Pitch Up: The Consumer Electronics Show
① The perennial technology extravaganza gets up to full speed today.
② More than 170,000 people will take over the Las Vegas strip—one in 20 among them is a journalist—and about 4,000 companies set out their stalls.
③ The focus is on the cutting-edgiest tech, but uniting at a single venue to see it seems quaint these days; the show isn't so different from the first, in 1967, when 17,500 visitors milled around transistor radios and black-and-white televisions.
④ Today the event serves two markets: industry types there for the hobnobbing and consumers eager to glimpse new gadgets.
⑤ The hype this year is focused on "brain-to-vehicle" technology by Nissan, a carmaker.
⑥ Via a brain-wave-tracking skullcap, the system can anticipate drivers' steering, braking and acceleration as much as a half-second before they act.
⑦ Elsewhere, drones are flying, television screens are expanding and home appliances, as everything else, are getting a dose of artificial intelligence.
▍生词好句
perennial /pəˈrɛnɪəl/: adj. 多年的；长久的
extravaganza /ɛkˌstravəˈɡanzə, ɪkˌstravəˈɡanzə/: n. 非常豪华的表演
strip /strɪp/: n. 商业街
stall /stɔːl/: n. 摊位
cutting-edge: adj. 前沿的
quaint /kweɪnt/: adj. 熟悉的；老派的
mill around /mɪl/: 转悠；兜圈子
hobnob /ˈhɒbnɒb/: vi. 结交比自己社会地位高的人
gadget /ˈɡadʒɪt/: n. 电子产品
hype /hʌɪp/: n. 热点；促销广告 (往往有夸大的意味)
skullcap /ˈskʌlkap/: n. 防护帽
appliance /əˈplʌɪəns/: n. 电器
dose /dəʊs/: n. 剂量
