聽力原文:

Tech startups in Africa
非洲初創企業
Africa uber alles
非洲優步
The potential and pitfalls of African tech innovation

非洲技術發明的潛力和陷阱
THE fastest, and cheapest, way to zip around the hilly capital of Rwanda is to catch one of the many motorcycle taxis, or motos, that attract custom by hooting at pedestrians as they drive along. Grab a ride on one and you can nip from one end of Kigali to the other for less than $1.

重點詞匯：

1 pitfall 危險；困難；（尤指）陷阱，隱患
2 zip （使沿某方向）快速移動
3 hilly 多小山的;丘陵起伏的
4 hoot （使汽車喇叭）鳴響
5 pedestrian 行人；步行者
6 grab 抓?。痪鹑?br />7 nip 快速去（某處）；急忙趕往
8 Kigali 基加利（盧旺達首都）

聽力原文:

Yet catching a ride is a white-knuckle affair. Drivers seldom expect repeat custom so make no effort to be nice (which can be a welcome respite from over-chatty London cabbies). Most want to finish the journey quickly to look for their next fare. So many of them race about the city as if in a grand prix: they speed around blind corners, brake sharply at the very last minute and take off from traffic lights quickly enough almost to unseat an inattentive passenger.

重點詞匯：

1 white-knuckle 令人極度緊張的
2 knuckle 指節；指關節
3 respite 暫停；暫緩
4 cabby 計程車司機
5 fare 出租車乘客
6 prix獎金，價格
7 brake 用閘減速；剎（車）
8 unseat 使掉下馬（或自行車）
9 inattentive 不注意的；不經心
10 a grand prix 大獎賽

聽力原文:

The solution, according to two entrepreneurs, Peter Kariuki, a Kenyan, and Barrett Nash, a Canadian, is an Uber-style app that not only allows passengers to hail a ride, but also gives them some hope of surviving the journey. Their firm, SafeMotos, insists that taxi drivers own a smartphone, which contains accelerometers that can determine if drivers speed or brake too hard, among other things. The data they collect score the drivers on safety. Only safe ones get business.

重點詞匯：

1 hail 招手（請出租車或公共汽車停下）
2 accelerometer 加速計

聽力原文:

Uber, the car-hailing app valued at $51 billion, and local startups have launched similar motorcycle-taxi services in various countries from Indonesia to Uganda, but SafeMotos is more than just a clone. Whereas in many other countries drivers are comfortable using digital maps on their phones, SafeMoto uses a simpler system: directing drivers via a series of well-known waypoints until they are close to the final destination.

重點詞匯：

1 clone 好像一模一樣的人；復制品；仿造品；翻版
2 waypoint （旅途中的）停留處； 航路點（飛行或航海每一階段的坐標點）

聽力原文:

Yet the experience of SafeMotos also underscores some of the difficulties of establishing tech startups in Africa. Its founders say that the main problem many face is a shortage of skilled coders. There is no real ecosystem of tech entrepreneurs who can bounce ideas around, or inspire bright young people to quit safe jobs in the civil service and start their own companies. This is slowly changing. Technology hubs, where startups cluster in shared office space, in Nairobi, Cape Town and Lagos are producing promising companies and attracting international attention. Last year African tech firms raised $186m in funding, says Disrupt Africa, an analyst, and it has finally produced a “unicorn”, or tech company valued at more than $1 billion. Yet plagued by power shortages, expensive and unreliable internet connections, and ruinous bank rates, the continent has a way to go.

重點詞匯：

1 underscore 強調；突出；強化
2 bounce 彈跳; 使彈起; （使）上下晃動;
3 ecosystem 生態系統
4 cluster 群聚；聚集
5 unicorn 獨角獸
6 plague 糾纏；纏磨；纏擾
7 ruinous 耗資巨大的；無法承擔的，破壞性的；導致嚴重問題的；災難性的

歡迎關注荔枝主播鳳梨君 FM1098550

歡迎關注主播鳳梨君 微信號fenglisama