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On frigid mornings in Madison, Wis., when his Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen struggled to start, David Staple shrugged it off.frigid: coldJetta: 捷达（汽车品牌）SportWagen: 跑车shrug off：对。。。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: 使人心烦的，使人沮丧的diesel engine: 柴油机figure: 认为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：污染者
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 旅行车，客货两用车phrase: at the center of a global scandal 处于全球丑闻中rock：摇动regulator：监管者circumvent：避开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：当。。。时候VW. :大众牌deception：欺骗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：计划broke：爆发phrase：set aside 留出economy：节约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：受损的，玷污的dent：削减 put a dent in one's valuein the midst of crisis：身处危机中“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：剩余的disclosure：揭露的秘闻backlash：强烈反对TrueCar: TrueCar, Inc. is an automotive pricing and information website for new and used car buyers and dealersIn 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，延续lawsuit：诉讼file against：诉讼索赔“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：询问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：分类广告brew：酿造，酝酿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 StatesPassat TDI: 帕萨特TDICraigslist: 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: 交换 swap 。。。for 。。。dealership：专卖店automatic transmission：自动挡档stick shift：手动档halt：停止be out of luck：不走运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：维持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：赔偿裁定额make sth. tougher to swallow: 使某事更难以忍受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：重压executives：执行委员会profusely：再三地resign：辞职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：排挤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 countriesCompounding 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。。。加剧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：无私的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：假装