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
acridine system dye
additional auditing standards
air burn
Akoabas
alamosite
as an atonement for
as per usual
bang sb up
bench-type coordinate boring and drilling machine
Bol'sheuluyskiy Rayon
bredahl
call-not-accepted signal
cardiac defibrillator
Chaparra
Chinese character attribute dictionary
contest the chromo
crystal-size
cutting edge bit
dermatitis gangraenosa infantum
diamond points
endangerings
exacerbation of disease
facebooker
fan spoked wheel
FDMA
ferrocobaltite
field-free space
first core inventory
formal explanation of implementation
gayfaces
geniculate body
gorgerins
Grande-Rivière
hand-running
heatsinking
homoemorphy
incoming selector circuit
interactive job
introduced plants
kimya
knife hook
knock the daylights out of
lemon-drop
lenticular transpiration
liell
link drive
Malgaigne's apparatus
maxfli
measurement of physical fitness
Message for Mediterranean
micro market
microdon (microdon) bicolor
monandra
motettist
nauseation
neuromatosis
nonencapsulated nerve glomeruli
ocular finder
optimization of regions
Orpheus I.
parastata varicosa
partis pris
parts catalogs
pass-along readership
passenger air terminal
phenological chart
phlebolithiasis
photomultiplier with wide spectral response
phrenic-gressure tests
picramnia
propynal
rag-week
rock cutting blasting
roll about
sash knife
Scotus, John Duns
shabbiest
ship's computer system
sillerman
skalde
spinach-green
spinning bath additive
square accelerator
strugs
swarm cluster
turbo-unit
tvas
ultrasono(-)cardio(-)tomograph
undamped oscillator
unrealized holding gain or loss
vantageous
varks
Vieux-Fort, Pte.du
virtual screening
vision system performance
war-widow
waste recycling
weather-prediction
weimer
xenon electronic flash lamp
zone level(l)ing