外研选修8 M5 课文 英汉对译校对版

READING AND VOCABULARY（1） Space：the final Frontier Part 1

1Ever since Neil Armstrong first set foot on the Moon back on 21st July, 1969, people have become accustomed to the idea of space travel. 2Millions of people watched that first moon landing on television , their hearts in their mouths, aware of how difficult and dangerous an adventure it was, and what risks had to be taken. With Armstrong's now famous words : \one small step for man , one giant leap for mankind\made it safely back to Earth, using a spaceship computer that was much less powerful than the ones used by the average school students today.

There were several more journeys into space over the next few years but the single spaceships were very expensive as they could not take off more than once. People were no longer so enthusiastic about a space travel programme that was costing the United States $10 million a day. That was until the arrival of the space shuttle -a spacecraft that could be used for several journeys. The first shuttle flight into space was the Columbia-launched from the Kennedy Space Centre on 12th April,1981. 3The aim of this flight was to test the new shuttle system,to go safely up into orbit and to return to the Earth for a safe landing. It was a success and a little more than a decade after Apollo’s historic voyage, the Columbia made a safe, controlled, aeroplane-style landing in California. This was the start of a new age of space travel.

By the time the Challenger took off in 1986, the world seemed to have lost its fear and wonder at the amazing achievement of people going up into space. But this was going to be a special flight and so millions of people tuned in to witness the take-off on TV. An ordinary teacher, Christa McAuliffe, 37 , who was married with two children, was to be the first civilian in space. She was going to give two fifteen-minute lessons from space. The first was to show the controls of the spacecraft and explain how gravity worked. The second was to describe the aims of the Challenger space programme. Christa hoped to communicate a sense of excitement and create new interest in the space programme.

Sadly, she never came back to her classroom again, as the shuttle exploded just over a minute after taking off in Florida and all seven astronauts were killed.

The world was in shock-maybe they assumed this space flight would be no more dangerous than

getting on an aeroplane. But how wrong they were-in one moment excitement and success tumed into fear and disaster. It was the worst space accident ever. As one Russian said at the time , \beings who have the same feelings. Part 2

I can remember that day so clearly, watching the take-off on TV at school. There was an ordinary teacher on the Challenger, and we were all very excited. 5We didn't have much patience waiting for the launch. We had seen the smiling faces of the astronauts waving to the world as they stepped into the shuttle. Then, little more than a minute after take-off, we saw a strange red and orange light in the sky, followed by a cloud of white smoke. The Challenger had exploded in midair and we all started screaming.

It happened so quickly and everyone was in a state of shock. Like every schoolboy I had thought that going into space as an astronaut must be the best job in the world. When I heard,a few weeks later,that the bodies of the astronauts and even the teacher's lesson plans had been found at the bottom of the ocean,I was not so sure it was worth it at all. 6In spite of all our advanced technology, the world is still only at the very beginning of its voyage into space. 太空——最后的（未开发）领域 第一部分

自从尼尔?阿姆斯特朗在1969年7月21日首次踏上月球以来，人们对太空旅行这一概念已经非常熟悉。数百万的人们从电视上观看了首次登月，他们的心提到了嗓子眼，因为他们十分清楚这次是多么艰难多么危险，以及要冒多么大的风险。

伴随着阿姆斯特朗这句如今已经很有名的话：“这是个人的一小步，但却是整个人类的一大步”，一个梦想终于实现了。3个宇航员顺利返回地球，他们当年使用的计算机远不及现在一个普通学生使用的电脑高级。

在接下来的几年里，又有几艘宇宙飞船进入太空，但是单程宇宙飞船非常昂贵，因为它们只能被使用一次。人们对每天要花掉美国1，000万美元的太空旅行计划不再那么热衷了。这种情况一直持续到航天飞机的出现——那是一种可以被用来进行几次旅行的航天器。第一架到达太空的航天飞机是“哥伦比亚”号——于1981年4月12日发射于肯尼迪航天中心。这次飞行的目的是测试这种新的飞行器系统，看这种飞行器是否能够安全进入轨道、返回地球并且安全着陆。距离“阿波罗11号”历史性的航行仅仅十年多的时间，这次飞行取得了成功，“哥

伦比亚”号在控制下以飞机着陆的方式安全地返回了加利福尼亚。这次飞行开辟了太空旅行的新纪元。

到1986年“挑战者”号起飞的时候，人们似乎已经沉醉于人类走进太空这一巨大成就而忘记了恐惧，也失去了好奇心。

但这将是一次特殊的飞行，因此数百万人打开电视来亲眼目睹这次起飞。一位37岁的普通教师克里斯塔?麦奥里菲将要成为第一位进入太空的普通公民，她已经结婚并有两个孩子。她将从太空中上两节15分钟的课。第一节课将展示怎么操纵航天器并且解释重力如何作用。第二节课将描述“挑战者”号太空计划的目的。克里斯塔希望能激起人们的兴奋感并且重新唤起人们对太空旅行计划的兴趣。

可悲的是，她再也没有回到她的课堂，因为航天飞机在佛罗里达起飞一分多钟后就爆炸了，7名宇航员全部遇难。

全世界都震惊了——也许他们原本都认为这次太空飞行跟乘坐飞机一样没有什么危险。但是他们都大错特错了——刹那间，兴奋和成功就变成了恐惧和灾难。这是有史以来最为严重的太空事故。正如当时一位俄罗斯人所说：“当这样的事情发生的时候，我们不再有美国人或者俄罗斯人之分。我们都只是有相同感觉的人类。” 第二部分

