average than babies born to wealthy families in lofty La Paz. “We were very surprised by this result,” says Giussani.

The results suggest that babies born at high altitudes are deprived of2 oxygen before birth. “This may trigger the release or suppression of hormones that regulate growth of the unborn child,3” says Giussani.

His team also found that high-altitude babies tended to have relatively larger heads compared with their bodies4. This is probably because a fetus starved of oxygen will send oxygenated blood to the brain in preference to the rest of the body.5

Giussani wants to find out if such babies have a higher risk of disease in later life. People born in La Paz might be prone to heart trouble in adulthood, for example. Low birth weight is a risk factor for coronary heart disease. And newborns with a high ratio of head size to body weight are often predisposed to high blood pressure and strokes in later life.

第九篇 高海拔地区的婴儿有危险

一个新的研究表明，住在世界高海拔地区的女人通常生下体重不足的婴儿。这些婴儿在长大成人后得心脏病和中风的风险很大。

研究暗示在山区出生的新生儿低于平均体重。但是还不清楚这是由于在高海拔的地方氧气不足，还是由于他们的母亲没有获得足够的营养——许多住在高海拔地方的人相对都比住在低处的人穷。

为了了解更多的情况，剑侨大学的迪诺·古萨尼和他的团队研究了 1997年到 1998年玻利维亚的 400个新生儿的记录。这些婴儿出生于两个城市的富有和贫困地区：拉巴斯和圣克鲁斯。拉巴斯是世界上昀高的城市，海拔 3.65千米，而圣克鲁斯低很多，海拔 0.44千米。

当然，吉萨尼发现拉巴斯的新生儿的平均出生体重明显低于圣克鲁斯的新生儿。无论高收入家庭还是低收入家庭都是如此。甚至圣克鲁斯的贫穷家庭的婴儿比拉巴斯的富有家庭的婴儿平均体重还要重。古萨尼说：“我们对这个结果感到吃惊。”

这个结果表明在高海拔出生的婴儿出生前就缺氧了。吉萨尼说：“这可能会触发调节未出生儿成长的荷尔蒙的释放或抑制。”

他的团队还发现高海拔的婴儿通常有相对身体来说较大的头部。这可能是因为一个缺氧的胚胎会首先把充氧的血液输送到脑部，然后才送到身体的其他部位。

古萨尼想要查出这样的婴儿在今后的生活中是不是更容易得病。例如在拉巴斯出生的人在成年之后更可能得心脏病。出生体重低是得冠心病的一个危险因素，头部相对身体较大的新生儿在今后的生活中通常容易得高血压和中风。

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*第十篇 The Biology of Music

Humans use music as a powerful way to communicate. It may also play an important role in love. But what is music, and how does it work its magic? Science does not yet have all the answers.

What are two things that make humans different from animals? One is language, and the other is music. It is true that some animals can sing (and many birds sing better than a lot of people). However, the songs of animals, such as birds and whales, are very limited. It is also true that humans, not animals, have developed musical instruments. 1

Music is strange stuff. It is clearly different from language. However, people can use music to

communicate things — especially their emotions. When music is combined with speech in a song, it is a very powerful form of communication. But, biologically speaking, what is music?

If music is truly different from speech, then we should process music and language in different parts of the brain. The scientific evidence suggests that this is true.

Sometimes people who suffer brain damage lose their ability to process language. However, they don’t automatically lose their musical abilities. For example, Vissarion Shebalin, a Russian composer，had a stroke in 1953. It injured the left side of his brain. He could no longer speak or understand speech. He could, however, still compose music until his death ten years later. On the other hand，sometimes strokes cause people to lose their musical ability, but they can still speak and understand speech. This shows that the brain processes music and language separately.

By studying the physical effects of music on the body，scientists have also learned a lot about how music influences the emotions. But why does music have such a strong effect on us? That is a harder question to answer. Geoffrey Miller, a researcher at University College, London, thinks that music and love have a strong connection. Music requires special talent, practice, and physical ability. That?s why it may be a way of showing your fitness to be someone?s mate. For example, singing in tune or playing a musical instrument requires fine muscular control. You also need a good memory to remember the notes. And playing or singing those notes correctly suggests that your hearing is in excellent condition. Finally, when a man sings to the woman he loves (or vice versa)， it may be a way of showing off.

However, Miller’s theory still doesn’t explain why certain combinations of sounds influence our emotions so deeply. For scientists，this is clearly an area that needs further research.

