Hello, I’m Rob, and welcome to 6 Minute English, where today we’re chatting about a pedestrian topic and six items of related vocabulary.
大家好，我是羅伯，歡迎來到六分鐘英語。今天我們討論的是一個無聊的話題以及六個相關詞彙。
Hello, I’m Neil. A pedestrian is someone who walks around rather than travelling by car or bus. But in Rob’s sentence he used the adjective, and in this context it means dull or uninteresting!
大家好，我是尼爾。Pedestrian指的是那些步行的人，而不是那些開車或乘公交車的人。但是羅伯剛才的句子是使用的形容詞性，在這個語境中意思是無聊或者是無趣的意思。
And of course I was making a pun, Neil. Because of course the show is going to be extremely interesting! It’s about safety on the streets and whether pedestrianisation is a good thing or not.
當然我剛才是用了雙關語，尼爾。因為這個節目會開始變得非常有趣。它關乎道路安全性以及步行化是不是一件對人有益的 事情。
Pedestrianisation means changing a street into an area that can only be used by pedestrians.
步行化指的是將某個區域改成一個只能供步行者使用的區域。
Well, it sounds like a good idea – no traffic, less noise and air pollution. And no chance of getting knocked down by a car or a bus!
好吧，沒有交通問題，低噪音，低汙染，這聽起來是個好主意。而且不會被私家車和公共汽車撞倒。
There are plans to pedestrianise Oxford Street, which is one of the busiest shopping streets in London.
牛津街是倫敦最熱鬧的購物街之一，這裡將規劃成步行化的街道。
That’s right. The Mayor of London wants to tackle or make an effort to deal with air pollution in this very busy spot, where the amount of traffic is definitely a problem! In fact, can you tell me, Neil, what’s the average speed of a bus travelling along Oxford Street? Is it: a) 4.6 miles per hour, b) 14.6 miles per hour or c) 46 miles per hour?
是的，倫敦市長想要努力解決這裡的空氣汙染問題。這個繁忙之地的交通當然是個大問題。尼爾，你能告訴我實際上牛津街公交的平均車速是多少嗎？是a）4.6英裡/小時 b)14.6英裡/小時 c）46英裡/小時？
And I think it’s 14.6 miles per hour – a) sounds too slow and c) sounds too fast!
我認為是14.6英裡/小時，a選項聽起來太慢，c選項聽起來太快了！
OK, we』ll find out the answer later on. The problem is the traffic doesn’t just disappear. You ban it from one area and it gets rerouted somewhere else.
好的，稍後我們會找出答案。難題就是交通問題不會消失。你在一個地方頒布禁令，交通問題就會轉移到其它的地方。
Ban means to say officially that something can’t be done. And reroute means to change the direction you’re travelling in, in order to reach a particular destination. That’s true, Rob. It must be a big headache for city planners.
禁令指的是正式說明哪些事情是不能做的。並且Route指的是為了到達某個特定的目的地改變前行的方向。是的，羅伯。對於城市規劃者來說，這確實是個令人頭疼的問題。
Well, let’s listen now to Joe Urvin, Chief Executive of Living Streets. He’s going to talk some more about why traffic is causing problems in our towns and cities.
好的，接下來讓我們聽一下英國行人安全協會（Living Streets）執行長Urvin是怎麼說的。他會著重談一下為什麼交通正在給我們的城市和鄉鎮帶來困擾。
In 1970, we had 20 million cars in this country. Now we have over 30 million cars in such a short period. So that creates three big problems. One is space. Because we』ve still got the same street structures in our towns and cities, causing congestion. It causes pollution, which people are concerned about more and more. And actually, it’s kind of engineering walking out of our lives. So we’re actually not getting enough exercise, which is a cause of a health crisis. Smart cities are looking at pedestrianisation. In Glasgow, in Birmingham, in London for example Manchester. As a way of not only making their places, cities better and more attractive, actually, building their local economy.
1970年的時候，這個國家有2000萬輛私家車 。到現在這麼短的時間裡，私家車的數量已經超過了3000萬。這就造成了三個大問題。第一個是空間問題。因為我們的街道結構沒有發生改變，這就造成了交通擁擠。車子數量增加產生汙染。人們對此愈加關心。這種建築結構不貼近我們的生活。所以實際上我們得到的鍛鍊並不充足，這是健康危機產生的一個原因。一些明智的城市正在考慮步行化。例如格拉斯哥，伯明罕和倫敦。曼徹斯特不僅將自己變得更好，更有吸引力，實際上還建設了自己的地方經濟。
So Urvin identifies three problems. The first is that our city streets have stayed the same while the number of cars on the roads has increased dramatically.
所以Urvin指明了三個問題。第一個是儘管馬路上私家車數量劇增，我們城市街道沒有做任何改動。
That’s right, and this has led to congestion on our roads. Congestion means too much traffic, making it hard to move.
是的，並且這導致了城市道路擁擠。Congestion指的是太多的車輛使得前行很困難。
The second problem is pollution, which we mentioned earlier.
第二個就是我們早些提到的汙染問題。
Pollution is damage to the environment, caused by releasing waste substances, such as carbon dioxide into the air.
