PBS高端访谈:发现的飞机残骸能否帮助缩小搜寻MH370的范围?

 　　JUDY WOODRUFF: The discovery of the debris¹ raises many questions. And we look at some of them now with Van Gurley, a retired² naval³ oceanographer whose company, Metron, helped investigators⁴ eventually find Air France Flight 447 after it crashed in the ocean off the coast of South America, and Miles O'Brien, our science correspondent, and a pilot himself, who closely watches the world of aviation.

　　Gentlemen, welcome to you both.

　　Miles, I'm going to start with you. How definitive⁵ then is it that this plane piece comes from that Boeing 777?

　　MILES O'BRIEN: Judy, I would put it in the high 90 percentile. This is absolutely, definitely a piece of a 777. There's only one 777 missing in the world, much less the Indian Ocean, and there the piece is.

　　So what remains⁶ to be done is dot the I's, cross the T's, get the serial⁷ numbers. Every part on an airplane has a serial number and a long pedigree attached to it. It's a lot of paperwork, so it will take a little bit of time to say absolutely, definitively⁸.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: So, looking at this — I know you have been watching this story since the news broke last night. Looking at what we know so far, what does it tell you?

　　MILES O'BRIEN: Well, it's interesting. The way it — the damage pattern presents itself is interesting. A lot of people have been saying, well, perhaps it fell off as the aircraft struck the water.

　　But I have been talking to some experts who have looked at it and said two things that are interesting. The leading edge is not very damaged at all, and the trailing edge, if you look at it, almost looks like it's been torn like a piece of paper. That would indicate stress damage.

　　In other words, it could have been fluttering, and that would suggest that it tore off in flight. So perhaps this aircraft was diving in a spiral at a very high rate of speed, and pieces of it were falling off.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: So, that's still speculation⁹ at this point?

　　MILES O'BRIEN: It is, but the damage pattern supports that.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Van Gurley, based on what you know from looking for plane parts, knowing about ocean currents, what do we know? What does this tell you, I mean, what was known about where this plane possibly went down and the fact that this may be a part all the way over close to Madagascar?

　　VAN GURLEY, Former Navy Oceanographer: So, Judy, this begins to answer some of the big W-questions that have been plaguing this since the beginning.

　　First, what happened to this flight? If this, in fact, is traced back to the Malaysian Air 370 aircraft, this says definitively the plane crashed at sea and it provides the ability for those families to get the closure they have been looking for since this began.

　　The second question it answered is, where would it have crashed? Now, everybody would love, and I would love to be able to say that we will be able to use some scientific method and say, because we found it here, it must have been here. The science doesn't really support that type of accuracy.

　　But what it does tell us, if we look at the ocean currents in the Indian Ocean, is that, if this is, in fact, from MH370, that the plane most likely went down — that the plane definitely went down in the Indian Ocean and most likely in the eastern to southeastern Indian Ocean.

　　And so that begins to sort of draw circles and narrow down some of the wilder speculation that's been out there for the last year-and-a-half.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: And what about the barnacles they have shown that are on this so-called flaperon, this part of the wing?

　　VAN GURLEY: Right.

　　So, that is very strong evidence that this part has been at sea for quite a while, and it's not something that was lost off a transport ship last week and just happened to run up, wash up on this beach. For that type of marine¹⁰ growth to accumulate means that the piece has been floating out at sea for a while.

　　I think the marine biologists, if they get a chance to look at it, can start looking at how much growth is there and then provide a better estimate of how long it must have been at sea for that to have happened.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Miles, what are the questions you and others who look at aviation and aviation safety have going forward? I mean, how much does this narrow our understanding of what could have happened?

　　MILES O'BRIEN: Well, you can learn a lot from the pieces, the wreckage¹¹. It can tell a real story for us.What exactly happened? Did it break up in flight? Was there a fire? Was there some sort of explosion?

　　The pieces can actually tell you this kind of information. Ultimately, however, the only answers are at the bottom of the sea. And, hopefully, this will help people at least have the confidence to know they're looking in the right part of the world, that, on that circle that Van was referring to on the map, there is some degree of confidence that they're looking in that precise place in a — within plus or minus a few miles, whereas there was all this concern that perhaps, after that last communication with the satellite, it might have glided¹² on for some several dozens or even close to 100 miles, making the search much less accurate.

