VOA标准英语2015--保持华盛顿领空安全是艰巨的任务
时间：2018-12-16 作者：英语课 分类：VOA标准英语2015年(四月)
Keeping Washington DC Airspace Safe Is Tall Order 保持华盛顿领空安全是艰巨的任务
WASHINGTON—
Being the home of all three branches of the U.S. federal government makes Washington, D.C., the prime target for those who want to make their messages and ideas heard. Unfortunately, many of them choose to deliver them in unorthodox ways, including from the air, as a recent incident clearly showed involving a gyrocopter landing on the Capitol’s West Lawn.
When Florida Postal 1 Service worker Doug Hughes landed his homemade gyrocopter on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol, in a daring bid to deliver a political message to the lawmakers, the security services were taken by surprise.
He was quickly surrounded and taken away by police, his aircraft was checked for explosives, and now he faces several years of prison.
But his stunt 2 highlighted once more that the airspace around most of the public buildings is easily penetrated 3 by drones and light piloted aircraft, too small and flying too low to be safely prevented from reaching their goals.
Difficult detection
John Hansman a professor of Aeronautics 4 and Astronautics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said small, flying vehicles are not easy to detect and stop.
“If you have a very small target, like a gyrocopter, which doesn't have a very large radar 5 cross-section, so it's not reflecting much energy back, and it's close to the ground, you might get some signal coming there, but you may actually think it's a building or a car moving on the ground, not a helicopter," he said.
Hansman noted 6 that heavy traffic in downtown Washington makes it even more difficult.
“If you have a complex environment like an area around Washington where you have lots of other vehicles on the ground, you have vehicles in the air, and you have something very small like this, it's actually not that difficult for it to slip through the protection,” said Hansman.
Inadequate 7 systems
The chairman of the American Leadership and Policy Foundation, David Stuckenberg, is a former military pilot who writes about the airspace security. Speaking via Skype, he said the present safety systems are inadequate.
“We need to understand that we've been lucky and as technology increases and as drones proliferate 8 people will increasingly look at these as weapons of opportunity or technologies that can be adapted for ill intent,” he said.
Stuckenberg said a lot more needs to be done before such systems are in place, such as conducting thorough analyses and bringing new regulations.
- A postal network now covers the whole country.邮路遍及全国。
- Remember to use postal code.勿忘使用邮政编码。
- Lack of the right food may stunt growth.缺乏适当的食物会阻碍发育。
- Right up there is where the big stunt is taking place.那边将会有惊人的表演。
- National Aeronautics and Space undertakings have made great progress.国家的航空航天事业有了很大的发展。
- He devoted every spare moment to aeronautics.他把他所有多余的时间用在航空学上。
- They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
- Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。
- The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
- Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。
- The supply is inadequate to meet the demand.供不应求。
- She was inadequate to the demands that were made on her.她还无力满足对她提出的各项要求。
- We must not proliferate nuclear arms.我们决不能扩散核武器。
- Rabbits proliferate when they have plenty of food.兔子有充足的食物就会繁衍得很快。