剑桥雅思18Test3Passage2阅读原文翻译 The steam Car 蒸汽汽车
剑桥雅思18阅读第三套题目第二篇文章的主题为蒸汽汽车。作者按照时间顺序介绍了阿布尔兄弟如何在内燃机大行其道的情况下开发蒸汽汽车，包括他们取得的成就，面临的困难，和最终倒闭的事实。下面是具体每个自然段的翻译，以供大家参考。
剑桥雅思18Test3Passage2阅读答案解析 The steam car 蒸汽汽车
剑桥雅思18 Test3 Passage2阅读原文翻译
老烤鸭原创翻译，请勿抄袭转载
段落A
When primitive automobiles first began to appear in the 1800s, their engines were based on steam power. Steam had already enjoyed a long and successful career in the railways, so it was only natural that the technology evolved into a miniaturized version which was separate from the trains. But these early cars inherited steam’s weaknesses along with its strengths. The boilers had to be lit by hand, and they required about twenty minutes to build up pressure before they could be driven. Furthermore, their water reservoirs only lasted for about thirty miles before needing replenishment. Despite such shortcomings, these newly designed self-propelled carriages offered quick transportation, and by the early 1900s it was not uncommon to see such machines shuttling wealthy citizens around town.
19世纪汽车刚出现时，它们的发动机基于蒸汽动力。蒸汽在铁路上已经有了漫长而成功的运用历史，因此技术的发展自然而然地演变出一个与火车分离的小型化版本。然而，这些早期汽车除了继承了蒸汽的优点外，也继承了它的缺点。锅炉必须手动点火，并且需要约20分钟才能积攒起足够的压力，然后才能行驶。此外，它们的水箱只能维持大约30英里的行驶距离，随后就需要重新补充水源。尽管存在这些缺点，这些新设计的自动行驶马车提供了快速的交通方式。到了19世纪初，这样的机器在城里来回穿梭运送富有的市民并不少见。
段落B
But the glory days of steam cars were few. A new technology called the Internal Combustion Engine soon appeared, which offered the ability to drive down the road just moments after starting up. At first, these noisy gasoline cars were unpopular because they were more complicated to operate and they had difficult hand-crank starters, which were known to break arms when the engines backfired. But in 1912 General Motors introduced the electric starter, and over the following few years steam power was gradually phased out.
然而，蒸汽汽车的辉煌十分短暂。很快出现了一种名为内燃机的新技术，它可以在启动后短时间内上路行驶。起初，这些吵闹的汽油汽车并不受欢迎，因为它们操作更加复杂，而且手摇曲轴启动器很难使用。当发动机回火时，会导致手臂骨折。但在1912年，通用汽车引入了电动起动器。接下来的几年里，蒸汽动力汽车逐渐被淘汰。
段落C
Even as the market was declining, four brothers made one last effort to rekindle the technology. Between 1906 and 1909, while still attending high school, Abner Doble and his three brothers built their first steam car in their parents’ basement. It comprised parts taken from a wrecked early steam car but reconfigured to drive an engine of their own design. Though it did not run well, the Doble brothers went on to build a second and third prototype in the following years. Though the Doble boys’ third prototype, nicknamed the Model B, still lacked the convenience of an internal combustion engine, this article is from laokaoya website, it drew the attention of automobile trade magazines due to its numerous improvements over previous steam cars. The Model B proved to be superior to gasoline automobiles in many ways. Its high-pressure steam drove the engine pistons in virtual silence, in contrast to clattering gas engines which emitted the aroma of burned hydrocarbons. Perhaps most impressively, the Model B was amazingly swift. It could accelerate from zero to sixty miles per hour in just fifteen seconds, a feat described as ‘remarkable acceleration’ by Automobile magazine in 1914.
尽管市场衰退，但四兄弟为重启这项技术做出了最后一次努力。在1906年至1909年期间，仍在上高中的阿布纳·多布尔和他的三个兄弟在父母的地下室里组装了他们的第一辆蒸汽汽车。它由来自一辆报废的早期蒸汽汽车的零部件组成，但重新配备了他们自己设计的发动机。尽管它的运行情况不佳，但多布尔兄弟在接下来的几年里继续建造了第二和第三个原型车。尽管多布尔兄弟的第三个原型车，“B型”，仍然缺乏内燃机的便利性，但它因为对之前的蒸汽汽车进行了多项改进而引起了汽车贸易杂志的关注。B型车在许多方面被证实优于汽油汽车。它的高压蒸汽以近乎无声的方式驱动发动机活塞，与吵闹的、散发出燃烧烃类化合物气味的燃气发动机形成鲜明对比。也许最令人印象深刻的是，B型车车速极快。它只需15秒就能从静止加速到每小时60英里。这一壮举被1914年的《汽车》杂志称为“令人瞩目的加速度”。
段落D
The following year Abner Doble drove the Model B from Massachusetts to Detroit in order to seek investment in his automobile design, which he used to open the General Engineering Company. He and his brothers immediately began working on the Model C, which was intended to expand upon the innovations of the Model B. The brothers added features such as a key-based ignition in the cabin, eliminating the need for the operator to manually ignite the boiler. With these enhancements, the Dobles’new car company promised a steam vehicle which would provide all of the convenience of a gasoline car, but with much greater speed, much simpler driving controls, and a virually silent powerplant. By the following April, the General Engineering Company had received 5,390 deposits for Doble Detroits, which were scheduled for delivery in early 1918.