第十篇 音乐生物学 人们把音乐作为一种高效的交流方式，在爱情中它也可能会起到重要的作用。但是音乐是什么？它又是如何起到神奇的效果？科学界还没有给出答案。

哪两项事物使得人类不同于动物？一个是语言，另一个是音乐。当然一些动物会唱歌 (并且许多鸟唱得比很多人都好听) ，但是，动物的歌声是有限的，比如鸟类和鲸鱼。同样，是人类而不是动物开发出了乐器。

音乐是个奇怪的东西，它与语言有明显的不同。但是，人们能够用音乐去传达——尤其是情感。当音乐与歌曲中的语言结合在一起的时候，它就是一种强有力的表达方式。但是，从生物学来讲，音乐是什么？

如果音乐与语言真的不同，那么我们应该在大脑的不同区域内对音乐和语言进行加工处理，科学证据也证实了这一点。

有时，受过脑损伤的人会丧失他们处理语言的能力。但是，他们不会自动地丢失音乐才能。比如，维沙翁·舍巴林，一位苏联作曲家，在1953 年得了中风。他的大脑的左半边受到损害，他再也不能说话或是理解别人的话，但是他仍然能够谱曲，直到十年后他离开人世。另一方面，中风有时会使人们丧失音乐能力，但是他们仍然能够说话也能听懂别人的话。这就说明大脑是分别加了处理音乐和语言的。

通过研究音乐在人身体上的物理效应，科学家也了解到许多关于音乐是如何影响情感的。但是，为什么音乐对我们有如此强烈的影响？这是一个更难回答的问题。伦敦大学学院的研究员杰弗里·米勒认为音乐和爱有紧密的关，音乐需要特殊才能、练习和体能。这也许是一种方式让你展示你适合做某人的伴侣。比如，按调唱歌或者弹奏乐器需要有很好的肌肉控制力。你也需要有好的记忆力来记住音符。能正确地演奏或者唱出这些音符也证明你的听力也非常好。所以，当一个男人唱给他心爱的女人时(反之亦然) 音乐就可能成为一种展示的方式。

然而，米勒的理论仍然不能解释为什么声音的特定结合可以深深地影响我们的情感。对于科学家来说，这显然是一个需要深入研究的领域。

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第三部分 概括大意和完成句子

第一篇 More Than 8 Hours Sleep Too Much of a Good Thing

1 Although the dangers of too little sleep are widely known, new research suggests that people who sleep too much may also suffer the consequences.

2 Investigators at the University of California in San Diego found that people who clock up1 9 or 10 hours each weeknight appear to have more trouble falling and staying asleep, as well as a number of other sleep problems, than people who sleep 8 hours a night. People who slept only 7 hours each night also said they had more trouble falling asleep and feeling refreshed after a night?s sleep than 8-hour sleepers.2

3 These findings, which Dr. Daniel Kripke reported in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine3, demonstrate that people who want to get a good night?s rest may not need to set aside4 more than 8 hours a night. He added that “it might be a good idea” for people who sleep more than 8 hours each night to consider reducing the amount of time they spend in bed, but cautioned that more research is needed to confirm this.

4 Previous studies have shown the potential dangers of chronic shortages of sleep — for instance, one report demonstrated that people who habitually sleep less than 7 hours each night have a higher risk of dying within a fixed period than people who sleep more.

5 For the current report, Kripke reviewed the responses of 1,004 adults to sleep questionnaires, in which participants indicated how much they slept during the week and whether they experienced any sleep problems. Sleep problems included waking in the middle of the night, arising early in the morning and being unable to fall back to sleep, and having fatigue interfere with day-to-day functioning5.

6 Kripke found that people who slept between 9 and 10 hours each night were more likely to report

experiencing each sleep problem than people who slept 8 hours. In an interview, Kripke noted that long sleepers may struggle to get rest at night simply because they spend too much time in bed. As evidence, he added that one way to help insomnia is to spend less time in bed. “It stands to reasons6 that if a person spends too long a time in bed, then they?ll spend a higher percentage of time awake,” he said.

第一篇 每晚只需 8个小时，睡眠过多非益事

睡眠不足带来的危害已经广为人知，而一项新的研究表明睡眠过多同样会产生不良后果。 圣地亚哥加利福尼亚大学的研究人员发现在入睡、保持睡眠等方面，每晚睡 9或 10小时的人比睡 8小时的人存在更多问题。与 8小时睡眠者相比，每晚仅睡 7个小时的人则表示，他们在入睡及经过一夜睡眠后精力恢复方面有更多的麻烦。

Daniel Kripke愽士在《心身医学》杂志上报告的这些新发现表明，人们如果想晚上休息好，每天留给睡眠的时间只需 8个小时。他补充说，对于那些每晚睡 8个小时以上的人们来说，考虑减少在床上度过的时间“也许是个好主意”。不过他又提醒说这还需要进一步的研究证实。以往的研究证明了长期睡眠缺乏的潜在危机。有报告显示，睡眠经常少于 7小时的人比睡眠充足者，在特定时期内死亡的机率更高。

