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
Abū Saida
air-producer gas
alloy backing
alpha decays
assign work
autotrophic heterotroph
avemar
batch transaction file
BBRS
Borymycin
brued
cammers
camptosorus sibiricus rupr.
cauly
cercomniasis
chitter-chatter
circular face-mill
clincherwork
close plane
coloryk
communicated movement
conditioned circuit
conjugate branch
contoured unit
core-shell
correspondence schools
countervall
cutting logging
debasement
develop in preportion
diethylene glycol diethyl ether
differential phase corrector
diffine
dorsosejugal suture
double slide-wire bridge
double-image tache-ometer
ductuli
Dvukh Pilotov, Kosa
echo trap
family Peneidae
fast-emerging
Fermi beta-decay theory
fingers motion
flavone glycoside
getting after
glacial conglomerate
go through the roof
greengroceress
have the nerve to do sth
hermetically-sealed motor
hertog
hogg lamb
image conversion
interruptors
inwheel
iui
Joseph Michel
Kraut cell
line of obliquity
LO (limes zero)
low-pressure measurement
lozenge-shaped brain
magnetic pole position
manometer liquid level indicator
message set
Murgatroyd belt
ochlocratic
onsidest
ortho-thiocarbonic acid
paromomycm
penetrant flaw detection agent
peucedanocoumarin
piston manometer
pneumatic drop caisson upright breakwater
potentiometer loading error
qx
rank of algebraic group
rattle the bill through
Reflexae
regularisers
rust-orange
segmental rotor
selective jamming
selective process
sharing of programs
sinus rhomboidalis
siscses-s
skate valve
square endplate
stiffener rib
sunrises
swivel angle of table
televangelisms
total institution
transient state stability factor
Tunney
ulpa
uricotelic
voltage-withstand test
wax collar
web-exclusive
windowframes