我清楚地记得那天在学校通过电视观看“挑战者”号起飞的情景。有位普通的老师在“挑战者”号上，我们都很兴奋。我们迫不及待地等待着它起飞。当宇航员进入航天飞机的时候，我们看见他们满脸笑容地向人们挥手致意。然后，就在起飞一分多钟后，我们看到了空中一道奇怪的橘红色的光，接着就是一团白烟。“挑战者”号在半空爆炸了，我们都开始尖叫起来。 事情发生得太突然了，人们惊呆了。和其他男生一样，我本以为当一名宇航员进入太空一定是世界上最好的工作。几个星期后，当我听说那几位宇航员的遗体甚至那位老师的教案在大洋底部被找到的时候，我不再那么肯定这一切是否值得。即使我们掌握了现在的全部先进技术，这个世界依然只是处于太空旅行的起步阶段。

READING AND VOCABULARY（2） Secrets of the Gas Giant

The Cassini-Huygens space probe, which reached Saturn last week,has sent back amazing photographs of the planet's famous rings viewed in ultraviolet light. The pictures show them in

shades of blue,green and red. The different colours show exactly what the rings are made of : the red means the ring contains tiny pieces of rock and the blue and green is likely to be a mixture of water and frozen gases. Satum itself is made of gases. It is so light and it could float on water-if a big enough ocean could be found !

The probe is an intenational project to explore the planet and its rings and moons. It was launched in 1997 and its mission was to explore the \from the Earth without a telescope.

Scientists say the spacecraft's four-year tour of Satum may tell them how the rings are formed. It will also study the planet's atmosphere and magnetic field.

The probe has sent back pictures of some of Satum's moons,including tiny Phoebe, which has a strange shape-unlike other planets and their moons, it is not perfectly round-and Saturn's biggest moon , Titan , which is believed to be the only body in the solar system other than the Earth with liquid on the surface.

The images of Titan and Phoebe look strangely like photos of the Earth and our own Moon, taken decades ago by the earliest space missions. They are so clear that it is easy to forget they are coming from a distance of one-and-a-half-billion kilometres. 巨型气体星球的秘密

上周到达土星的“卡西尼·惠更斯”号太空探测器发回了著名的土星光环的照片，这些令人惊奇的照片是在紫外线下拍摄的。这些照片显示了它们在蓝色、绿色和红色阴影下的光环。这些不同的颜色确切地表明了土星光环的组成部分：红色意味着光环中含有微小的岩石颗粒；蓝色和绿色可能是水和冰冻气体的混合物。土星本身是由气体构成的。它非常轻并且能够浮在水面上——如果能够找到一个足够大的海洋！

这个探测器是一项国际性的工程，目的是探索这一行星及其光环和卫星。探测器于1997年发射，其任务是探索这个“巨型气体”星球，它是我们从地球上不用望远镜所看到的最远的行星。

科学家们说这个航天器为时4年的土星之旅能够告诉他们这些光环是如何形成的。它也会研究土星的大气和磁场。探测器还发回了土星的几颗卫星的照片，其中包括形状奇特的小个子土卫九——跟其他行星和卫星不同的是，它没有那么圆——还有土星最大的卫星土卫六，人们都认为那是太阳系中除了地球以外唯一表面有液体的星体。

数十年前由最早的太空任务拍摄的土卫六和土卫九的照片看起来很奇怪，就像地球和我们的

月球的照片。它们是如此的清晰以致很容易就忘掉了它们来自15亿千米之外的地方。 READING PRACTICE May the Force Be with You

Star Wars is a series of science fantasy films. The six-film series began in 1977, and has a world-wide audience, with films, books , video games , television series and toys. It is now acknowledged by the movie industry as the most successful film series ever.

The films were made in random order, and move backwards and forwards through two hundred years. They describe the deeds of Anakin Skywalker, a noble Jedi knight, while Darth Vader ,under orders from Lord Sith, creates tension then conflict between various autonomous republics and movements. This results in the defeat of the Jedi.

Then Anakin's son , Luke Skywalker ,joins the Rebel Alliance to attack the authority of the new evil Empire. He accuses Darth Vader of killing his father, so he trains to become a Jedi knight and swears to avenge his loss. But to his sorrow,he learns that his father is actually Darth Vader himself. Luke escapes the latrer's grasp, as well as the Emperor's attempt to tum him to the Dark Side. Instead , to his great relief, he achieves glory by turning his father back to the Light Side,while the divisions of the Rebel Alliance fleet fights the battle for the airspace over the motherland , and wins the war.

Star Wars reflects many abstract concepts in Greek, Roman and Chinese folk stories, such as an ability to foresee the future and the impossibility of controlling one's destiny. For example, Anakin Skywalker causes the death of his wife while coming to her aid. Luke is like the hero of a wuxia film, with his intention of avenging the death of his father, to become the most powerful Master of his art.

The broad theme of Star Wars' philosophy is the Force, and in every move someone says \Force be with you.\one's sympathy for certain people. For example, Luke Skywalker is ever told that his commitment ought to be to finish his training rather than rescue his friends.

This is consistent with many religious faiths, which stress rational thought, personal dignity and a devotion to praying for holy understanding, as opposed to the \acute emotion.

However, the strongest influence is Taoist philosophy. The Force is similar to Qi,a stable balance

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