而在目前这份报告中， Kripke考评了一份 1004名成年人参与反馈的睡眠调查问卷。问卷内容涉及每周睡眠时间和各种可能的睡眠问题，包括半夜惊醒、清晨早醒、无法重新入睡，以及白天疲劳影响日常工作等。

Kripke 发现每晚睡 9～10小时的人比睡 8个小时的人更容易出现各类睡眠问题。在一次访谈中， Kripke注意到睡眠时间长的人夜间可能难以入眠，正是因为他们睡得太多了。因此他补充说，治疗失眠昀好的一种方法就是少睡点儿。“在床上花的时间过长，醒着的时间就会更多，这是理所当然的。

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第二篇 Soot and Snow: a Hot Combination

1 New research from NASA scientists suggests emissions of black soot alter the way sunlight reflects off snow. According to a computer simulation, black soot may be responsible for 25 percent of observed global warming over the past century.

2 Soot in the higher latitudes of the Earth, where ice is more common, absorbs more of the sun?s energy and warmth than an icy, white background. Dark-colored black carbon, or soot, absorbs sunlight, while lighter colored ice reflects sunlight.

3 Soot in areas with snow and ice may play an important role in climate change. Also, if snow and ice covered areas begin melting, the warming effect increases, as the soot becomes more concentrated on the snow surface. “This provides a positive feedback, as glaciers and ice sheets melt, they tend to get even dirtier,” said Dr. James Hansen, a researcher at NASA?s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York.

4 Hansen found soot?s effect on snow albedo (solar energy reflected back to space), which1 may be

contributing to trends toward early springs in the Northern Hemisphere, such as thinning Arctic sea ice, melting glaciers and permafrost. Soot also is believed to play a role in changes in the atmosphere above the oceans and land.

5 “Black carbon reduces the amount of energy reflected by snow back into space, thus heating the snow surface more than if there were no black carbon2,” Hansen said. Soot?s increased absorption of solar energy is especially effective in warming the world?s climate. “This forcing is unusually effective, causing twice as much global warming as a carbon-dioxide forcing of the same magnitude,” Hansen noted.

6 Hansen cautioned, although the role of soot in altering global climate is substantial, it does not alter the fact that greenhouse gases are the primary cause of climate warming during the past century.3 Such gases are expected to be the largest climate forcing for the rest4 of this century.

7 The researchers found that observed warming in the Northern Hemisphere was large in the winter and spring at middle and high latitudes. These observations were consistent with the researchers? climate model simulations, which showed some of the largest warming effects occurred when there were heavy snow cover5 and sufficient sunlight.

第二篇煤灰与白雪：“火热”的组合

美国国家航空和航天局的科学家的一项新调查显示，黑色煤烟的排放改变了冰雪对阳光的反射。依据电脑模拟，上世纪观测到的全球变暖有 25%是黑煤灰引起的。

地球高纬地区冰雪覆盖，那里的煤灰比白色的冰面吸收了更多的太阳热能。因为深黑色的炭或煤灰吸收太阳光，而浅色的冰面则反射阳光。

冰雪地区的煤灰对气候变化可能起着至关重要的作用。而且一旦覆盖大地的冰雪开始融化，煤灰就会更加固着于冰面，从而加剧温室效应。“冰山、冰块一融化，就会变得更脏”。 James Hansen博士，一位来自纽约美国国家航空和航天局的 Goddard太空研究所的研究人员如此说。

Hansen发现，煤灰对冰雪反射率的影响，可能正是促使北半球春季提早的原因，引起北冰洋冰层变薄，冰山及冻土雪原融化。相信煤灰对海洋和陆地上空大气层的变化也有一定影响。

“黑炭减少了冰雪反射回太空的能量，比没有炭灰的条件下更强烈地加热冰面。” Hansen说。煤灰对太阳热能的大量吸收是全球气候变暖的重要因素。 Hansen指出，“这种温室作用特别显著，是同量二氧化碳强度的两倍。”

Hansen又提醒说，尽管煤灰对全球气候变化的作用重大，但这并不能改变一个事实：温室气体是上世纪气候变暖的首要原因，而且它们还将是塑造本世纪气候的主力。

研究人员发现北半球观测到的变暖现象大多发生在中高纬地区的冬春两季。这样的观测结果与气象模拟实验相吻合，表明部分大规模的温室效应发生在有厚雪覆盖层和强烈阳光的时期。

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第三篇 Icy Microbes

1 In ice that has sealed a salty Antarctic lake for more than 2,800 years, scientists have found frozen bacteria and algae that returned to life after thawing. The research may help in the search for life on Mars, which is thought to have subsurface lakes of ice.

2 A research team led by Peter Doran of the University of Illinois at Chicago drilled through more than 39 feet of ice to collect samples of bacteria and algae. When Doran?s team brought them back and warmed them up a bit, they sprang back to life.

