Crystal's English Study Day 1: Grumpy Volkswagen owners are in a state of limbo By Thad Moore from Washington Post
工具/原料
電腦
hardworking
方法/步驟
Notes for the title:
grumpy: bad-tempered 壞脾氣的
Volkswagen: 大眾汽車
limbo: state of isolation 孤立
phrase: in a state of limbo
On frigid mornings in Madison, Wis., when his Volkswagen Jetta
SportWagen struggled to start, David Staple shrugged it off.
frigid: cold
Jetta: 捷達（汽車品牌）
SportWagen: 跑車
shrug off：對。。。不屑理睬
Sure, it was frustrating, but that was the cost of having a diesel engine,
he figured — the price he paid for a car that promised lots of power
without being bad for the environment.
frustrating: 使人心煩的，使人沮喪的
diesel engine: 柴油機
figure: 認為
Now, Staple is questioning that trade-off. This winter, those mornings
will be especially frustrating, he said. “Once I do get it started, then I’m a polluter,” Staple said.
trade-off: 交易
polluter：汙染者
His station wagon is at the center of a global scandal rocking one of the world’s largest automakers — one of the 482,000 cars in the United
States and 11 million worldwide fitted with software that regulators say helped Volkswagen circumvent emissions tests.
station wagon：a car with a long body, a door at the rear, and space behind the back seats 旅行車，客貨兩用車
phrase: at the center of a global scandal 處於全球醜聞中
rock：搖動
regulator：監管者
circumvent：避開
When it comes time to buy his next car, Staple doubts that it will be a
VW. Staples, and many other owners affected by the emissions-cheating scandal, said that Volkswagen’s deception has shaken his trust, a
problem that analysts say could follow the company for years.
phrase：when it comes time：當。。。時候
VW. :大眾牌
deception：欺騙
phrase：shake one's trust 降低。。。信用度
A week after news of the emissions-cheating scheme broke, the fate of
VW owners remains unclear. VW has set aside $7.3 billion to repair its
cars, but the company hasn’t yet said when or how — or what its fix
will do to the cars’ power and fuel economy.
scheme：計劃
broke：爆發
phrase：set aside 留出
economy：節約
Those changes — and VW’s tarnished reputation — are also expected
to put a dent in its cars’ value. It’s still legal to sell a used diesel VW,
but in the midst of crisis for the German automaker, it may not be very
economical.
tarnished：受損的，玷汙的
dent：削減 put a dent in one's value
in the midst of crisis：身處危機中
“The impact to residual values will depend upon the level of disclosure, speed of fixing the technical issues and addressing consumer backlash,” said Larry Dominique, executive vice president of industry solutions at
TrueCar, which tracks car prices.
residual：剩餘的
disclosure：揭露的祕聞
backlash：強烈反對
TrueCar: TrueCar, Inc. is an automotive pricing and information website
for new and used car buyers and dealers
In the past, massive recalls by car manufacturers have pushed down
resale values, but they have been “relatively short-lived,” he said.
recall: 召回
A fix that affects performance, though, could make lower prices linger.
That’s one of the arguments made in the growing pile of class action
lawsuits filed against Volkswagen.
linger：逗留，延續
lawsuit：訴訟
file against：訴訟索賠
“Affected vehicles will necessarily be worth less in the marketplace
because of their decrease in performance and efficiency,” the Seattle
law firm Hagens Berman argues in one suit. The firm said it has received “thousands of inquiries” from car owners.
inquiry：詢問
Some consumers have asked for their money back, saying a full refund is the only way the company could make up for its deception.
That appears unlikely, though. The $7 billion that VW set aside this week to address the problem is less than $700 for each affected car. Even if
the entire sum went to American owners, they would each get only
about $15,000 — not enough to buy a new VW.
unlikely：不大可能的
Classified ads for VW diesel cars posted online during the past week
usually fail to mention the scandal brewing around Volkswagen. But the handful that do include a touch of optimism.
classified ads：分類廣告
brew：釀造，醞釀
Ask Matt Oz of Myerstown, Pa., who listed his two-week-old 2015 Passat TDI on Craigslist on Wednesday for $26,000, a few thousand dollars
under its retail price. He had tried to swap it at the dealership for one
with an automatic transmission because his wife can’t drive a stick shift. But because VW had halted diesel sales in the United States earlier in the week, he was out of luck.
Myerstown: Myerstown is a borough, located in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, United States
Passat TDI: 帕薩特TDI
Craigslist: Craigslist (styled craigslist) is a classified advertisements website with sections devoted to jobs, housing, personals, for sale, items wanted, services, community, gigs, résumés, and discussion forums.
swap: 交換 swap 。。。for 。。。
dealership：專賣店
automatic transmission：自動擋檔
stick shift：手動檔
halt：停止
be out of luck：不走運
Oz hasn’t received much interest so far, but he’s holding out hope.
After all, a brand-new diesel Volkswagen is hard to come by these days.
hold out：維持
Regardless of the financial hit VW owners take — or what they could
be awarded in court — it will be harder for the company to rebuild trust. Unlike other recent recalls where automakers made a mistake, owners
and analysts say, the company’s deception makes this scandal tougher to swallow.
award：賠償裁定額
make sth. tougher to swallow: 使某事更難以忍受
The tarnished image could weigh on the company for years. Volkswagen has sought to rebuild that trust this week, as its executives have
apologized profusely, and its chief executive, Martin Winterkorn,
resigned, saying that he hoped it would give VW a “fresh start.”
weigh on：重壓
executives：執行委員會
profusely：再三地
resign：辭職
The scandal came as the company was fulfilling its ambition of becoming the world’s largest automaker, edging out Toyota earlier this year for the top spot. But Volkswagen’s business had already been slumping in the United States, and close to a quarter of its sales here were diesels, making the task of rebuilding a base of American customers more difficult.
edge out：排擠
top spot：榜首
slump：猛跌
Still, the feeling of broken trust could be especially harmful for VW
because diesel owners are among the company’s most loyal customers, said Brad Smith, Experian Automotive’s director of auto market insights. In the United States, 53 percent of VW diesel owners are loyal to the
brand, compared with 46 percent of all VW owners. (The national
average is 54 percent.)
Experian: Experian plc is a global information services group with operations in 40 countries
Compounding the company’s problem, drivers who lease their cars are more likely to remember a scandal because they don’t keep the cars as long as those who buy them. Some 40 percent of Volkswagen drivers
have leases, Smith said, meaning they will be back on the market sooner.
compound: 使。。。加劇
lease：租
“Consumers are going to feel cheated, especially those consumers who buy diesels for altruistic reasons,” Smith said. “The impact of that is
massive.”
altruistic：無私的
VW owners who believed they were making an altruistic choice when they bought their car said that they are particularly hurt by the scandal.
Throughout his childhood, Peter Szabo of Arlington Heights, Ill., a
suburb of Chicago, said his sister and father had chronic asthma, so he
bikes to work and uses public transit when he can. But for longer trips,
he drives his 2014 Jetta SportWagen, a car he bought used last month,
his third VW diesel since 2009.
chronic asthma：慢性哮喘
He’s only driven it once since he found out last week that it was
emitting high levels of nitrogen oxide, which can aggravate asthma. He
doesn’t plan to get back behind the wheel until VW fixes his car.
behind the wheel：掌控
“Something like a car, especially in the U.S., really defines a part of who you are,” Szabo said. “I’ve driven over 48,000 miles under the
pretense that I was making a responsible choice.”
pretense：假裝