在线英语听力室

EXPLORATIONS - National Air And Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Ce

时间:2006-03-06 16:00:00

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号:tingroom,领取免费英语资料大礼包。

(单词翻译)

EXPLORATIONS - National Air And Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center
By Paul Thompson

Broadcast: Wednesday, January 07, 2004

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

This is Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

 
Artist's picture of the Udvar-Hazy Center.
And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Last month, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum opened its new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy (OOD-var HAH-zee) Center in Virginia, near Washington, D-C. Today we tell about this new museum for famous aircraft.

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

The new Udvar-Hazy Center has been open for a little more than three weeks. However, it has already proven to be extremely popular. On December twenty-sixth, the road leading to the new museum was blocked with vehicles. Local television stations showed pictures of thousands of automobiles1 waiting their turn to enter the museum's parking area. Some vehicles were turned away. There was not enough room. The parking area was full. The new center may prove to be as popular as the main Air and Space Museum in Washington.

VOICE TWO:

The National Air and Space Museum is perhaps the most visited museum in the world. Almost ten-million people visit the museum ever year to see famous aircraft. They can see the Wright Brothers famous flyer. It was the first controllable aircraft to fly with an engine. It flew for the first time on December Seventeenth, nineteen-oh-three.

Visitors to the National Air and Space Museum can also see Charles Lindbergh's airplane, "The Spirit of Saint2 Louis." He became the first pilot to fly across the Atlantic Ocean alone and without stopping, from the United States to France. That flight took place in May of nineteen-twenty-seven.

 
The first supersonic3 airplane, the X-1.
Near the famous plane is an orange rocket plane that became the first aircraft to fly faster than the speed of sound. Pilot Chuck Yeager made that flight in nineteen-forty-seven. Visitors to the museum can even touch a small piece of the moon. It was brought back to Earth by American astronauts who walked on the moon.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The main job of a museum is to keep and protect important objects from the past so they can be studied, examined and enjoyed in the future. Displaying these collected objects helps the public understand the importance of a museum's work.

Finding4 room to keep a collection of aircraft has always been a problem for the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. This museum only holds about ten percent of the aircraft it has collected over the years.

Another ten percent of the aircraft have been loaned5 to other museums. The other eighty percent have been kept in storage buildings for safekeeping. Some of them have been stored for as long as fifty years.

The opening of the Museum's new Udvar-Hazy Center has changed this. As many as three-hundred aircraft will be placed on display in the new museum. More than eighty of them have already been placed in the building for the public to see.

VOICE TWO:

 
Steven Udvar-Hazy
The new center was named for Steven Udvar-Hazy. He came to the United States from Hungary. He became very successful in the aircraft industry. He became so successful that he gave the National Air and Space Museum sixty-five-million dollars to help build the new center.

Mister6 Udvar-Hazy said he wanted to give something to America for the opportunities he found here. He also wanted to pass on his love of aviation7 to the people of the future.

VOICE ONE:

Mister Udvar-Hazy's gift helped build the center. It did not pay the total cost. That is expected to be more than three-hundred-million dollars. This includes the design, construction and cost of moving the aircraft into the new center.

The largest of the new center's several buildings is huge. It is thirty-one meters high, almost seventy-six meters wide, and three-hundred meters long.

Visitors can see and walk near the aircraft on three levels in the main building. They can walk near the largest aircraft on the museum's floor. Smaller aircraft are hung from the ceiling. Visitors can examine them from several walkways that are about fifteen meters above the floor. They can see other aircraft that are hung near the ceiling. They can do this from walkways that are near the top of the building.

Computers at small information centers show close-up photographs of the aircraft. These photographs include pictures taken inside the aircraft. Visitors can use the computers to see the pilot's controls, passenger areas and other parts of the inside of the aircraft. In the future, these pictures will be on the new museum's computer link with the Internet.

VOICE TWO:

All of the aircraft that will be on display are important to the history of flight. Some are huge. The largest aircraft in the collection was given to the museum only a few months ago. It is the Air France Concorde.

The plane landed at nearby Dulles International Airport on its last flight. It was pulled by a special vehicle to the museum.

The Concorde was one of the few passenger airplanes that could fly faster than the speed of sound. A Concorde flight from Paris, France to Washington, D-C usually took less than four hours.

The new center also has very small aircraft in the collection. One is the Boeing P-Twenty-Six-A Peashooter. The little Peashooter could hide under the wing of the Concorde. In fact, several of them could hide there.

The Peashooter was a military fighter plane. It was built in the early nineteen-thirties. It is also one of the most beautiful aircraft in the new center. Most military aircraft are not painted with bright colors. But the Peashooter has wings painted yellow-gold. The body is painted black with white strips8 down its side. The front is painted a shiny white.

VOICE ONE:

The new Udvar-Hazy Center also holds the fastest aircraft every built. It is the Lockheed S-R-Seventy-One Blackbird. It looks like a rocket plane, but it is not. It has an aircraft jet9 engine, not a rocket engine. The military used the Blackbird to gather intelligence. It carried cameras, not guns. It used its great speed to fly away from danger.

The Blackbird is a large aircraft. It is painted with a dull black paint and looks like a bullet10. In fact it is faster than many bullets11. It could travel at three times the speed of sound.

That is about three-thousand-five-hundred-forty kilometers an hour. The last time a Blackbird flew was from Los Angeles, California to Dulles International Airport near the museum.

The United States Air Force flew it for the last time to deliver it to the Udvar-Hazy Center. That flight from California to Virginia took only one hour, four minutes and twenty seconds.