3 Doran said the microbes have been age-dated at 2,800 years old, but even older microbes may live deeper in the ice sheet sealing the lake, and in the briny water below the ice.1 That deeper ice and the water itself will be cautiously sampled in a later expedition that will test techniques that may one day be used on Mars.

4 Called Lake Vida , the 4.5-square-kilometer body is one of a series of lakes located in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, some 2,200 kilometers due south2 of New Zealand. This lake has been known since the 1950s, but people ignored it because they thought it was just a big block of ice. While at the site for other

research in the 1990s, Doran and his colleagues sent3 radar signals into the clear ice covering the lake and were surprised to find that 62 feet below there was a pool of liquid water that was about seven times more salty than seawater.

5 That prompted the researchers to return in 1996 with equipment to drill a hole down to within a few feet of the water layer. At the bottom of this hole, researchers harvested specimens of algae and bacteria.

6 The researchers will return in 2004 equipped with instruments that are sterilized. They will then drill through the full 62 feet of ice and sample some of the briny water from the lake for analysis. The water

specimen will be cultured to see if it contains life. Specimens from the water are expected to be even older than the life forms extracted from the ice covering. 第三篇 冰冻微生物

在一个南极咸水湖封冻了 2800多年的冰块中，科学家发现，冰冻的微生物和水藻在解冻后又复活了。该研究成果可能会有助于寻找火星上的生命，人们认为火星的地表下面有冰湖。

由芝加哥的伊利诺伊大学的 Peter Doran率领的考察队在南极冰块上钻洞深达 39英尺，采集了微生物和水藻的样本。 Doran的考察队将其带回并给其温暖环境，这些样本竟又复活了。

Doran说，这些微生物有 2800年的高龄，但是或许还有更老的微生物生存在封湖冰块的更深层和冰块下面的咸水中。在以后的深险中，还会谨慎地对更深的冰层和水提取样本，对将来或许会用于火星的技术进行检测。

这个湖名叫 Vida湖，面积为 4.5平方公里，是南极洲上位于 McMurd干谷的湖群中的一个，位于新西兰正南约 2200千米处。该湖在 20世纪 50年代已为人知，但过去人们认为这只不过是一个巨大的冰块，所以不曾引起足够的重视。但是在 20世纪 90年代，在进行其他考察的地方， Doran和同事们往覆盖湖面的清澈的冰层中发出雷达信号，惊奇地发现在 62英尺深处居然有一个水潭，这里的水其咸度大约是海水的 7倍。

于是，1996年，考察人员带着设备再次来到南极。钻出一个深及水层数英尺的洞。在洞底，考察人员采集到了水藻和微生物的样本。

2004年，考察人员将携带经过杀菌的仪器再次回到南极。他们将在 62英尺的冰层上钻洞，对从湖中提取咸水的样本进行分析。水的样本将会受到培育，看其是否含有生命。据预测，水中提取样本的历史甚至会比冰层中提取的生命形式的历史还要长。

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第二十三篇 Powering a City? It’s a Breeze.1

The graceful wooden windmills that have broken up the flat Dutch landscape for centuries — a national symbol like wooden shoes and tulips — yielded long ago to ungainly metal-pole turbines.2

Now, windmills are breaking into a new frontier. Though still in its teething stages, the “urban turbine” is a high-tech windmill designed to generate energy from the rooftops of busy cities. Lighter, quieter, and often more efficient than rural counterparts3, they take advantage of the extreme turbulence4 and rapid shifts in direction that characterize urban wind patterns.

Prototypes have been successfully tested in several Dutch cities, and the city government in the Hague5 has recently agreed to begin a large-scale deployment in 2003. Current models cost US$ 8,000 to US$12,000 and can generate between 3,000 and 7,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year. A typical Dutch household uses 3,500 kilowatt hours per year, while in the United States, this figure jumps to around 10,000 kilowatt hours.

But so far, they are being designed more for public or commercial buildings than for private homes. The smallest of the current models weigh roughly 200 kilograms and can be installed on a roof in a few hours without using a crane.

Germany, Finland and Denmark have also been experimenting with the technology, but the ever-practical Dutch are natural pioneers in urban wind power mainly because of the lack of space. The Netherlands, with 16 million people crowded into a country twice the size of Slovenia6, is the most densely populated in Europe.

Problems remain, however, for example, public safety concerns7, and so strict standards should be applied to any potential manufacturer. Vibrations are the main problem in skyscraper-high turbine. People don?t know what it would be like to work there, in an office next to one of the big turbines. It might be too hectic.

