【慢速听力 3 篇】Record Sales for Sports Utility Vehicles

No.1

AS IT IS

Record Sales for Sports Utility Vehicles

January 15, 2020

Mercedes Benz displays its first all-electric model in China, the EQC 400 SUV during the Auto Shanghai 2019 show in Shanghai Tuesday, April 16, 2019. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

2019 was a good year for sport utility vehicles, or SUVs.

Rising demand for SUVs drove record sales for German carmakers such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

But some observers worry that their popularity could lead to more pollution from such vehicles and a reduction in the environmental benefits of electric cars.

SUV sales

BMW reported last week that it sold a record 2,168,516 vehicles last year. The Reuters news agency says the record resulted, in part, from a 21% increase in sales of the company’s “X” model SUVs. These models now make up around 40% of BMW’s sales worldwide.

At Mercedes-Benz, the world’s best-selling premium car line, every third luxury car sold last year was an SUV.

To try to meet stronger pollution rules, many automakers are investing a lot of money in electric vehicles. But it is unclear how many drivers will buy them.

The new BMW X6

Concerns

The International Energy Agency, or IEA, warned in its World Energy Outlook 2019 report that large SUV sales could create a problem for the environment.

“Consumer preferences for SUVs could offset the benefits from electric cars,” the report said.

It added that “SUVs are more difficult to electrify fully, and conventional SUVs consume 25 percent more fuel per kilometer than medium-sized cars.”

SUVs were the second-largest contributor to the increase in carbon dioxide emissions since 2010, said the IEA. Carbon dioxide is found naturally in Earth’s atmosphere. But many scientists believe that it and other gases released by human activities are to blame for rising temperatures on our planet.

There are now more than 200 million SUVs around the world, up from about 35 million in 2010.

“If the popularity of SUVs continues to rise in line with recent trends, this could add another 2 million barrels per day to our projection for 2040 oil demand,” the IEA reported.

Response

BMW and Mercedes-owner Daimler say their vehicles are among the most fuel efficient available. They add that people could also choose to buy smaller, less costly cars instead of SUVs.

Both German carmakers say they hope to set new sales records this year. They are preparing to launch fully electric SUVs, which they say shows their desire for a cleaner future.

While confirming the growing popularity of SUVs, Germany’s powerful automobile industry group VDA said much of the demand was for more efficient models.

A model stands next of the new electric Audi e-tron Quatro, which display at the e-Motor show, in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, April 11, 2019.

Future sales trends

Electric and hybrid vehicles made up only 3.9 percent of new European sales in the three-month period from July through September 2019.

Peter Fuss, a partner at Ernst & Young, said German carmakers pushed sales of SUVs last year before stronger clean air rules took effect in Europe.

“We will not see the same growth rates in this segment as we did last year,” Fuss said.

Electric car registrations are expected to climb in the middle of this year, he added. But that will depend on drivers being prepared to buy them, and perhaps also on how low manufacturers are prepared to cut prices.

I’m John Russell.

Edward Taylor reported on this story for Reuters. John Russell adapted it for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

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Words in This Story

benefit – n. something producing good or helpful results

premium - adj. of high or higher than normal quality

preference - n. a feeling of liking or wanting one person or thing more than another person or thing

consume – v. to spend or use up

contributor – n. someone or something that provides something

trend - n. something that is currently popular

compact – n. a small automobile

hybrid – adj. related to or involving a vehicle that powered by traditional motor fuel and electricity

segment - n. a part of something that is separate from the other parts or can be considered separately

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No.2

AS IT IS

UN Concerned About Killings of Colombian Rights Activists

January 15, 2020

FILE - Activists who have received death threats display the names of killed leftist activists as part of an art installation by Colombia artist Doris Salcedo at Plaza Bolivar in downtown Bogota, Colombia, June 10, 2019.

The killings of a “staggering number” of social activists in Colombia has caused concern at the United Nations human rights agency.

The office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said Tuesday that 107 human rights defenders were killed in 2019 in the country. An additional 13 killings could be added to that number after investigations are complete.

In addition, 10 human rights activists have been killed in the first 13 days of January.

A spokesperson for the high commissioner, Marta Hurtado, said the repeated “violence and impunity must stop.”

Most of the reported deaths have taken place in poor rural areas where illegal, armed groups operate. Some of the areas were once controlled by the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC. The rebel group signed a peace deal with the government in 2016.

However, the U.N. has said Colombia has had problems carrying out the details of the peace deal. Illegal, armed groups now occupy territory once controlled by the rebels.

The major peace agreement between rebels and the government ended more than 50 years of conflict. It called for greater security in distant areas where illegal drug traffic exists. The government has built new roads and helped farmers substitute crops used to make illegal drugs.

Hurtado said the U.N. recognizes steps to help people living in affected areas. “However, the number of killings clearly shows much needs to be done,” she said.

More than half of the killings took place in four states: Antioquia, Arauca, Cauca and Caqueta. The violence has targeted people pushing for the rights of specific community, ethnic, indigenous and Afro-Colombian groups.