VOICE TWO:

Many of the aircraft in the collection were built for military use. However, the museum is not a just a collection of military aircraft. Aviation experts say new flight technology has often been used first in the design of military aircraft. For example, the first jet was a military airplane. Civilian12 aircraft designers quickly used jet technology because jets13 are faster and cheaper.

An aircraft called the Dash-Eighty is a good example of military technology being used for civilian purposes. The Boeing Company built the aircraft. Its real name is the Boeing Three-Six-Seven-dash-Eighty.

It was designed as the first modern jet passenger aircraft. It first flew in July of nineteen-fifty-four. It does not look much different from aircraft used today by airlines around the world. Later, a similar aircraft was given the numbers Seven-Oh-Seven. The Seven-Oh-Seven was the first extremely successful passenger jet aircraft. It served as the first jet aircraft for many of the world's passenger airlines. The Dash-Eighty looks very new, not fifty years old.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

National Air and Space Museum officials say they expect about three-million visitors a year to the new center. Many of these visitors will be school children. The center includes schoolrooms and will provide teachers with teaching14 materials.

One of the center's goals will be to educate the children of the future about the importance of aviation.

Smithsonian officials recognize that it is difficult for many people to visit either of these two flight museums. In the near future, they hope to display photographs and information about all the aircraft on the Internet.

You can already visit the museum if you have a computer that can link with the Internet. The Internet address is WWW.NASM.SI.EDU. Or have your computer search for the letters N-A-S-M.

(THEME)

VOICE TWO:

This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Mario Ritter.


分享到:


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 automobiles 760a1b7b6ea4a07c12e5f64cc766962b     
n.汽车( automobile的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • When automobiles become popular,the use of the horse and buggy passed away. 汽车普及后,就不再使用马和马车了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Automobiles speed in an endless stream along the boulevard. 宽阔的林荫道上,汽车川流不息。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
2 saint yYcxf     
n.圣徒;基督教徒;vt.成为圣徒,把...视为圣徒
参考例句:
  • He was made a saint.他被封为圣人。
  • The saint had a lowly heart.圣人有谦诚之心。
3 supersonic Crpwz     
adj.超声的,超声速的
参考例句:
  • These planes travel at supersonic speeds.这些飞机以超音速的速度飞行。
  • Supersonic methods for determining the q value of material.材料q值的超声波测定方法。
4 finding 5tAzVe     
n.发现,发现物;调查的结果
参考例句:
  • The finding makes some sense.该发现具有一定的意义。
  • That's an encouraging finding.这是一个鼓舞人心的发现。
5 loaned 02ff2e0ceb9b075b8d2a1fc79e0ad007     
v.借出,贷与(尤指钱)( loan的过去式和过去分词 );出借(贵重物品给博物馆等)
参考例句:
  • I have loaned his bicycle. 我把他的自行车给借出去了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The ground was loaned out for numerous events including pop concerts. 场地被借用来搞过无数活动,包括流行音乐会。 来自辞典例句
6 mister rnQzwB     
n.(略作Mr.全称很少用于书面)先生
参考例句:
  • Mister Smith is my good friend.史密斯先生是我的好朋友。
  • He styled himself " Mister Clean ".他自称是“清廉先生”。
7 aviation aviation     
n.航空,航空学,飞机制造业
参考例句:
  • Ten years ago,they began to develop the aviation. 十年前,他们开始发展航空工业。
  • Pilots of large aircraft are masters of aviation.大型飞行器的驾驶员是航空学方面的专家。
8 strips 949b08c5289684d41b893c06db522455     
n. 条,片 名词strip的复数形式
参考例句:
  • Cut the vegetables into thin strips. 把菜切成细条。
  • The baskets are woven from strips of willow. 这些篮子是用柳条编的。
9 jet YaPz3     
n.喷气发动机,喷气式飞机;v.喷出,喷射
参考例句:
  • Put a match to the jet to light the gas.将火柴放在煤气喷嘴上点燃煤气。
  • I don't see the jet of your plan.我不明白你的计划的要点。
10 bullet GSUyA     
n.枪弹,子弹
参考例句:
  • The bullet wound in his shoulder was opened up for treatment.切开他肩上的枪伤进行治疗。
  • The bullet missed me by a hair's s breadth.那颗子弹差一点就打中了我。
11 bullets lxFzBH     
n.弹药;军火
参考例句:
  • The bodies of the hostages were found riddled with bullets. 在人质的尸体上发现了很多弹孔。
  • The bullets and cannon-balls were flying in all directions. 子弹和炮弹到处乱飞。
12 civilian uqbzl     
adj.平民的,民用的,民众的
参考例句:
  • There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
  • He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。
13 jets 4673f6aaf2c2048dc65e963fb8b36bf9     
n.喷嘴( jet的名词复数 );喷气式飞机;喷射流;煤玉
参考例句:
  • The firemen directed jets of water at the burning building. 消防队员把水柱喷向燃烧着的楼房。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The giant jets that increasingly dominate the world's airways. 越来越称雄于世界航线的巨型喷气机。 来自《简明英汉词典》
14 teaching ngEziT     
n.教学,执教,任教,讲授;(复数)教诲
参考例句:
  • We all agree in adopting the new teaching method. 我们一致同意采取新的教学方法。
  • He created a new system of teaching foreign languages.他创造了一种新的外语教学体系。

本文本内容来源于互联网抓取和网友提交,仅供参考,部分栏目没有内容,如果您有更合适的内容,欢迎 点击提交 分享给大家。