Meanwhile, projects are under way8 to use minimills9 to generate power for lifeboats, streetlights, and portable generators. “I think the thing about wind power is that you can use it in a whole range of situations,” said Corin Millais, of the European Wind Energy Association. “It?s a very local technology, and you can use it right in your backyard, I don?t think anybody wants a nuclear power plant in their backyard.” 第二十三篇 风力发电 ?轻而易举

与木鞋、郁金香一起被视为荷兰象征的风车，在荷兰平原上优雅地矗立了几个世纪，可是，它的作用早已为笨拙的金属涡轮所代替。

现在，风车已经进入了一个新的疆域。虽然还处于萌芽阶段，城镇使用的涡轮机已经是一种高科技的风车，它们从大城市的平顶房上产生能量。它们利用了城市中的风所将有的乱流和快速转向，比起乡村风车来，更轻，更安静，更有效率。

这神风车的样品已经成功地在荷兰的几个城市得到测试。海牙市政府昀近已经同意在 2003年开始大规模发展这种风车。目前的风车模型大约花费 8000～12000美元，每年能够产生 3000～7000千瓦时的电，一个典型的荷兰家庭每年使用 3500千瓦时的电，而在美国，这个数字则要上升到大约 10000千瓦时。

但是到目前为此，这些风车更多地不是为私宅而是为公共建筑或商业建筑而设汁。目前昀小的风车模型大约有 200千克重，而且不需要吊车就可以将它安装在屋顶上。

德国、芬兰和丹麦都已经开始这项技术的实施，但是，荷兰的空间狭小使得它在城市风力发电上始终是昀实际的先驱。荷兰有 1600万的人口，挤在斯洛文尼亚两倍那么大的土地上，是欧洲人口密度昀高的国家。

尽管如此，问题仍然存在。比如，公共安全问题，因此对潜在的制造商必须制定严格的标准。高耸入云的涡轮机昀主要的问题是振动。人们无法想象在一个巨大的涡轮机旁边的办公室里如何工作。那一定是闹哄哄的。

与此同时，使用小型风车为救生船、路灯和便携式发电机提供能量的计划也在进行之中。“我认为使用风力就是能让人在许多情况下都可以使用。”欧洲风能协会的 Corin Millais说，“这是一种因地制宜的技术，人们在自己家的后院就可使用。我想没有人希望自己家的后院里有一个核电站的。”

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第二十四篇 Underground Coal Fires — a Looming Catastrophe

Coal burning deep underground in China， India and Indonesia is threatening the environment and human life, scientists have warned.2 These large-scale underground blazes cause the ground temperature to heat up and kill surrounding vegetation, produce greenhouse gases and can even ignite forest fires, a panel3 of scientists told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Denver4. The resulting release of poisonous elements like arsenic and mercury can also pollute local water sources and soils, they warned.

“Coal fires are a global catastrophe,” said Associate Professor Glenn Stracher of East Georgia College in Swainsboro , USA. But surprisingly few people know about them.

Coal can heat up on its own5, and eventually catch fire and burn, if there is a continuous oxygen supply. The heat produced is not caused to disappear and under the right combinations of sunlight and oxygen, can trigger spontaneous6 catching fire and burning. This can occur underground, in coal stockpiles7, abandoned mines or even as coal is transported. Such fires in China consume8 up to9 200 million tones of coal per year, delegates were told. In comparison, the U. S. economy consumes about one billion tones of coal annually, said Stracher, whose analysis of the likely impact of coal fires has been accepted for publication in the International journal of Coal Ecology. Once underway,10 coal fires can burn for decades, even centuries. In the process, they release large volumes of greenhouse gases, poisonous fumes and black particles into the atmosphere.

The members of the panel discussed the impact these fires may be having on global and regional climate change, and agreed that the underground nature of the fires makes them difficult to detect. One of the members of the panel, Assistant Professor Paul Van Dijk of the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation in the Netherlands, has been working with the Chinese government to detect and monitor fires in the northern regions of the country.

Ultimately, the remote sensing and other techniques should allow scientists to estimate how much carbon dioxide these fires are emitting. One suggested method of containing11 the fires was presented by Gary

Colaizzi, of the engineering firm Goodson, which has developed a beat-resistant grout (a thin mortar12 used to fill cracks and crevices) , which is designed to be pumped into the coal fire to cut off13 the oxygen supply. 第二十四篇 地下煤着火——即将来临的灾难

科学家们警告说，中国、印度和印度尼西亚的地下煤矿着火将严重威胁自然环境和人身安全。在丹佛举行的美国科学促进协会的会议上，一个专家小组的科学家们表示，大规模的地下大火将会提高地面温度，烧死周围的植物，由此产生的气体将会导致温室效应，甚至有可能引起森林大火。他们还警告说，大火释放出来的砷、汞等有毒物质还会污染当地的水源和土壤。

