时间:2018-12-02 作者:英语课 分类:2017年NPR美国国家公共电台3月


英语课

 


DAVID GREENE, HOST:


So in case you were considering traveling to space, the private company SpaceX wants to make space flight a lot cheaper. And to do that, it plans to reuse its rockets over and over again. As NPR's Geoff Brumfiel reports, the first big test of that idea comes later today.


GEOFF BRUMFIEL, BYLINE 1: OK. Here's your standard rocket launch.


(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)


UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Five, four...


BRUMFIEL: Those big engines fire.


(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)


UNIDENTIFIED MAN: One, zero. Liftoff.


BRUMFIEL: And the rocket goes up. But most of that rocket never makes it to space. Part way up, the big, expensive first stage falls off and plunges 2 back to Earth. SpaceX founder 3 Elon Musk 4 says he tells his engineers that when they see that, they should visualize 5 a giant stack of money hurtling towards its doom 6.


(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)


ELON MUSK: Would you try to save it? Probably, yes.


UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: Yes, OK.


MUSK: Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.


BRUMFIEL: That was Musk speaking at a conference last summer. And that philosophy is why SpaceX rockets don't crash back to Earth. Instead, they come back and land - vertically 7 - on a ship in the middle of the ocean.


(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)


UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: So you're seeing live footage of our drone ship waiting for the - there's the engine.


BRUMFIEL: That was the company's first ocean landing, which happened almost exactly a year ago. And today they will take that same rocket and launch it again.


MICHELE FRANCI: This is indeed a first.


BRUMFIEL: Michele Franci is with Inmarsat, a London company that runs a satellite network for tracking ships and planes. It's a SpaceX customer. Franci says if launch costs come down, companies like his could launch more satellites more often and build a better network. But he says to really bring down prices, SpaceX will have to recycle each rocket more than just once.


FRANCI: The question is how many times they can reuse each individual rocket and how often they can do that.


BRUMFIEL: Today's launch will be from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Franci says he'll be watching.


Geoff Brumfiel, NPR News.



1 byline
n.署名;v.署名
  • His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
  • We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。
2 plunges
n.跳进,投入vt.使投入,使插入,使陷入vi.投入,跳进,陷入v.颠簸( plunge的第三人称单数 );暴跌;骤降;突降
  • Even before he plunges into his program, he has his audience in his pocket. 他的节目甚至还没有出场,就已控制住了观众。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • 'Monseigneur, he precipitated himself over the hill-side, head first, as a person plunges into the river.' “大人,他头冲下跳下山坡去了,像往河里跳一样。” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记
3 Founder
n.创始者,缔造者
  • He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
  • According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说,罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。
4 musk
n.麝香, 能发出麝香的各种各样的植物,香猫
  • Musk is used for perfume and stimulant.麝香可以用作香料和兴奋剂。
  • She scented her clothes with musk.她用麝香使衣服充满了香味。
5 visualize
vt.使看得见,使具体化,想象,设想
  • I remember meeting the man before but I can't visualize him.我记得以前见过那个人,但他的样子我想不起来了。
  • She couldn't visualize flying through space.她无法想像在太空中飞行的景象。
6 doom
n.厄运,劫数;v.注定,命定
  • The report on our economic situation is full of doom and gloom.这份关于我们经济状况的报告充满了令人绝望和沮丧的调子。
  • The dictator met his doom after ten years of rule.独裁者统治了十年终于完蛋了。
7 vertically
adv.垂直地
  • Line the pages for the graph both horizontally and vertically.在这几页上同时画上横线和竖线,以便制作图表。
  • The human brain is divided vertically down the middle into two hemispheres.人脑从中央垂直地分为两半球。
学英语单词
aeroplance station
airlift thermofor catalytic cracking
anchor shot
anisalol
anterior end
apex to crown
aphrophora horizontalis
austereness
autodetects
autokinetic effect
bank note transaction
be under the apprehension
bellyis
blue-print apparatus
brown-eyed Susan
budgetary value
builder's certificate
burger bars
C-vimin
caiman lizards
candle-lits
Chōsei
clopidogrel bisulfate
cofinal subspectrum
compensation for all damages
composition battery case
coriacea
corporate income
deep epigastric veios
dephlegmed
Di-len
diamond ding
diss songs
double becket
drewes
effects library
end-of-tape arrangement
Ferschweiler
Gaullisms
gunnerside
have nothing to say for oneself
house servant
hydraulic ram
hydrocarbonylation
hydrostatically
hypermethylated
illiterature
inclinational
inhalation pulmonary abscess
irregular occurrences
Kasaï (Cassai)
kep nuts
kiskadee
kistful
know sth like the back of your hand
lingualization
lode
louver
methionyl
MHF
milk cyst
MK-870
money tree
mucigen
nanosize
nemertines
nonwife
parallel-plate reactor
parecio
pillow distortion
pleasure-seekers
Pricasso
put a flea in one's ear
pyrocatechol
Qu'Appelle River
real Lie algebra
redoaks
releasing factor
reoxidised
ring tracheid
Salignac-Eyvignes
schismogenesis
Screen Actors' Guild
secondary record format
sheard
sintered metal
sopranino
speculative evaluation
spin conservation
stripping away
sugar substitute
Tavism
the yoke of brotherhood
three-phase furnace
tonna dolium
true orbit
turn over in one's mind
UPS - uninterruptible power supply
us rich
uterocolposcopy
variable working capital
vertical axis deviation