次年，阿布纳·多布尔驾驶着B型车从马萨诸塞州开往底特律，寻求对其汽车设计的投资。他利用这笔钱创办了通用工程公司。他和他的兄弟们立即开始着手研发C型车，旨在在B型车的创新基础上进一步扩展。他们兄弟增加了一些功能，例如车内钥匙点火装置。这使的驾驶员文章来自老烤鸭雅思不再需要手动点燃锅炉。凭借这些改进，多布尔兄弟的新汽车公司承诺推出一种蒸汽汽车，它将提供汽油汽车的所有便利，但速度更快、驾驶起来更简单，并且动力装置几乎无声。到了次年四月，通用工程公司已经收到5,390份定金，用于订购预计在1918年初交付的多布尔底特律车型。
段落E
Later that year Abner Doble delivered unhappy news to those eagerly awaiting the delivery of their modern new cars. Those buyers who received the handful of completed cars complained that the vehicles were sluggish and erratic, sometimes going in reverse when they should go forward. The new engine design, though innovative, was still plagued with serious glitches.
同年晚些时候，阿布纳·多布尔向那些急切等待交付现代新车的人传达了令人不快的消息。少数收到已完成的汽车的买家抱怨说这些车辆行驶迟缓且不稳定，有时候应该前进却倒退。尽管新的发动机设计具有创新性，但仍然存在严重的故障。
段落F
The brothers made one final attempt to produce a viable steam automobile. In early 1924, the Doble brothers shipped a Model E to New York City to be road-tested by the Automobile Club of America. After sitting overnight in freezing temperatures, the car was pushed out into the road and left to sit for over an hour in the frosty morning air. At the turn of the key, the boiler lit and reached its operating pressure inside of forty seconds. As they drove the test vehicle further, they found that its evenly distributed weight lent it surprisingly good handling, even though it was so heavy. As the new Doble steamer was further developed and tested, its maximum speed was pushed to over a hundred miles per hour, and it achieved about fifteen miles per gallon of kerosene with negligible emissions.
多布尔兄弟做出了最后一次尝试，试图生产一辆可用的蒸汽汽车。1924年初，多布尔兄弟将一辆E型车运到纽约市，由美国汽车俱乐部进行道路测试。在寒冷的环境中停放一夜之后，它被推上道路，但又在清冷的早晨等待了一个小时。转动钥匙的一刻，锅炉被点燃，并在四十秒内达到操作压力。当驾驶这辆测试车辆时，他们发现尽管它非常沉重，但均匀分布的重量使它具有令人惊讶的良好操控性。随着新的多布尔蒸汽汽车的进一步开发和测试，它的最高时速被推至每小时一百英里以上，每十五英里消耗一加仑煤油，排放几乎可以忽略不计。
段落G
Sadly, the Dobles’ brilliant steam car never was a financial success. Priced at around $18,000 in 1924, it was popular only among the very wealthy. Plus, it is said that no two model Es were quite the same, because Abner Doble tinkered endlessly with the design. By the time the company folded in 1931, fewer than fifty of the amazing Model E steam cars had been produced. For his whole career, until his death in 1961, Abner Doble remained adamant that steam-powered automobiles were at least equal to gasoline cars, if not superior. Given the evidence, he may have been right. Many of the Model E Dobles which have survived are still in good working condition, some having been driven over half a million miles with only normal maintenance. Astonishingly, an unmodified Doble Model Eruns clean enough to pass the emissions laws in California today, and they are pretty strict. It is true that the technology poses some difficult problems, but you cannot help but wonder how efficient a steam car might be with the benefit of modern materials and computers. Under the current pressure to improve automotive performance and reduce emissions, it is not unthinkable that the steam car may rise again.
可悲的是，多布尔兄弟出色的蒸汽汽车从未在财务上获得成功。1924年，它的售价约为18,000美元，只受到非常富有的人士的欢迎。此外，据说没有两辆E型车完全相同，因为阿布纳·多布尔对设计进行了无休止的调整。到1931年公司倒闭时，他们仅生产了不到50辆令人惊叹的E型蒸汽汽车。直到1961年去世，阿布纳·多布尔在他整个职业生涯中始终坚信蒸汽动力汽车至少与汽油汽车不相上下，如果不是更好的话。从证据来看，他可能是正确的。许多保存下来的E型多布尔汽车仍然处于良好的工作状态，有些车辆甚至行驶了超过50万英里，仅需要常规维护。令人惊讶的是，未经修改的多布尔E型车足以达到今天加利福尼亚州排放法规的清洁标准，而这些法规要求相当严格。的确，这项技术存在一些难以解决的问题，但你不禁想知道如果借助现代材料和计算机的优势，蒸汽汽车可能会有多么高效。在当前提升汽车性能和减少排放的压力下，蒸汽汽车再次崛起并非不可想象。
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