美国东佐治亚大学 Swainsboro分校的副教授 Glenn Stracher说：“煤矿失火是一个全球性的灾难。”但令人惊奇的是，很少有人知道这一点。

煤能够自己提高温度，存在充足的氧气时，它能够自燃。它产生的热量并不会消失，在合适的阳光和氧气条件下，就会自燃。这种情况可能发生在地下煤矿的煤堆、废弃的煤矿，甚至在煤的运输过程中。 Stracher教授告诉与会代表们，每年在中国，这种情况会消耗掉 12亿吨的煤。相比之下，美国每年的用煤量为 10亿吨。 Stracher教授关于由煤引起的大火的影响的分析已经在《国际煤生态学期刊》上发表。煤一旦燃烧越来，就可能燃烧几十年，甚至几百年。在这个过程中，会排出大量的温室气体、有毒气体和黑色的灰粒到大气中。

专家们讨论了这些大火对全球和地区气候变化的影响，一致认为火灾地点发生在地下，使得火灾不容易被发现。小组的一个成员，来自荷兰国际地质信息科学和地球观测研究院的 Paul Van Dijk助理教授已经同中国政府合作探测和控制中国北部地区的煤矿失火情况。

远程感应以及其他技术昀终将能够允许科学家们估计出究竟这些大火释放出多少二氧化碳。 Goodson工程公司的 Gary Colaizzi提出了一种控制火势的方法。他们公司已开发出一种隔热水泥浆（一种稀灰浆用来填充裂缝），它可以被灌注到失火的煤矿中以切断氧气供给。

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第二十五篇 Eat to Live

A meager diet may give you health and long life, but it?s not much fun — and it might not even be

necessary. We may be able to hang on to1 most of that youthful vigor even if we don?t start to diet until old age.

Stephen Spindler and his colleagues from the University of California at Riverside have found that some of an elderly mouse?s liver genes can he made to behave as they did when the mouse was young simply by limiting its food for four weeks. The genetic rejuvenation won?t reverse other damage caused by time for the mouse, but could help its liver metabolize drugs or get rid of toxins.2

Spindlers team fed three mice a normal diet for their whole lives, and fed another three on half-rations3. Three more mice were switched from the normal diet to half-feed3 for a month when they were 34 months old — equivalent to about 70 human years.

The researchers checked the activity of 11, 000 genes from the mouse livers, and found that 46 changed with age in the normally fed mice. The changes were associated with things like inflammation and free radical production4 — probably bad news for mouse health. In the mice that had dieted nil their lives, 27 of those 46 genes continued to behave like young genes. But the most surprising finding was that the mice that only started dieting in old age also benefited from 70 per cent of these gene changes.

“This is the first indication that these effects kick in5 pretty quickly.” say Huber Warner from the National Institute on Aging near Washington D. C.

No one yet knows if calorie restriction works in people as it does in mice, but Spindler is hopeful. “There?s attracting and tempting evidence out there that it will work,” he says.

If it does work in people, there might be good reasons for rejuvenating the liver. As we get older, our bodies are less efficient at metabolizing drugs, for example. A brief period of time of dieting, says Spindler, could be enough to make sure a drug is effective.

But Spindler isn?t sure the trade-off is worth it6. “The mice get less disease, they live longer, but they?re hungry,” he says, “Even seeing what a diet does , it?s still hard to go to a restaurant and say: ?I can only cat half of that?.”

Spindler hopes we soon won?t need to diet at all. His company, Lifespan Genetics in California, is looking for drugs that have the effects of caloric restriction. 第二十五篇 为生存而食

粗茶淡饭或许能给你健康和长寿，但这并不有趣——很有可能也没必要。即便在年老以后才开始节食我们也能在很大程度上保持住青春活力。

加州大学 Riverside分校的斯蒂芬·斯潘德尔及其同事发现，只要连续四周限制一些衰老的老鼠进食，它们的肝脏基因就会变得和衰老前一样充满活力。虽然老鼠的肝部基因恢复活力不会逆转它们在其他方面的老化，但是却有助于这些老鼠的肝脏对药物的新陈代谢消除毒素。

斯潘德尔的队员们一直给其中的三只老鼠正常量的饲料，而给另三只老鼠正常量饲料的一半，给三只 34个月大的老鼠（相当于人类年龄的 70岁）喂了一个月的半量饲料，之前这三只老鼠的饲料量是正常的。

研究者们检查了这些老鼠肝脏的 11000种基因的活性，发现正常饲养的老鼠有 46种基因随年龄的改变而改变。这些改变都与有机体组织的无限激增有关——这对老鼠的健康来说不是什么好消息。而对于那些终身都在节食的老鼠来说，那 46种基因中的 27种仍然继续保持着青春活力。但是昀令人吃惊的发现却是那些只是在老年时期节食的老鼠们受益于 10%的基因变异。

