时间:2018-12-18 作者:英语课 分类:2011年VOA慢速英语(十)月


英语课

Technology Report - How the Edsel Became 'an Edsel'


 


This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.



ANNOUNCER: “They’ll know you’ve arrived, when you drive up in the nineteen fifty-eight Edsel -- the car that’s truly new, from nameplate to taillight.”



The Ford 1 Motor Company built several versions of the Edsel from nineteen fifty-eight to nineteen sixty. Ford ended production of the car after just three model years because of weak sales.



The Edsel has been described as both a "colossal 2 failure" and "a car ahead of its time."



John Heitmann is a history professor at the University of Dayton in Ohio and vice 3 president of the Society for Automotive Historians.



JOHN HEITMANN: “It was a car that was controversial in styling. Its horseshoe-shaped grill 4 is still remembered today. The Edsel is kind of the example of the car that never caught on. It’s known as the 'disaster from Dearborn.'”



Dearborn, Michigan is Ford's headquarters.









A 1959 Edsel Ranger 5




Professor Heitmann says the biggest problem was that the Edsel arrived around the same time as a recession. He says Americans were beginning to question their values.



JOHN HEITMANN: "It’s a really curious kind of economic episode. It was actually quite severe but also rather short. But it was at a time when many Americans were reacting to the dinosaur 6 in the driveway. These very heavy, chrome-laden Buicks and other cars -- the fifty-eight Buick had fifty-eight pounds of chrome on it. The Edsel was also a very heavy, very fuel-inefficient vehicle."



Even so, some people say the Edsel's technology more than made up for what it lacked in looks and fuel efficiency.



"Shamrock" Shelly Cleaver 7 is the public relations director for the Edsel Owners Club in the United States. Mr. Cleaver has been a member of the club since it formed in nineteen sixty-nine. He says the Edsel was the most modern car of its time.



SHELLY CLEAVER: “It was the first Ford product to have self-adjusting brakes on it. And then on the back and rear bumper 8 it had little bumper tips, had a guard with rubber mounted in them so when you could push your car or something, you wouldn’t skin up your bumper. And it had power lubrication where you could lubricate your ball joints 9 and everything inside the car where you mashed 10 a button.”



Mr. Cleaver liked one feature especially.



SHELLY CLEAVER: “The fifty-eight Edsel had five buttons in the center of the steering 11 wheel to shift the gears, see. And that way you could shift the gears with your left hand and keep your arm around your girlfriend, or your wife, whatever and keep on driving. That was unique. It was Teletouch Drive."



“Shamrock” Shelly Cleaver made good use of that feature when he got married in nineteen fifty-eight. He went on his honeymoon 12 in an Edsel, with one arm on the wheel and the other around his new wife.



The Edsel was named for Edsel Ford, the only child of company founder 13 Henry Ford. Edsel was president of Ford Motor Company until he died in nineteen forty-three.



Today the cars are considered collector’s items. They can cost anywhere from hundreds of dollars to tens of thousands of dollars.



And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report, written by June Simms. I'm Steve Ember.



1 Ford
n.浅滩,水浅可涉处;v.涉水,涉过
  • They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上,所以我们只能涉水过河。
  • If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪,必须极度小心。
2 colossal
adj.异常的,庞大的
  • There has been a colossal waste of public money.一直存在巨大的公款浪费。
  • Some of the tall buildings in that city are colossal.那座城市里的一些高层建筑很庞大。
3 vice
n.坏事;恶习;[pl.]台钳,老虎钳;adj.副的
  • He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
  • They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。
4 grill
n.烤架,铁格子,烤肉;v.烧,烤,严加盘问
  • Put it under the grill for a minute to brown the top.放在烤架下烤一分钟把上面烤成金黄色。
  • I'll grill you some mutton.我来给你烤一些羊肉吃。
5 ranger
n.国家公园管理员,护林员;骑兵巡逻队员
  • He was the head ranger of the national park.他曾是国家公园的首席看守员。
  • He loved working as a ranger.他喜欢做护林人。
6 dinosaur
n.恐龙
  • Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击?
  • He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。
7 cleaver
n.切肉刀
  • In fact,a cleaver is a class of ax.实际上,切肉刀也是斧子的一种。
  • The cleaver is ground to a very sharp edge.刀磨得飞快。
8 bumper
n.(汽车上的)保险杠;adj.特大的,丰盛的
  • The painting represents the scene of a bumper harvest.这幅画描绘了丰收的景象。
  • This year we have a bumper harvest in grain.今年我们谷物丰收。
9 joints
接头( joint的名词复数 ); 关节; 公共场所(尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所) (非正式); 一块烤肉 (英式英语)
  • Expansion joints of various kinds are fitted on gas mains. 各种各样的伸缩接头被安装在煤气的总管道上了。
  • Expansion joints of various kinds are fitted on steam pipes. 各种各样的伸缩接头被安装在蒸气管道上了。
10 mashed
a.捣烂的
  • two scoops of mashed potato 两勺土豆泥
  • Just one scoop of mashed potato for me, please. 请给我盛一勺土豆泥。
11 steering
n.操舵装置
  • He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration. 他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。
  • Steering according to the wind, he also framed his words more amicably. 他真会看风使舵,口吻也马上变得温和了。
12 honeymoon
n.蜜月(假期);vi.度蜜月
  • While on honeymoon in Bali,she learned to scuba dive.她在巴厘岛度蜜月时学会了带水肺潜水。
  • The happy pair are leaving for their honeymoon.这幸福的一对就要去度蜜月了。
13 Founder
n.创始者,缔造者
  • He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
  • According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说,罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。
学英语单词
alopias pelagicus vulpinus
aluminum gallium arsenide (algaas)
aniline colour
annoious
bada bing
band grinding
bastard fount
bimatron
birdseeds
capital-labor ratio
castor bean poisoning
cattle leader
centiamp
cheese-eater
classicial
Coleridge
columu
constitutional republic
contact (thermal) resistance
convgallaria
cotton wool spots
coupling integrity
cross belt drive
Cryptothelea formosicola
cylinder type germinator for grain feed
damping matrix
Deaflympians
dichloroformoxime
dieing
dread
dried ice cream mix
duplicate feeder
electric-current density
every bit as
far reaching
financial problem
foibas
fraud on a power
function of supervision
get into the swing of things
golden honey plant
gsfc (goddard space flight center)
half-greens
hand-brace
holding area
homaridaes
hook tooth sprocket gear
hypoinsulinemic
individual capacity
inflammable bas detector
insettings
isolating film
Keteleeria formosana
leading block holder
leida
membranolytic
metallocofactors
modelings
multiple segment
narrow cuts of solids
Naxas emery
net working capital ratio
pallet tier
pan fried shrimp
penetration phosphors
phone-booths
power-burst-facility
primitive accumulation
procurement of items and services
proof reading program
pylae
raskols
referent ship
rhynchobatus djiddensis
rotary presses
rotary-piston pump
Rottofreno
rushes
sagman
sarcocystosis
scapus pili
scoop for nursery planting
scot
sensitizing range
shiplap boarding
sitaxentan
skin toning lotion
spit ring
Stichaeus
Subbotniki
Talibaptists
Tayeegle
time-sharing multiplexer channel
to go off on someone
total hip replacement
two-row cotton picker
unrummaged
vane exit angle
vision function
wood-knife
xeroxes
yeade