美国国家公共电台 NPR Meet Your Lucky Stars: NASA Announces A New Class Of Astronaut Candidates

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

This is Lulu's log, star date June 11, 2017, where we consider matters of space, the stars, the universe. Just as class is getting out for the summer across the country, a new one has just been announced - NASA's latest class of astronauts.

The space agency has chosen 12 people from a pool of over 18,000 applicants¹ for two years of training before giving them the title astronaut. Jasmin Moghbeli is one of these 12 candidates, and she joins me now from Johnson Space Center in Houston. Welcome to the program.

JASMIN MOGHBELI: Thanks, Lulu.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: All right, so tell me, what was the application process like? And it must have been a very epic² job interview.

MOGHBELI: Yeah, it really was. It starts out a little underwhelming. You just submit your resume on USAJOBS.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: That's the government's job posting site, USAJOBS.

MOGHBELI: Yeah. And from there, they select highly qualified³ applicants. And the first round was three days of interviews. And then the final round, this time it's a week-long process.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Wow.

MOGHBELI: And I left that thinking, wow, I want this job even more.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: What was the toughest thing that they asked you?

MOGHBELI: You know, first they asked three words friends would use to describe me which I didn't have a problem with that, but then they asked one word I would use to describe myself. And it's just tough to pick one word. And out of nowhere, I said intense. And I think I was just feeling intense in that moment in the interview, but I don't know that that's really the single word I would use to describe myself.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Well, it seems to have gotten you one of these coveted⁴ slots. Tell us a little bit about your background. You are in the military. You've had three deployments. You have also been a pilot, have tested a lot of very important equipment. Did you always want to be an astronaut, though?

MOGHBELI: Yeah. I can tell you from at least sixth grade, I wanted to be an astronaut. I did a book report on Valentina Tereshkova, the first female in space, got to dress up like her in school for a day. And, you know, I'd always been interested in science, math, technology, that sort of thing always drew me in, and added to that, the sense of adventure and exploration. I thought, you know, space exploration was the coolest thing. So yeah, I've wanted to do this for a very long time.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Are they training you for the International Space Station, or are there other missions potentially that you could go on?

MOGHBELI: Sure. There are a lot of things on the horizon right now. I know learning about the systems on the space station will be part of our training over the next two years. But, you know, right now, both Boeing and SpaceX are working on commercial crew vehicles, the CST-100 Starliner and the Dragon vehicle, so those are also possibilities. And then NASA itself is working on the Orion. So a lot of new, exciting things coming up that we could potentially be doing in the near future.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: So what is your dream, though? If you could go anywhere, do anything in space, reality, you know, not even being a limit, what would you like it to be?

MOGHBELI: Honestly, right now, my dream is to go to space, so anything that NASA would give me if they assigned me to any mission I would be more than overjoyed.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I have a question because I'm the mother of a young girl who is fascinated like you were by space exploration. And especially to young girls of color, what is your message to them?

MOGHBELI: Yeah. You know, I'm glad you brought that up. That is one of the most exciting things about this job for me, not just exploring space and that stuff but also getting that message out to the younger generation and getting them excited. If they can see someone, you know, similar to them that they can relate to more, then it makes it all that much more possible in their minds to imagine them doing this as well.

So to them I say, you know, do what you love and do it well. If you want to become an astronaut, you know, start looking into science, technology, engineering, math those kind of fields. But whatever you do, make sure you're doing something that you love.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: That's astronaut candidate Jasmin Moghbeli, who joined us from the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

1 applicants   

申请人，求职人( applicant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There were over 500 applicants for the job. 有500多人申请这份工作。
• He was impressed by the high calibre of applicants for the job. 求职人员出色的能力给他留下了深刻印象。

2 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

3 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。

4 coveted   

adj.令人垂涎的；垂涎的，梦寐以求的v.贪求，觊觎(covet的过去分词)；垂涎；贪图

参考例句：

• He had long coveted the chance to work with a famous musician. 他一直渴望有机会与著名音乐家一起工作。
• Ther other boys coveted his new bat. 其他的男孩都想得到他的新球棒。 来自《简明英汉词典》