英语听力精选进阶版 13975

Cleaning up space junk

Summary

5 October 2012

The International Space Station is to be moved into a different orbit to avoid the possibility of a collision with a piece of space junk. The station, which is currently home to six astronauts, will fire booster rockets to avoid a fragment travelling at around 28,000 kilometres per hour. It's estimated there are around 21,000 pieces of dangerous debris¹ in low earth orbit.

Reporter:

Matt McGrath

Report

Keeping an eye out for dangerous debris is a critical part of operating the international space station. A week ago, Russian controllers were ready to take evasive action when two pieces of junk loomed² close. Further inspection³ indicated a move wasn't necessary at that point. This new threat is believed to be slightly more serious. 

Controllers take a very few risks with the station - they move it if the chances of a collision are greater than one in 10,000. Earlier this year, astronauts had to take refuge in escape capsules, when a piece of debris from a satellite was detected too late to move the ISS. But the space junk missed by about 23 kilometres. 

NASA tracks pieces of debris bigger than ten centimetres. Their numbers are estimated to have increased by 50 percent over the past five years, the result of a collision between two satellites in 2009. In 2007 China used a missile to destroy one of its own satellites and, in the process, created more than 3,000 trackable objects. For the six crew currently on board, the manoeuvre⁴ to avoid this piece of junk might provide a bit more excitement than recent activities, which have included mending a broken toilet.

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 loomed   

v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近

参考例句：

• A dark shape loomed up ahead of us. 一个黑糊糊的影子隐隐出现在我们的前面。
• The prospect of war loomed large in everyone's mind. 战事将起的庞大阴影占据每个人的心。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 inspection   

n.检查，审查，检阅

参考例句：

• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。
• The soldiers lined up for their daily inspection by their officers.士兵们列队接受军官的日常检阅。

4 manoeuvre   

n.策略，调动；v.用策略，调动

参考例句：

• Her withdrawal from the contest was a tactical manoeuvre.她退出比赛是一个战术策略。
• The clutter of ships had little room to manoeuvre.船只橫七竖八地挤在一起，几乎没有多少移动的空间。