　　So, I think this helps make the search more accurate and ultimately might get us to some answers.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Van Gurley, what about in terms of parts of the plane that will float, parts that would sink? What do we know about that?

　　VAN GURLEY: So, again, depending on how the aircraft is constructed, if there's air voids and pockets, foam¹³ inserts, those types of things, then the plane — the parts would tend to stay on the surface for a longer period of time.

　　So, one of the things that I think I already have read in the reporting that has already started up is, if you find one piece, are there more somewhere in that part of the ocean? Every part moves differently in the ocean currents and the winds. It's a very complex pattern, so it's not to say we will find more things on the same beach, but it's a high indication that the earlier projections¹⁴ that — if things were going to wash up, you kind of wanted to look around Madagascar, around the islands like Reunion and down off the west coast of the southern part of Africa.

　　So I think a continued search for those regions, looking for more pieces, parts might help to backtrack and make that — refine that, that Miles was talking about, to sort of help narrow the search area, but it is still going to be a very long process.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: And so, just quickly, Miles, the next things that have to happen are what, broadening the search in that area?

　　MILES O'BRIEN: Exactly. Keep plowing¹⁵ through the ocean along that circle that was drawn¹⁶ by that satellite, Inmarsat satellite, that gave them a basic idea, a big swathe of ocean, to be sure, but this helps them have that confidence. And then let's hope we can find some more debris.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Miles O'Brien, Van Gurley, it's early, at least at this phase of the story. We thank you both.

　　VAN GURLEY: Well, thank you.

　　MILES O'BRIEN: You're welcome.

1 debris   

n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片

参考例句：

• After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
• Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上，导致蛀牙。

2 retired   

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。

3 naval   

adj.海军的，军舰的，船的

参考例句：

• He took part in a great naval battle.他参加了一次大海战。
• The harbour is an important naval base.该港是一个重要的海军基地。

4 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 definitive   

adj.确切的，权威性的；最后的，决定性的

参考例句：

• This book is the definitive guide to world cuisine.这本书是世界美食的权威指南。
• No one has come up with a definitive answer as to why this should be so.至于为什么该这样，还没有人给出明确的答复。

6 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

7 serial   

n.连本影片，连本电视节目；adj.连续的

参考例句：

• A new serial is starting on television tonight.今晚电视开播一部新的电视连续剧。
• Can you account for the serial failures in our experiment?你能解释我们实验屡屡失败的原因吗？

8 definitively   

adv.决定性地，最后地

参考例句：

• None of the three super-states could be definitively conquered even by the other two in combination. 三个超级国家中的任何一国都不可能被任何两国的联盟所绝对打败。 来自英汉文学
• Therefore, nothing can ever be definitively proved with a photograph. 因此，没有什么可以明确了一张照片。 来自互联网

9 speculation   

n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机

参考例句：

• Her mind is occupied with speculation.她的头脑忙于思考。
• There is widespread speculation that he is going to resign.人们普遍推测他要辞职。

10 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

11 wreckage   

n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏

参考例句：

• They hauled him clear of the wreckage.他们把他从形骸中拖出来。
• New states were born out of the wreckage of old colonial empires.新生国家从老殖民帝国的废墟中诞生。

12 glided   

v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔

参考例句：

• The President's motorcade glided by. 总统的车队一溜烟开了过去。
• They glided along the wall until they were out of sight. 他们沿着墙壁溜得无影无踪。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 foam   

v./n.泡沫，起泡沫

参考例句：

• The glass of beer was mostly foam.这杯啤酒大部分是泡沫。
• The surface of the water is full of foam.水面都是泡沫。

14 projections   

预测( projection的名词复数 )； 投影； 投掷； 突起物

参考例句：

• Their sales projections are a total thumbsuck. 他们的销售量预测纯属估计。
• The council has revised its projections of funding requirements upwards. 地方议会调高了对资金需求的预测。

15 plowing   

v.耕( plow的现在分词 )；犁耕；费力穿过

参考例句：

• "There are things more important now than plowing, Sugar. "如今有比耕种更重要的事情要做呀，宝贝儿。 来自飘（部分）
• Since his wife's death, he has been plowing a lonely furrow. 从他妻子死后，他一直过着孤独的生活。 来自辞典例句

16 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。