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SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Spirit Explores Mars / Going to the Mo

时间:2006-03-01 16:00:00

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SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Spirit Explores Mars1 / Going to the Moon and Mars / A Warning about Global Warming
By

Broadcast: Tuesday, January 20, 2004

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Bob Doughty2. This week -- the news from Mars ... and a report on President Bush's plan for space exploration.

VOICE ONE:

Plus a warning from scientists who study life, and its future, here on Earth.

(THEME)

VOICE TWO:

 
On Jan. 19 NASA said the Spirit rover had reached its first target on Mars, a rock the size of a football, to examine it.
Scientists are excited about the progress of Spirit, the American exploration vehicle on Mars. It landed January third to look for environmental conditions that could have supported life. Engineers and scientists cheered as the spacecraft sent its first pictures.

Spirit landed on target in the Gusev Crater3, an area fifteen degrees south of the Martin equator4. Scientists chose the Gusev Crater based on evidence that it may have been an ancient lake.

Hours after landing, the spacecraft began to send detailed5 pictures of the surrounding area.

VOICE ONE:

 
A NASA artist's version of Spirit landing.
Spirit traveled four-hundred-eighty-seven-million kilometers to reach Mars. It stayed in place on its lander for more than a week. NASA officials wanted to make sure all the equipment worked before they told the rover to drive onto the surface.

There was a delay. They had to turn the vehicle away from airbags that softened6 the landing but then blocked the desired path. Last Thursday the controllers again cheered as they declared that all six wheels of the rover were on Martian soil.

Special cameras and devices to identify minerals helped engineers and scientists decide which direction to send the rover first. Spirit has a robotic arm to collect rocks and soil to study them for evidence of water in the past.

VOICE TWO:

Spirit was launched from Florida last June. NASA launched a second spacecraft in July, called Opportunity. Opportunity will land on Mars in a few days if all goes as planned,. The landing area chosen is called the Meridiani Planum. It is on the other side of the planet from where Spirit landed. NASA officials say the two areas are very different.

Like Spirit, Opportunity weighs about one-hundred-eighty kilograms. The two rovers are expected to travel no more than forty meters each Martian day to search for evidence of water. A Martian day is about the same length as an Earth day. The exploration is supposed to continue for at least three months.

VOICE ONE:

On Earth, almost everywhere liquid water exists, so does life. Today Mars is cold and dry, with huge dust storms. Scientists say life cannot exist. But evidence from past landings suggest the red planet was once warmer. Experts say water could have flowed in lakes or even oceans.

(MUSIC BRIDGE)

VOICE TWO:

 
Graphic7 Image
President Bush has proposed to send people to Mars. Before that, however, robotic spacecraft would go to the moon to prepare for the return of humans.

People would return to the moon sometime between two-thousand-fifteen and two-thousand-twenty. They would go on a new kind of spaceship to be developed, called the Crew Exploration Vehicle.

Crews would establish a moon base for scientific research. Later, that base could be used to launch explorers farther into space.

Mister Bush visited NASA headquarters in Washington last week to announce the plan to explore what he called "worlds beyond our own."

VOICE ONE:

The first goal is to complete the International Space Station by two-thousand-ten. Fifteen other nations are also involved in the program. Mister Bush says the station is needed to study the long-term effects of radiation and weightlessness on health. He says there is much to learn before human crews can travel through space for months at a time.

NASA will need its current space shuttles to complete the station. But Mister Bush says the three shuttles will be retired8 after that. NASA has not launched a shuttle since the Columbia broke apart on re-entry into the atmosphere last February first. Seven astronauts were killed.

Mister Bush said the United States will invite other nations to join his plans in what he called a spirit of cooperation and friendship. Last October, China sent its first person into orbit around Earth in a test as the Chinese develop a space program.

VOICE TWO:

Mister Bush says he wants Congress to add one-thousand-million dollars to the NASA budget over the next five years. In addition, NASA would move eleven-thousand-million dollars away from existing programs. The current five-year budget plan for the agency is eighty-six-thousand-million dollars.

Mister Bush's father, when he was president, also proposed setting up a moon base and sending people to Mars. The older President Bush announced his plan in nineteen-eighty-nine. He did so to mark twenty years since the first moon landing. But that plan called for a much bigger budget and did not succeed.

Critics call the new plan a political move in an election year. They say the money would be better spent at home. But President Bush said in his speech: "We chose to explore space because doing so improves our lives and lifts our national spirit. So let us continue the journey."

VOICE ONE:

In the early nineteen-sixties, President John F. Kennedy declared the goal to put a man on the moon. The space program began as a race with the Soviet9 Union. The Soviets10 were the first to reach space. But the United States was the first -- and so far only -- country to land people on the moon. The last of six Apollo landings took place in December of nineteen-seventy-two.

