英语听力：自然百科 行星旅行：土星 Saturn—4

 Hopes and dreams of thousands of scientists and engineers are resting on the next few moments. We’ve been to Saturn¹ twice before with the voyager I and voyager II spacecraft. But rather than these quick Kodak moments, we want to take a nice long leisurely² look at the Saturnian system. The only way to do that was to slow down and let Saturn’s gravity capture send to orbit. Current speed of the Cassini spacecraft, 50,000 miles an hour, and increasing as Saturn’s gravity draws us in. 

 

Cassini presses on, aiming for the gap between the outer F and G rings, hopefully clear of orbital debris³. We turn the /main Huygens antenna⁴ in the direction that the craft would see the ring particles coming toward it, so that it would act as a shield. 

 

You’re listening to the actual recording⁵ of tiny particles hitting the spacecraft as it crosses the plane of the rings, 

 

Let’s go ahead and switch camera over to be zero. 

 

So far, so good. But as Cassini disappears into radio silence behind Saturn, everything rests on the spacecraft firing its engine perfectly⁶ and slowing down.

 

It’s a nail-biting wait at mission control. Go ahead and switch on.

 

As Cassini emerges proudly from Saturn’s shadow, it turns to cross the ring plane again.

 

Through any potential inhabitants of the Saturnian system, your eyes are not deceiving you tonight, there’s a 30 second moon racing⁷ your night skies, and that’s the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft.

1 Saturn   

n.农神，土星

参考例句：

• Astronomers used to ask why only Saturn has rings.天文学家们过去一直感到奇怪，为什么只有土星有光环。
• These comparisons suggested that Saturn is made of lighter materials.这些比较告诉我们，土星由较轻的物质构成。

2 leisurely   

adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的

参考例句：

• We walked in a leisurely manner,looking in all the windows.我们慢悠悠地走着，看遍所有的橱窗。
• He had a leisurely breakfast and drove cheerfully to work.他从容的吃了早餐，高兴的开车去工作。

3 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。

4 antenna   

n.触角，触须；天线

参考例句：

• The workman fixed the antenna to the roof of the house.工人把天线固定在房顶上。
• In our village, there is an antenna on every roof for receiving TV signals.在我们村里，每家房顶上都有天线接收电视信号。

5 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

6 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

7 racing   

n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的

参考例句：

• I was watching the racing on television last night.昨晚我在电视上看赛马。
• The two racing drivers fenced for a chance to gain the lead.两个赛车手伺机竞相领先。