step by step3000第二册Unit 11 Tapescript-SBS-2

Unit 11 News III. Space

Part I

A

New word

circuit绕行一周，周线luminous发光的contemptuous轻视的celestial天的，天空的glowworm萤火虫cosmically宇宙的thermonuclear （核子物理）热核（反应）的，guise

Tapescript

The Earth is a planet just under 8,000 miles in diameter, moving around the Sun at a distance of 93,000,000 miles, and completing one circuit in 365 1／4 days. The Sun itself is a star. It is by no means distinguished一点都不突出, and modern astronomers class it as “Yellow Dwarf”; it seems splendid to us only because it is relatively so near. We know of stars which are at least a million times more luminous than the Sun, and yet are so far away that telescopes are needed to see them all. The stars visible at night-time are immensely distant, which is why they appear only as tiny points of light. Many of them may well have planet-systems行星系of their own.

All the same, we must not be contemptuous of the Sun. It may not be a celestial searchlight探照灯, but neither is it a glowworm: it is normal in every way, and cosmically it is far more important than our own insignificant world. Its diameter is 864,000 miles so that it could contain more than a million globes the size of the Earth; even as its surface, the temperature is around6,000°C (11,000°F), and in the solar “power-house”太阳能发电房, deep inside, the temperature must rise to well over the million degrees. The sun is gaseous气体的, and is not burning in the ordinary sense of the word但是它不是“气体”这个词普通意义上的燃烧, since it produce its energy by means of thermonuclear processes near its core.因为它只是在它的中心部分通过热核反应过程产生能量

The essential difference between a star and a planet is that 恒星本身就是一颗太阳, whereas a planet shines only because it reflects the rays of our own particular Sun. If we could observe from the surface of another world—Mars for instance—the Earth too would appear in the guise of a

starlike object, and a telescope would be needed to show even large features地貌such as the Pacific Ocean and the Eurasian landmass 欧亚大陆

B

space shuttle太空穿梭机 crew全体员工 launch发射 dock使（宇宙飞行器）在外层空间对接 sensor传感器 hydrogen氢气 helium氦 methane 甲烷，沼气ammonia氨 dwarf矮星 fledgling初出茅驴的人，年轻而缺乏经验者 outpost 前哨 checkout试验，调整 revive 使再生效，恢复space probe太空探索volcanic火山的 International Space Station国际空间站 Jupiter木星Pluto冥王星 International Astronomical Union 国际天文学联合会

Prague布拉格（捷克首都） Hubble Space Telescope 哈勃空间望远镜

Discovery：发现号航天飞机（STS Discovery OV-103）是美国国家航空暨太空总署（NASA）肯尼迪航天中心（KSC）旗下，第三架实际执行太空飞行任务的太空梭。首次飞行是在1984年8月30日，负责进行各种科学研究与作为国际太空站（International Space Station，ISS）计划的支援。2011年3月7日，“发现”号航天飞机脱离国际空间站，9日在肯尼迪航天中心安全着陆，结束了近27年的飞行。

The New Horizons spacecraft: 新地平线号航天器

Endeavor：奮進號穿梭機（STS Endeavour OV-105，又譯努力號）是美國國家航空暨太空總署（NASA）肯尼迪太空中心（KSC）旗下第五架實際執行太空飛行任務的穿梭機，也是最新的一架，首次飛行是1992年5月7日的STS-49號任務。奮進號負責的任務中有不小比例是用來支援國際太空站計劃。

2011年5月16日，奮進號從佛羅里達州的肯尼迪太空中心發射升空，前往國際太空站。這是它最後一次任務，在此次任務結束後，奮進號除役。

Unity：团结号节点舱是美国为国际空间站建造的第一个部分。团结号节点舱由一个圆柱形的外壳，和六个能便利的与其他舱室连接的通用接驳装置（Common Berthing Mechanism）所组成。团结号直径4.57米（15英尺），长5.47米（18

英尺），由波音公司位于阿拉巴马州亨茨维尔的马歇尔空间飞行中心里的工厂为美国宇航局（NASA）制造。

团结号节点舱有时被称为节点1，是全部建成后的完整空间站上三个相同的连接舱中的第一个。

Zvezda ：（俄罗斯）星辰号太空舱

Pathfinder：火星探路者(Mars Pathfinder, MPF)是美国国家航空航天局的1996年火星探测计划。美国国家航空航天局的火星探测计划长期致力于对火星这颗红色行星进行无人探测，火星探路者是这一系列无人探测计划的一个组成部