(MUSIC BRIDGE)

VOICE TWO:

International researchers say climate warming caused by human activity could lead to the destruction of hundreds of kinds of plants and animals in the next fifty years. Most scientists think climate change, or global warming, results from the release of carbon dioxide and other gases. Industrial production and vehicles release these gases. The gases trap heat in the atmosphere.

The nineteen scientists studied more than one-thousand-one-hundred species11 of plants and animals in land areas around the world. They published their study in the magazine Nature.

VOICE ONE:

The researchers gathered information from earlier studies. These included examinations of animals that live in deserts, wetlands, cool climates and other habitats in five areas of the world. The scientists used several computer models on expected climate change. The models were divided into levels of possible severity, from moderate to extreme climate change.

The researchers joined these models with maps of the different kinds of environments in which the species lived. These maps provided information about what each species needed from its environment and how climate change would affect those needs. Then they studied where those species might have to move in cases where their needs could no longer be met.

The scientists found that between fifteen and thirty-seven percent of the species they studied will disappear in fifty years if climate change continues.

VOICE TWO:There are more than fourteen-million known species of plants and animals on Earth. Study leader Chris D. Thomas says it would be helpful to include more in the examination. But, he also said there is no reason to think the findings would change greatly if more species were included. Mister Thomas is a scientist at the University of Leeds in Britain.

Townsend Peterson of the University of Kansas in the United States was another study team member. He says there are a number of reasons people should be concerned about the threatened extinction12. He says the information loss from destruction of a species is one concern.

For example, a threatened plant may contain a substance that could be used to make an important medicine. But, Mister Peterson says humans should also care because each species is a part of the natural history of the planet.

Other scientists criticized with the study. One scientist said it is too difficult to see into the future and predict results fifty years from now. Another scientist said the study did not recognize the ability of species to change or adapt in order to live in higher temperatures.

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver13, Avi Arditti and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. This is Sarah Long.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.


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1 Mars 4oSz63     
n.火星,战争
参考例句:
  • As of now we don't know much about Mars.目前我们对火星还知之甚少。
  • He contended that there must be life on Mars.他坚信火星上面一定有生物。
2 doughty Jk5zg     
adj.勇猛的,坚强的
参考例句:
  • Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质:脾气倔强,性格刚强。
  • The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。
3 crater WofzH     
n.火山口,弹坑
参考例句:
  • With a telescope you can see the huge crater of Ve-suvius.用望远镜你能看到巨大的维苏威火山口。
  • They came to the lip of a dead crater.他们来到了一个死火山口。
4 equator piJzt     
n.赤道,(平分球形物体的面的)圆
参考例句:
  • Singapore is near the equator.新加坡位于赤道附近。
  • The United States is north of the equator.美国位于赤道以北。
5 detailed xuNzms     
adj.详细的,详尽的,极注意细节的,完全的
参考例句:
  • He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
  • A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。
6 softened 19151c4e3297eb1618bed6a05d92b4fe     
(使)变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 ); 缓解打击; 缓和; 安慰
参考例句:
  • His smile softened slightly. 他的微笑稍柔和了些。
  • The ice cream softened and began to melt. 冰淇淋开始变软并开始融化。
7 graphic Aedz7     
adj.生动的,形象的,绘画的,文字的,图表的
参考例句:
  • The book gave a graphic description of the war.这本书生动地描述了战争的情况。
  • Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons.用图标来区分重要的文本项。
8 retired Njhzyv     
adj.隐退的,退休的,退役的
参考例句:
  • The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
  • Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。
9 Soviet Sw9wR     
adj.苏联的,苏维埃的;n.苏维埃
参考例句:
  • Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
  • Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。
10 soviets 95fd70e5832647dcf39beb061b21c75e     
苏维埃(Soviet的复数形式)
参考例句:
  • A public challenge could provoke the Soviets to dig in. 公开挑战会促使苏联人一意孤行。
  • The Soviets proposed the withdrawal of American ballistic-missile submarines from forward bases. 苏联人建议把美国的弹道导弹潜艇从前沿基地撤走。
11 species FTizN     
n.物种,种群
参考例句:
  • Are we the only thinking species in the whole of creation?我们是万物中惟一有思想的物种吗?
  • This species of bird now exists only in Africa.这种鸟现在只存在于非洲。
12 extinction sPwzP     
n.熄灭,消亡,消灭,灭绝,绝种
参考例句:
  • The plant is now in danger of extinction.这种植物现在有绝种的危险。
  • The island's way of life is doomed to extinction.这个岛上的生活方式注定要消失。
13 weaver LgWwd     
n.织布工;编织者
参考例句:
  • She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快,而且布的质量很好。
  • The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

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