“这只是第一个这些效果迅速起作用的暗示”，来自华盛顿特区周边的国家老年学学院的哈勃·华纳说。

至今仍然没有人清楚卡路里的控制对人类来说是否如同对老鼠那样有效，但是斯潘德尔对此充满了希望：“有足以引人注意的证据表明这同样有效。”

如果这确实也对人类有效，我们有理由相信肝脏也可能恢复活力。举个例子，随着我们一天天衰老，我们的身体对药物的新陈代谢越来越没有效率。短时期内的节食，斯潘德尔说到，完全足以保证药效。

但是斯潘德尔并不确定这个方法值得尝试。“老鼠患病少了，寿命延长了，但是它们很饥饿， ”他说，“即使能清楚地认识到节食的功效，人们仍然很难在餐馆中说自己只能吃一半的食物。”

斯潘德尔希望我们根本就不用节食。他的公司，加利福尼亚州的寿命遗传学公司，正在寻找有限制卡路里效能的药物。

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第二十六篇 Male and Female Pilots Cause Accidents Differently

Male pilots flying general aviation1 (private) aircraft in the United States are more likely to crash due to inattention or flawed decision-making, while female pilots are more likely to crash from mishandling the aircraft. These are results of a study fly researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The study identifies difference between male and female pilot in terms of circumstances or the crash and the type or pilots error involved2. “Crashes of general aviation aircraft account for 85 percent of all aviation deaths3 in the United States. The crash rate for male pilots, as for motor vehicle drivers, exceeds that4 of crashes of female pilots.” explains Susan P. Baker, MPH, professor of health policy and management at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Because pilot youth and inexperience are established5 contributors to aviation crashes6, we focused on only mature pilots, to determine the gender differences in the reasons for the crash.”

The researchers extracted data for this study from a large research project on pilot aging and flight safety. The data were gathered from general aviation crashes of airplanes and helicopters between 1983 and 1997, involving 144 female pilots and 267 male pilots aged 40-63. Female pilots were matched with male pilots in a 1:2 ratio, by age, classes of medical and pilot certificates, state or area of crash, and year of crash. Then the circumstances of the crashes and the pilot error involved were categorized and coded without knowledge of pilot gender.

The researchers found that loss of control on landing or takeoff was the most common circumstance for both sexes, leading to 59 percent of female pilots? crashes and 36 percent of males?. Experiencing mechanical failure, running out of fuel, and landing the plane with the landing gear up7 were among the factors more likely with males, while stalling was more likely with females.

The majority of the crashes — 95 percent for females and 88 percent for males — involved at least one type of pilot error. Mishandling aircraft kinetics was the most common error for both sexes, but was more common among females (accounting for 81 percent of the crashes) than males (accounting for 48 percent ). Males, however, appeared more likely to be guilty of8 poor decision-making, risk-taking, and inattentiveness, examples of which include misjudging weather and visibility9 or flying an aircraft with a known defect.

Females, though more likely to mishandle or lose control of the aircraft, were generally more careful than their male counterparts10.

第二十六篇 男女飞行员引起飞行事故的差异

在美国，专用航空的男性飞行员更容易因为精神不集中或错误决定而坠机，而女性飞行员坠机的原因更多的是操作不当。这些是约翰·霍普金斯大学布鲁姆博格公共健康学院的研究人员所做的一项研究的结果。

这项研究根据坠毁情况和飞行员失误类型鉴别男女飞行员之间的差异。“在美国，专用航空飞行事故占所有坠机死亡人数的 85%。同机动车驾驶员情况相似，男性飞行员的坠毁率超过了女性飞行员。”布鲁姆博格公共健康学院的健康政策及管理教授 Susan P. Baker解释说，“因为飞行员的年轻和缺乏经验是已经确定的造成飞行事故的原因，我们主要集中在成熟的飞行员身上，研究由于性别差异导致的坠机。”

研究人员从一项关于飞行员的年龄增长与飞行安全的研究中获取数据用于这个项目。这些数据收集于 1983年至 1997年间的飞机和直升机专用飞行的坠毁情况。其中包括了年龄在 40岁到 63岁之间的 144个女性飞行员和 267个男性飞行员。女飞行员和男飞行员根据年龄，医疗和飞行证书的等级，事故地点和事故年份按 1 : 2的比例分配。然后，不考虑飞行员的性别，对相关的事故环境和飞行员失误进行分类和编码。

研究人员发现，不论男女，起飞和降落时的失控是昀常见的情况，在男女飞行员的事故比例中，分别占 36%和 59%。机械故障、燃油将尽和降落时不放下起落装置是男飞行员更常犯的错误，而飞机失速则更容易发生在女飞行员身上。

绝大部分的坠毁事故——女飞行员中的 95%，男飞行员中的 88%——都至少由飞行员的一项失误引起。降落时错误的动力学是所有飞行员中昀常见的错误，但是，在女飞行员中更为常见（占事故的 81%，男飞行员为 48%）。可是，男飞行员更容易作出错误或冒险的决定，注意力不集中，比如对天气和能见度判断失误或驾驶一架明知有故障的飞机。比起她们的男同行来说，虽然女飞行员有时更容易操作不当，但她们更加小心。

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第二十七篇 Driven to Distraction

Joe Coyne slides into the driver?s seat, starts up the car and heads1 to town. The empty stretch of interstate gives way to urban congestion2, and Coyne hits the brakes as a pedestrian suddenly crosses the street in front of him.

