时间:2019-01-31 作者:英语课 分类:2006年VOA标准英语(七月)


英语课
By Paul Sisco
Washington, DC
19 July 2006
 
watch Roller Coaster report
 
  
  
The latest roller coasters at U.S. amusement parks are now higher and faster than ever -- and more are being built.  It's a boom for thrill seekers, but are these rides safe? 

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Thousands at amusements parks scurry 1 around, line up, and climb into all sorts of contraptions to be lifted and dropped, tossed and turned, twisted and terrified -- all summer long.  The question is, why?


  
  
"Pure adrenaline, excellent," says one rider. “I feel like I'm falling off a cliff, but I know inside I'm safe.”


  
  
Are you?  Industry spokesman Alan Ramsay, Vice 2 President of Ripley Entertainment Inc., says yes. “You have a greater chance playing billiards 3 requiring a hospital visit than you do riding an amusement ride or device.”


In the United States, an average of four people are killed in amusement ride accidents every year, but new technology is raising safety concerns for one U.S. Congressman 4.  Representative Edward Markey says the danger must be acknowledged. "As each year goes by, the rides become faster and more dangerous and advertise as such." 



Rep. Edward Markey  
  
Yet that is exactly what riders want. "Speed, acceleration 5, g-forces, the biggest and the fastest. Biggest-fastest-steepest anything," say riders.


The thirst for bigger thrills has brought furious competition to the multi-billion dollar amusement park industry. The title of world's fastest and tallest roller has changed six times in the past 10 years. One roller coaster in Ohio, in America's Midwest, was "IT" for thrill seekers, until the Kingda Ka roller coaster began operating at the New Jersey 6 Great Adventure park last year. 


Engineer Michael Reitz says the goal was to build taller and faster. 'We wanted to build the tallest, fastest ride in the world.  That was the goal and we did it.'


It rises up nearly 140 meters, dives, and reaches a screaming 220 kilometers an hour in three and a half seconds.   Park officials won't talk its effects, or g-forces, on this ride, but the gravitational force on the body is said to be similar to that experienced by elite 7 racecar drivers.


  
  
Despite several recent incidents, a fatality 8 of unknown cause on a roller coaster at Disney World and an accident injuring 20 when a roller coaster in Ohio suddenly stopped in mid-ride, the construction boom and race to new heights show no sign of ending any time soon.  There are at least 17 major roller coasters under construction and on track to thrill riders in the U.S. in 2007. 



vi.急匆匆地走;使急赶;催促;n.快步急跑,疾走;仓皇奔跑声;骤雨,骤雪;短距离赛马
  • I jumped on the sofa after I saw a mouse scurry by.看到一只老鼠匆匆路过,我从沙发上跳了起来。
  • There was a great scurry for bargains.大家急忙着去抢购特价品。
n.坏事;恶习;[pl.]台钳,老虎钳;adj.副的
  • He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
  • They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。
n.台球
  • John used to divert himself with billiards.约翰过去总打台球自娱。
  • Billiards isn't popular in here.这里不流行台球。
n.(美)国会议员
  • He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
  • The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。
n.加速,加速度
  • All spacemen must be able to bear acceleration.所有太空人都应能承受加速度。
  • He has also called for an acceleration of political reforms.他同时呼吁加快政治改革的步伐。
n.运动衫
  • He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
  • They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致,都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。
n.精英阶层;实力集团;adj.杰出的,卓越的
  • The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
  • We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。
n.不幸,灾祸,天命
  • She struggle against fatality in vain.她徒然奋斗反抗宿命。
  • He began to have a growing sense of fatality.他开始有一种越来越强烈的宿命感。
学英语单词
-vir-
abattoir
absolute henry
Adenophora stenophylla
Baeomyces
baizley
beta sites
Blumea mollis
blusteringly
Blut und Eisen
c with classes
Cassegrainian reflecting telescope
Chiquian
chromatype
Churchstow
classics of traditional Chinese medicine
coding convention
consonification
copper water manifold
Cross-sectional approach
dark fire-cured tobacco
derrick table
design displacement
directo-executive
disembosomed
doud
economic lot-size formula
Egnell's law
endorse over
external purchasing power of money
extreme high voltage
formation productivity
forward conduction
galinsoga parviflora cav.
genus lavandulas
graph-papers
haliotiss
hand precision reamer
head movement
hemodynamometry
humblesse
hybrid dysgenesis
in rilievo
in.ex
information system network
jennite
Kainchak
kinesthetics
lantern clock
maximum retail price
medialise
monaghans
monometflurazone
motion picture film processing plant
moving coil actuator
NMU (network management unit)
Ntantia
Oadby
oil-operated voltage regulator
once-small
pace tua
Periostal
permissible length of compartments
polarisability
politizing
powder carbon
radix aconiti feri
rail drilling maching
range of furrow width
Recnan
Reinecke's salt
road picture
romance-novel
root of granary
rotating tumbling-barrel-type mixer
rowly
scandian
Segyi
semi-mounted tractor drill
socking pit clamp
Spirochaeta persica
spookin'
sterile creep
strictural
striddling
surplus buoyance
system install
takeover target
tax efficiency
thymohexase
toll telephone network
tracheal air sac
transform into
tutrices
uale (ivory coast)
ulomis
uncombined carbon
velma
Verner, Karl Adolph
voltage digitizer
waste-water from coal gas plant
wireless power