美国国家公共电台 NPR This Pilot Is Headed To Space With Or Without NASA

 

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

It's time now for StoryCorps. And today we're going to hear from a woman who has spent her life in pursuit of her dream of reaching outer space. Seventy-eight-year-old Wally Funk is a pilot, flight instructor¹, and she was almost an astronaut. In 1961, she was among a group of female pilots testing whether or not women were fit for space travel. They became known as the Mercury 13. They passed many of the same tests as the men, but never got to space.

Wally Funk hasn't given up, though. At StoryCorps she spoke² to her flight student, Mary Holsenbeck.

WALLY FUNK: I get a call, said, do you want to be an astronaut? I said, oh, my gosh, yes. And he said, be here on Monday to take these tests. I had needles stuck in every part of my body, tubes running up my bottom. So I went along with it. It didn't bother me. And then they said, we want you to come with a swimsuit. You're going to go into the isolation³ tank. Well, I didn't know what that was.

The lights come down. They said, try not to move. Well, I didn't have a whole lot to think about. I'm 20. I had $10 in my pocket. And then finally they said, Wally, you were outstanding. You stayed in 10 hours and 35 minutes. You did the best of the guys that we've had and of the girls.

MARY HOLSENBECK: So, Wally, you went through all of these tests only to find out that the program had been shut down.

FUNK: Affirmative. When we got the telegram, that was it. And I never heard anything more. So I went on about my own business. I'm not going to sit back and pine over anything. I applied⁴ to NASA four times. And finally they said, Wally, you know, we're sorry, but you don't have an engineering degree. I said, well, I'll get one.

So I never let anything stop me. I know that my body and my mind can take anything that any space outfit⁵ wants to give me - a high-altitude chamber⁶ test, which is fine, a centrifuge test, which I know I can do five and six G's. These things are easy for me.

HOLSENBECK: I know that when it's your time to go up I'm going to be right there cheering you on. You are probably the most fearless person I've ever known in my life.

FUNK: (Laughter).

HOLSENBECK: But I don't think you truly realize that you have been not only my hero, but my mentor⁷. I went through a very nasty divorce, and you made a phone call at the right time one afternoon that saved my life. And you said, Mary, let's go flying. And I said, Wally, I can't afford to go flying. And you said, I didn't ask you that. Meet me at the airport. And taking me flying, you would pick out a cloud and you'd say, Mary, you see that cloud up there? I said, yes, ma'am. You said, point the nose of this airplane toward that cloud and just fly to it.

And it was the most freeing feeling. I felt like I was in charge of something when I was in that airplane. And that helped me to put myself back in charge of my own life. So yeah, you fixed⁸ the problem. Every night at 10 o'clock you and I will call each other and we'd discuss our day, what went well, what didn't go well. And we call it our 10 o'clock flight.

FUNK: (Laughter).

HOLSENBECK: So we go up into the clouds together because, Wally, you've always told me when you have problems, go to the clouds.

MARTIN: Mary Holsenbeck with Wally Funk at StoryCorps in Dallas. Wally bought a ticket for Richard Branson's Virgin⁹ Galactic and hopes to be onboard its maiden¹⁰ voyage into space. This conversation will be archived at the Library of Congress.

1 instructor   

n.指导者，教员，教练

参考例句：

• The college jumped him from instructor to full professor.大学突然把他从讲师提升为正教授。
• The skiing instructor was a tall,sunburnt man.滑雪教练是一个高高个子晒得黑黑的男子。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 isolation   

n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离

参考例句：

• The millionaire lived in complete isolation from the outside world.这位富翁过着与世隔绝的生活。
• He retired and lived in relative isolation.他退休后，生活比较孤寂。

4 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

5 outfit   

n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装

参考例句：

• Jenney bought a new outfit for her daughter's wedding.珍妮为参加女儿的婚礼买了一套新装。
• His father bought a ski outfit for him on his birthday.他父亲在他生日那天给他买了一套滑雪用具。

6 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

7 mentor   

n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导

参考例句：

• He fed on the great ideas of his mentor.他以他导师的伟大思想为支撑。
• He had mentored scores of younger doctors.他指导过许多更年轻的医生。

8 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

9 virgin   

n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的

参考例句：

• Have you ever been to a virgin forest?你去过原始森林吗？
• There are vast expanses of virgin land in the remote regions.在边远地区有大片大片未开垦的土地。

10 maiden   

n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的

参考例句：

• The prince fell in love with a fair young maiden.王子爱上了一位年轻美丽的少女。
• The aircraft makes its maiden flight tomorrow.这架飞机明天首航。