时间:2019-01-14 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2013年(三月)


英语课

 


US Air Force Facing Cuts in Manpower, Flying Hours



Captain Frank Gilliard flies an air refueling tanker 1 - a KC-135. “The 135 can also be set up as a hospital,” he said.


He and all other Air Force pilots are facing an 18 percent cut in flying hours. That means less time in the air to refuel other planes out on missions. “Yes, readiness definitely could be affected,” Gilliard said.


All reserve civilians 3 will be furloughed one day a week if the budget cuts go into effect. “It’s going to be tough. It's going to be tough,” Gilliard said.


That’s a 20 percent pay cut. 


"Whew. It can cut into a lot of things, just like I have my home, I have my basic utilities, day to day living,” Gilliard said.


Senior Airman Kevin Weedn maintains the KC-135 and also serves as a trainer. He already downgraded his cellphone plan, sold his second car and is rethinking his upcoming wedding.


“Our plans to pay for our own wedding is hard. I am putting aside money we have now. I am able to do it, but it’s just going to be a little tight,” Weedn said.


Weedn and Gilliard are among the 230 civilian 2 reservists with the KC-135s who face cuts at Andrews Air Force Base.


Their primary mission is twofold -- to refuel other planes in flight and to train pilots how to connect and refuel. But their plane is aging -- the KC-135s here were built in the late 1950s.


The plane still carries some relics 4 of the past-- like this sextant port. The navigator would pop open the valve to gaze at the stars and plot his course.


A Boeing contract would replace these planes with newer models … but the military is waiting for Congress to approve that funding, too.


Colonel William Mason is the wing commander.


But his status does not protect his pay either -- Col. Mason is withdrawing a savings 5 account to pay for his daughter's college education. He says the sequestration may actually cost the Air Force more.


"It costs more to let somebody not fly and try to get them retrained than to continue flying them throughout the month and maintain that readiness," Mason said.


Colonel Mason says if the cuts go through....it could take his wing up to a year to recover.


None of these cuts has been made here yet. But if lawmakers take no action to stop them…much of the needed funding will simply disappear. 




n.油轮
  • The tanker took on 200,000 barrels of crude oil.油轮装载了二十万桶原油。
  • Heavy seas had pounded the tanker into three parts.汹涌的巨浪把油轮撞成三载。
adj.平民的,民用的,民众的
  • There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
  • He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。
平民,百姓( civilian的名词复数 ); 老百姓
  • the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
  • At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后,至少有300名平民下落不明。
[pl.]n.遗物,遗迹,遗产;遗体,尸骸
  • The area is a treasure house of archaeological relics. 这个地区是古文物遗迹的宝库。
  • Xi'an is an ancient city full of treasures and saintly relics. 西安是一个有很多宝藏和神圣的遗物的古老城市。
n.存款,储蓄
  • I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假,那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
  • By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时,他的存款已全部用完。
学英语单词
'staches
Acaroidea
Al Ashrāf
ammonium O,O-diethylthiophosphate
Apelles
appendiculoradiography
are sorry to
bandobast, bandobust
bathyclinograph
battery powered shaver
bearing risk
bell rigging
body retention
bouget
bryaless
bum cheeks
caching controller
charged particle detector
conducting fluid
corpus delictis
credit memo for purchase return
cumbrian mts.
cyclopropanoid
cystine hydrochloride
demideities
derivative deposits
die wall finish
disymmetrical cleavage
do things by halves
Duckface
ecclesiolatry
elementary agricultural producers' cooperation
equall
exponential decrease
fault offset
general average statement
hartmann-cornu formula
heterotic hybrid
hit up someone
inventing
Kashimbo
Keller, Gottfried
Khar-Buluk
limb-fitter
lunar mare
make assurance double sure
mapped drives
mattress ticking
maximum entropy spectrum analysis
measurement quantity converter
mesothermal
mint par of exchang
mixed material hopper
model ecosystem
monocarbon
motha
multiple coat
napta
national vessel
negative test
neutralizing capacitor
nondiabetic
optical isolators for communication
ordinary helicoid
Oum er Rbia, Oued
oxandra lanceolatas
oxygen diffusion coefficient
partial payment
pebble fuel element
perichrome
phentolamine
phytantriol
pigment figure
pleistocene sea level
purpa
radiosonde
recessed plate
rectangular can
Red Kurdistan
rhodhalite (bieberite)
segrin
session parameter
skead
soap-stone
spoonhook
stop out
straight-shooter
sulfur oxyfluoride
superregenerative detector
suppering
T'ma
teach-ins
tetraterpenoid
thematic
Thioril
tractor trailers
trial proof
tychies
Vanda lamellata
varispeed motor
Vuolvojaure
water constituent