英语听力：自然百科 智能电网（上）

The United States has started the largest infrastructure¹ project in human history, a complete top-to-bottom overhaul² of our entire electrical supply grid³, retrofitting new intelligent devices at every step from the power company's generators⁴ to the devices in our homes and making sure every component⁵ is secure from attack, while also adding in control of water, gas and sewage systems. And this total makeover must happen while the whole system is operating online at peak capacity, while it's growing in fact. In short, we've begun building a smarter power grid, one that works pretty much like the internet. You could call it, the InterGrid.

Our aging power grid system is starting to fail. We've seen more blackouts and brownouts, and it runs inefficiently⁶, wasting carbon into the air. New clean sources like wind and solar which make power only part of the time need intelligent pathways to get to consumers, and the Americans prefer the power they use to have been produced by Americans. Right now, our fragile, less-than-smart power grid, interconnect nearly 10,000 utility plants, that's well over a million megawatts of generating capacity, about half of it comes from burning coal. At least one third of the United States’ carbon output, maybe more, comes from power generation. Almost one fifth of our power steams onto the grid from the boiling water, heated by the nation's 104 nuclear reactors⁷. Nearly six percent of the electricity used in the US comes from flowing or falling water, hydroelectric power generated at river dams.

But the same six percent of all the electric power that's produced gets lost before it gets where it's supposed to go. It either melts away as heat as it travels long more than a quarter million miles of metallic⁸ wire, or it simply

shots the grid, undetected somewhere within the constant maintenance headache of the decaying patchwork⁹ of cable towers and poles.

Reclaiming¹⁰ just that six percent would be the equivalent of taking 55 million cars off the world in terms of the petroleum¹¹ saved and greenhouse gases prevented. For the past quarter century, the peak demand for power has been outpacing investment in new transmission lines and power regulation systems that can only react when something goes wrong.

They are not good at spotting problems before they happen. The old grid flies perilously¹² close to the breaking point, every hot day in sunlight cities.

According the Department of Energy, US businesses lose over a hundred billion dollars a year to blackouts and brownouts. The power that does arrive has to be used as soon as it gets there. But up until now, there hasn't been a good way for consumers to tell the power company how much power they might want to purchase. To keep our electric grid from grinding to a halt, the new InterGrid will work on a principle known as 'prices to devices'.

If you knew that electric grids¹³ were going to spike¹⁴ very high this afternoon, you might decide to leave your home air conditioner off while you are out ofthe house. Well, suppose your air conditioner, in fact your entire home, knew it before you. What if those devices, your thermostats¹⁵, washers, driers, refrigerators, Jacuzzis could make decisions about how much energy to purchase according to your preset preference and telling the utility company what you are willing to pay. And that's truly speaking truth to power.

 

1 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

2 overhaul   

v./n.大修，仔细检查

参考例句：

• Master Worker Wang is responsible for the overhaul of this grinder.王师傅主修这台磨床。
• It is generally appreciated that the rail network needs a complete overhaul.众所周知，铁路系统需要大检修。

3 grid   

n.高压输电线路网；地图坐标方格；格栅

参考例句：

• In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
• Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。

4 generators   

n.发电机，发生器( generator的名词复数 )；电力公司

参考例句：

• The factory's emergency generators were used during the power cut. 工厂应急发电机在停电期间用上了。
• Power can be fed from wind generators into the electricity grid system. 电力可以从风力发电机流入输电网。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 component   

n.组成部分，成分，元件；adj.组成的，合成的

参考例句：

• Each component is carefully checked before assembly.每个零件在装配前都经过仔细检查。
• Blade and handle are the component parts of a knife.刀身和刀柄是一把刀的组成部分。

6 inefficiently   

adv.无效率地

参考例句：

• The small family farm is steeped in inefficiently and struggles just to survive. 小农场主陷于无效率的境况中，只为生存下去而苦苦挣扎。 来自辞典例句
• You can't afford to run businesses inefficiently in this day and age. 在现今，经营商店无能是不行的。 来自互联网

7 reactors   

起反应的人( reactor的名词复数 )； 反应装置； 原子炉； 核反应堆

参考例句：

• The TMI nuclear facility has two reactors. 三哩岛核设施有两个反应堆。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• The earliest production reactors necessarily used normal uranium as fuel. 最早为生产用的反应堆，必须使用普通铀作为燃料。

8 metallic   

adj.金属的；金属制的；含金属的；产金属的；像金属的

参考例句：

• A sharp metallic note coming from the outside frightened me.外面传来尖锐铿锵的声音吓了我一跳。
• He picked up a metallic ring last night.昨夜他捡了一个金属戒指。

9 patchwork   

n.混杂物；拼缝物

参考例句：

• That proposal is nothing else other than a patchwork.那个建议只是一个大杂烩而已。
• She patched new cloth to the old coat,so It'seemed mere patchwork. 她把新布初到那件旧上衣上，所以那件衣服看上去就象拼凑起来的东西。

10 reclaiming   

v.开拓( reclaim的现在分词 )；要求收回；从废料中回收（有用的材料）；挽救

参考例句：

• People here are reclaiming land from the sea. 这儿的人们正在填海拓地。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• How could such a man need reclaiming? 这么一个了不起的人怎么还需要别人拯救呢？ 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

11 petroleum   

n.原油，石油

参考例句：

• The Government of Iran advanced the price of petroleum last week.上星期伊朗政府提高了石油价格。
• The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。

12 perilously   

adv.充满危险地，危机四伏地

参考例句：

• They were perilously close to the edge of the precipice. 他们离悬崖边很近，十分危险。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• It'seemed to me that we had come perilously close to failure already. 对我来说，好像失败和我只有一步之遥，岌岌可危。 来自互联网

13 grids   

n.格子( grid的名词复数 )；地图上的坐标方格；（输电线路、天然气管道等的）系统网络；（汽车比赛）赛车起跑线

参考例句：

• Typical framed structures are beams, grids, plane and space frames or trusses. 典型构架结构为梁、格栅、平面的和空间的框架或桁架。 来自辞典例句
• The machines deliver trimmed grids for use or stock. 这种机器铸出修整过的板栅，以供使用或储存。 来自辞典例句

14 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。

15 thermostats   

n.恒温（调节）器( thermostat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This is the basic operating principle of many thermostats. 这是许多恒温箱的基本工作原理。 来自辞典例句
• Thermostats can be used to regulate the temperature of a room. 恒温器可用来调节室内温度。 来自辞典例句