廢物排放造成的汙染破壞了環境，例如二氧化碳排放到空氣中。
And the third problem is that by travelling around on buses or in our cars, we aren’t getting enough exercise. And we all know, that’s a bad thing! Would pedestrianisation engineer walking back into our lives? Do you think?
第三個問題是由於我們乘公交或者私家車出行，自身得不到不夠的鍛鍊。眾所周知，這是件糟糕的事！步行化會使步行重回我們的生活嗎？你認為呢？
I’m not sure, Neil. It would be great, if we could go shopping or walk to work without breathing in fumes or worrying about getting knocked down by a car. But banning all motorised traffic from town centres might make life difficult for people to get around.
我不確定，尼爾。如果我們購物或者上班的時候不必吸入煙霧尾氣或不必擔心被車撞倒，那太好了。但是在城鎮禁行機動車，對於那些想四處走走的人來說，會令生活變得不便。
Well, I’m not a town planner and I don’t have the answers. But I would like to know if I got the answer right to the question you asked me earlier!
好吧，我不是城鎮的規劃者，並且我也沒有解決方法。但是我想知道之前你問我的問題我回答對了嗎？
OK, well I asked you: What’s the average speed of a bus travelling along Oxford Street? Is it… a) 4.6mph, b) 14.6mph or c) 46mph?
好的，我問你在牛津街上公交的平均速度是多少，是是a）4.6英裡/小時 b)14.6英裡/小時 c）46英裡/小時？
And I said 14.6mph.
我回答的是14.6公裡/小時。
And that’s not slow enough, Neil, I’m afraid. The answer is actually 4.6mph. And we pedestrians walk at an average speed of 3.1mph apparently!
尼爾，恐怕那不夠慢。答案是4.6英裡/小時。並且很顯然步行者的平均速度是3.1英裡/小時。
Good to know. OK. Shall we go over the words we learned today, Rob?
知道了真好。好的，我們可以回顧今天學到的單詞了嗎，尼爾？
Sure. The first one is 『pedestrian』, a person who is walking, usually in an area where there’s traffic. 『Sorry, you can’t ride your bike here. This path is for pedestrians only.』
當然可以。第一個詞是pedestrian，指的是那些通常在有交通設施的地方步行的人。抱歉，你不可以在這裡騎車。這條路只供步行者使用。
The adjective – 『This book is full of very pedestrian ideas. I wouldn’t read it if I were you.』
形容詞性-這本書都是些無聊的觀點。如果我是你的話，我不會讀這本書。
I』ve crossed it off my list, Neil. Thank you. OK, number two is ’to tackle』 something, which means to make an effort to deal with a difficult problem. For example, 『The government isn’t really tackling the problem of air pollution. It needs to do much more.』
我已經把這本書從我的書單裡劃掉了，尼爾。謝謝。好的。第二個詞是 to tackle 某些事，指的是盡力去解決一些難題。例如，政府並沒有真的解決空氣汙染問題。還有更多需要去做。
Very true. OK, 『ban』 means to officially say that something can’t be done. 『The UK government will ban the sale of diesel and petrol cars from 2040.』
十分正確。好的，ban指的是正式說明某些不可以做。英國政府從2040年開始將會禁止出售柴油和汽油。
And number four is 『reroute』, which means to change the direction you’re travelling in.
第四個是reroute，指的是改變行程的方向。
『The council has rerouted all buses to avoid the town centre.』
委員會改變公交的路線來避免城鎮中心擁擠。
『Congestion』 is number five – too much traffic, making it difficult to move.
Congestion是第五個單詞，指的是太多的車輛造成前行困難。
『Road congestion always gets better in the summer when a lot of car drivers are on holiday.』
夏天很多私家車駕駛者度假的時候，道路擁擠現象會有所好轉。
That’s true, isn’t it? London always seems emptier in July and August.
確實是這樣的，不是嗎？倫敦經常在七八月的時候會更空曠些。
Except for all the tourists walking around, congesting the streets!
除了那些遊客四處走動造成道路擁擠。
Very funny! And finally, number six is 『pollution』, which is damage to the environment caused by releasing waste substances. Such as carbon dioxide into the air, or plastic into the sea.
很好笑！最後第六個單詞是pollution，指的是由於廢物排放造成的環境破壞。例如二氧化碳釋放到空氣中，或者是塑料丟棄在海裡。
『You can help reduce air pollution by walking to work every day instead of driving.』
每天上班的時候選擇步行代替開車可以幫助減少空氣汙染。
Are you talking to me, Neil? I always walk to work!
你是在對我說嗎，尼爾？我都是步行去上班的。
I know you do, Rob. You’re an example to us all!
我知道你每天步行上班，羅伯。你是我們所有人的榜樣。
OK, that’s all we have time for today.
好的，這就是今天我們所有的內容。
But please don’t forget to visit us via our Twitter, Facebook and YouTube pages! Goodbye!
不要忘記通過我們的Twitter, Facebook和YouTbube主頁訪問我們。再見！
Bye bye!
拜拜！