Worrying developments

The U.N. is calling on the government of President Ivan Duque to increase efforts to improve security. It also has called for increased health and education services.

Duque was elected in 2018 voicing criticism of the peace deal with rebels. However, he has not been able to reform important parts of the agreement.

The Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame in the U.S. state of Indiana observes how the terms of the peace deal are being met. In a study from last April, the group said that the government had started to carry out more than two-thirds of the promises detailed in the agreement. The study found that progress was at a level similar to other two-year-old peace agreements around the world that the group had studied.

Special Representative Carlos Ruiz heads the U.N. Verification Mission in Colombia. He told the U.N. Security Council this week that important steps have been made. But he added that continued violence in some areas remains a problem.

He said he was worried about territorial disputes between illegal, armed groups in Choco state in recent weeks.

Ruiz also noted the recent death of Lucy Villarreal. She was an activist killed after completing a children’s workshop in the port city of Tumaco. Violence has broken out in the city between rebels.

Ruiz said fulfilling the peace deal’s requirements holds the best hope for Colombia’s future. Peace will not fully be gained "if former combatants who laid down their weapons and are committed to their reintegration continue to be killed,” he added.

I’m Mario Ritter Jr.

Mario Ritter Jr. adapted this Associated Press story for VOA Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.

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Words in This Story

staggering –adj. very large, shocking or surprising

impunity –n. freedom from punishment or loss

reintegration –n. to be brought again into a group that you were once part of

indigenous –adj. someone who is from a place and native to it

No.3

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Scientists: 2019 Ocean Water Temperatures Were Hottest Ever

January 15, 2020

The sun rises over the Atlantic Ocean at Cape Henlopen State Park in Delaware, USA on Jan. 1, 2020. (Hai Do/VOA)

Scientists reported this week that the world’s oceans were warmer in 2019 than they had ever been before.

The report comes at a time when studies have linked rising ocean water temperatures to manmade pollution. Researchers say the rate of warming is speeding up and may cause a planet-wide disaster.

The oceans take in more than 90 percent of the extra heat created by carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gases are a product of pollution from factories, driving motor vehicles and other human activities.

Scientists are able to measure the rate of global warming when they compare current ocean water temperatures with those measured over the past few years.

For a better understanding of ocean warmth, scientists from around the world studied records shared by China’s Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP). They found that the latest water temperature was 0.075 degrees Celsius higher than the average temperature from 1981 to 2010. Their findings were published in the scientific journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.

Effects of warmer oceans

The scientists pointed to the many extreme weather events of 2019 as one effect of warmer oceans. They added that warmer water also endangers some sea creatures and causes higher sea levels.

Lijing Cheng is with the International Center for Climate and Environmental Sciences at the IAP. He also was the lead author of a paper on the study. He says the heat the oceans have taken in to make the temperature change amounts to 228 Zetta Joules (228 billion trillion Joules) of energy.

"That's a lot of zeros indeed,” he said. “To make it easier to understand, I did a calculation… The amount of heat we have put into the world's oceans in the past 25 years equals to 3.6 billion Hiroshima atom-bomb explosions.”

One hundred hair dryers per person

Michael Mann is director of the Earth System Sciences Center at Penn State University in the United States. He says the energy that caused the warming is equal to "everyone on the planet running a hundred hairdryers or a hundred microwaves continuously for the entire year.” He spoke to the French news agency AFP.

The past five years are the five hottest years for the ocean since scientists began keeping records, the study found.

John Abraham is a co-author of the paper. He said it is important to “understand how fast things are changing. The key to answering this question is in the oceans -- that's where the vast majority of heat ends up. If you want to understand global warming, you have to measure ocean warming."

Abraham is a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.

Target limit to global warming

In 2015, world leaders signed the Paris Agreement as part of efforts to limit climate change. The agreement took effect the following year. It aims to limit global temperature increases to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius, and to 1.5 degrees Celsius if at all possible.

There has been about 1 degree Celsius of warming since the start of the Industrial Revolution 200 years ago. Yet the result of rising water temperatures is not evenly spread in the world’s oceans. The report says that warmer temperatures are partly to blame for heavy rainfall in Indonesia and the drying of Australia, leading to wildfires in Australia and the Amazon.

Hope remains

Mann explained that there is still hope for the climate to recover from this temperature increase. "If we stop warming the planet, heat will continue to diffuse down into the deep ocean for centuries until eventually stabilizing."

I’m Jill Robbins.

Jill Robbins used reports from Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press as well as original documents to write this story for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

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Words in This Story

global – adj. worldwide; relating to the whole world

journal – n. a magazine or other publication

author – n. a writer of a report or book

joule – v. a measurement of work or energy

calculation – n. a mathematical estimate of the size of something

key – n. a solution or answer; a thing that provides a way of understanding something

diffuse – v. spread out

stabilize – v. to stop quickly changing

Are you doing anything to reduce the greenhouse gases you create? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.

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