英语听力精选进阶版 6473

There are times when saying sorry is not enough to spare you from embarrassment¹. A few weeks ago I baked a cake and sent it to my friend's mother. My friend told me it was a nice gesture but… I might have added salt to the recipe rather than sugar...

When I find myself regretting little mistakes in daily life, I spare a thought for those who face the music for very public blunders. Last May, a company which operates trains in France realised that 2,000 new trains it bought for $20.5bn wouldn't fit on many regional platforms. It's because they were too wide! They had to change the platforms to accommodate the trains. Red faces all around!

But this is not the worst fiasco I've heard about. I have great respect and even reverence² for those engineers who build probes and send them into space. These guys are really brainy. So imagine how horrified³ I was when I read on the news that the Mars Orbiter was lost in 1999 because Nasa and its contractor⁴ used different systems: the US space agency team used metric while the contractor used imperial units. The probe, which cost no less than $125m, came closer to Mars than it was supposed to and… well, scientists believe it was destroyed when manoeuvring.

Some miscalculations end up costing a lot of money but others can cost lives. British explorer Robert Falcon⁵ Scott made a very unfortunate mistake when he calculated how much food to take on his expedition to the South Pole in the early 1900s. He ended up working out daily rations⁶ for himself and his team which were insufficient⁷. Our bodies spend lots of energy just keeping warm in the polar environment. It's believed Scott died of starvation.

But every day people pay for errors of judgement and maybe we shouldn't be so hard on ourselves. There're those who are quick to pass the buck⁸, though. I wonder what happened to the managers behind the train blunder. And what about the guy who should've checked if all those involved with the Mars Orbiter were on the same page?

For me, it was just a cake. But I shouldn’t leave my somewhat weak baking abilities to chance. Next time I'll treat my friend's mother – a very nice lady, by the way – to a high-class bakery. Sugar? Salt? I'm sure they’ll get it right!

Quiz 测验

1. What did the article's author do wrong?

The article's author added salt instead of sugar by mistake when baking a cake.

2. Who used imperial measurements on the Mars Orbiter project?

A contractor working for the US space agency Nasa.

3. What was the fate of British explorer Robert Falcon Scott?

It's believed he died of starvation.

4. Which expression means to blame someone?

To pass the buck.

5. Which word means 'moving carefully and in a skilful⁹ way'?

Manoeuvring.

Glossary 词汇表

embarrassment 尴尬，难为情

to regret 对某事感到后悔

to spare a thought for 替某人着想

a blunder 大错，疏忽

red face （红脸）尴尬的面孔

a fiasco 彻底的失败，惨败

brainy 聪明的

manoeuvring (名词)控制，操纵

miscalculation 计算错误，错算

to work out 计算

starvation 饥饿

an error of judgement 判断失误

to pass the buck 推卸责任

on the same page 在同一页上，想法一致

1 embarrassment   

n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫

参考例句：

• She could have died away with embarrassment.她窘迫得要死。
• Coughing at a concert can be a real embarrassment.在音乐会上咳嗽真会使人难堪。

2 reverence   

n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬

参考例句：

• He was a bishop who was held in reverence by all.他是一位被大家都尊敬的主教。
• We reverence tradition but will not be fettered by it.我们尊重传统，但不被传统所束缚。

3 horrified   

a.(表现出)恐惧的

参考例句：

• The whole country was horrified by the killings. 全国都对这些凶杀案感到大为震惊。
• We were horrified at the conditions prevailing in local prisons. 地方监狱的普遍状况让我们震惊。

4 contractor   

n.订约人，承包人，收缩肌

参考例句：

• The Tokyo contractor was asked to kick $ 6000 back as commission.那个东京的承包商被要求退还6000美元作为佣金。
• The style of house the contractor builds depends partly on the lay of the land.承包商所建房屋的式样，有几分要看地势而定。

5 falcon   

n.隼，猎鹰

参考例句：

• The falcon was twice his size with pouted feathers.鹰张开羽毛比两只鹰还大。
• The boys went hunting with their falcon.男孩子们带着猎鹰出去打猎了。

6 rations   

定量( ration的名词复数 )； 配给量； 正常量； 合理的量

参考例句：

• They are provisioned with seven days' rations. 他们得到了7天的给养。
• The soldiers complained that they were getting short rations. 士兵们抱怨他们得到的配给不够数。

7 insufficient   

adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的

参考例句：

• There was insufficient evidence to convict him.没有足够证据给他定罪。
• In their day scientific knowledge was insufficient to settle the matter.在他们的时代，科学知识还不能足以解决这些问题。

8 buck   

n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃

参考例句：

• The boy bent curiously to the skeleton of the buck.这个男孩好奇地弯下身去看鹿的骸骨。
• The female deer attracts the buck with high-pitched sounds.雌鹿以尖声吸引雄鹿。

9 skilful   

(=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的

参考例句：

• The more you practise,the more skilful you'll become.练习的次数越多，熟练的程度越高。
• He's not very skilful with his chopsticks.他用筷子不大熟练。