But even if he hadn?t stopped in time, the woman would have been safe. She isn?t real. Neither is the town. And Coyne isn?t really driving. Coyne is demonstrating a computerized driving simulator that is helping researchers at Old Dominion University3 (ODU) examine how in-vehicle guidance systems affect the person behind the wheel.4

The researchers want to know if such systems, which give audible or written directions, are too distracting — or whether any distractions are offset5 by the benefits drivers get from having help finding their way in unfamiliar locations.6

“We are looking at the performance and mental workload of drivers,” said Caryl Baldwin, the assistant psychology professor lending the research, which involves measuring drivers reaction time and brain activity as they respond to auditory and visual cues7.

The researchers just completed a study of the mental workload8 involved in driving through different kinds of

environments and heavy vs, light traffic. Preliminary results show that as people “get into more challenging driving situations, they don?t have any extra mental energy to respond to something else in the environment.” Baldwin said.

But the tradeoffs could be worth it, she said. The next step is to test different ways of giving drivers navigational information and how those methods change the drivers? mental workload.

“Is it best if they see a picture … that shows their position, a map kind of display?9”Baldwin said. “Is it best if they hear it?”

Navigational systems now on the market give point-by-point directions that follow a prescribed route. “They?re very unforgiving,” Baldwin said. “If you miss a turn, they can almost seem to get angry.”

That style of directions also can be frustrating for people who prefer more general instructions. But such broad directions can confuse drivers who prefer route directions. Baldwin said.

Perhaps manufacturers should allow drivers to choose the style of directions they want, or modify systems to present some information in a way that makes sense10 for people who prefer the survey style, she said.

Interestingly, other research has shown that about 60 percent of men prefer the survey style, while 60 percent women

prefer the route style, Baldwin said. This explains the classic little thing of why men don?t like to stop and ask for directions and women do, Baldwin added. 第二十七篇 分散注意力驾驶

Joe Coyne滑进驾驶座，发动汽车朝城里开去。空荡荡的那段州际公路结束了，进入到拥塞的城市。这时，一个行人突然从 Coyne的车前穿过，他急忙紧急刹车。

但是，就算 Coyne来不及刹车，那个妇女也不会有事儿。因为，她是一个假人。整座城市也是假的。 Coyne并不是真的在开车。他只是在演示一个计算机操控的驾驶模拟器，帮助 Old Dominion大学的研究者们检测车内导向系统如何影响开车人。

研究人员希望了解这些能够提供语音或书面批示的系统是否干扰太大，或者这些干扰能否与这些系统给驾驶员在陌生环境里指路的益处相抵消。

主持研究的心理学助理教授 Caryl Baldwin说：“我们一直关注着驾驶员的表现和精神负荷。”包括驾驶员在对听觉和视觉提示作出反应时的反应时间和大脑活动。

研究人员刚刚完成了一项关于在不同环境中，如交通畅通或交通拥挤时驾驶员精神负荷的调查。 Baldwin说，初步的调查结果显示，人们“在更富挑战性的环境中驾驶时，并不会对周围相环境的变化作出更大的反应。 ”

她说，两种提示的交替使用还是有效的。下一步，他们将测试为驾驶员提供导向信息的不同方法以及这些方法如何改变驾驶员的精神负担。

Baldwin说：“是给驾驶员看类似地图那样的显示图片好，还是让他们听到指示信息好呢？”

现在市场上的导向系统会按照预定的路线一个地点一个地点地给出指导。 Baldwin说：“这些系统通常不会原谅人的错误。如果驾驶员错过了一个转弯，它们就会变得非常生气。”

这种指导信息的方式通常会使更喜欢笼统信息的驾驶员产生一种受挫惑。 Baldwin 说，笼统的信息却会使更喜欢线路指示的驾驶员感到困惑。

她说，也许，系统制造商们应该允许驾驶员能够选择自己喜欢的指示方式，或者改变系统以驾驶员喜欢的方式提供某些信息。

有意思的是，其他研究者表示 60%的男性更喜欢这种提供调查信息的导向系统，而 60%的女性则更喜欢线路指示系统。 Baldwin说，这也就可以解释为什么女人喜欢下车问路，而男人却不的经典例子。

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