VOA慢速英语2012 SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Group Announces New Effort to Solve the Mystery of Amelia Earhart's Final Flight

SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Group Announces New Effort to Solve the Mystery of Amelia Earhart's Final Flight

 

MARIO RITTER: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Mario Ritter.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Today, we tell about efforts to learn what happened to the famous American pilot Amelia Earhart. We also tell about plans to use America’s National Parks as classrooms. And we show how some areas could make electricity from coconut¹ shells.

(MUSIC) 

MARIO RITTER: Almost seventy-five years ago, an airplane carrying a pilot and her navigator disappeared over the southern Pacific Ocean. At the time, Amelia Earhart was attempting to become the first woman to fly around the world. Ever since, people have sought to learn what happened to that plane and its crew.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently honored a group working to solve the mystery. She met at the State Department with members of TIGHAR -- The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery. The meeting took place a few months before the seventy fifth anniversary of Amelia Earhart’s last flight. Her Lockheed Electra plane disappeared on July second, nineteen thirty seven. 

The State Department event celebrated² the announcement of the group’s latest effort to find what became of Amelia Earhart. A private gift of five hundred thousand dollars will help pay for an investigation³ later this year. The group plans to search an area about halfway⁴ between Australia and Hawaii. 

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: A piece of old film may contain a new clue. The film may show part of the landing equipment of an airplane like Earhart’s. The film was taken about three months after her disappearance⁵. And the images were made in the area where her plane might have gone down.

The plane had left from what is now Papua New Guinea. The next goal of the flight was to reach Howland Island -- about two thousand five hundred miles to the east. But Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, never arrived there. The United States government later declared that Amelia Earhart died on July second. Flight experts decided⁶ that the plane had crashed in the sea after using up all its fuel. Searchers found no other explanation.

MARIO RITTER: Some experts say the plane came down near an unoccupied island, then known as Gardner Island. It is now called Nikumaroro and part of the Republic of Kiribati. But objects later found on the island raise the possibility that Earhart and Noonan had survived for a while and then died there.

Rumors⁸ spread widely, and sometimes wildly. One unconfirmed report said Earhart had made the flight while working as a spy for the United States. The story claimed that then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt had asked her to observe Japanese activity in the Pacific. At the time, American relations with Japan were tense. In nineteen forty one, Japan bombed the American military base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack led to America’s involvement in World War Two.

Another report suggested that Japanese forces or civilians⁹ had rescued Earhart and taken her to Japan. This rumor⁷, or similar ones, said she died there. Still another rumor claimed she was freed after the war ended. It claimed that she lived under another name in the United States.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Now, more than seventy years later, the search for what happened to Amelia Earhart continues. Secretary of State Clinton said that even if no answers are found, there is honor in the search. Secretary Clinton remembered that as a child, she herself had asked America’s space agency if she could be an astronaut. The space agency said no, because she was female. At the time, only men could be astronauts.

But in her less than forty years of life, Amelia Earhart opened new pathways, broke records and changed the world. Hillary Clinton praised the example that Earhart sets for others.

HILLARY CLINTON: “NASA may have said I could not go into space. But nobody was there to tell Amelia Earhart that she could not do what she chose to do…Her legacy¹⁰ resonates today for anyone, girls and boys, who dreams of the stars.”

(MUSIC)

MARIO RITTER: The National Park Service will mark its one hundredth anniversary in twenty-sixteen. As it nears its second century, the Park Service plans to increase its educational programs. The plans include transportation support for one hundred thousand students each year to visit national parks to learn about nature and history.

Yellowstone is believed to have been the world's first national park when it was established in eighteen seventy-two. Other students will get a chance to see parks in faraway places through Skype and other online programs.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The Park Service also works with partners to provide education. One of its partners is a nonprofit organization called NatureBridge. NatureBridge says one million young people have taken part in its programs. 

The organization works with students from kindergarten through twelfth grade and uses national parks as its classrooms. It provides science programs at Yosemite National Park and four other locations in California and the state of Washington.

Now, NatureBridge is launching an East Coast center with a four-million-dollar grant from Google. The program opens this month at the Prince William Forest Park in Virginia.

Students stay for three to five days in NatureBridge programs. The activities are aimed at developing their science skills. For example, they learn about different soils and study water quality under a microscope.

Julia Washburn is an associate director of education and interpretation¹¹ for the National Park Service. She says one important service that her agency provides every day is nature interpretation. Park rangers¹² try to make visiting the outdoors more meaningful.

JULIA WASHBURN: "Interpretation is a form of informal education. Essentially¹³, it is a word that we use for the people in parks that explain the park or help orient you. So park rangers are interpreters. They orient you to the place you are in and help you make connections, emotional and intellectual connections, with the place."

(MUSIC)

MARIO RITTER: Seth DeBolt is a plant scientist at the University of Kentucky in the United States. He and other scientists wanted to find a source of fuel that developing countries could use to make electricity.

The United Nations Development Program says more than one billion people do not have electricity. A billion others have an undependable supply.

Mr. DeBolt went to rural Indonesia on a study trip. He found that, everywhere he went, there was little waste in the use of agricultural products. Little waste means there was little that could be used for fuel. Everything the farmers grew was used for something. Even the remains¹⁴ of fruit were fed to chickens. Growing a separate fuel crop would take land away from food crops. This was something Mr. DeBolt did not want to do.

SETH DEBOLT: “The people most at risk with respect to energy poverty, typically they’re the same people who have food insecurity issues as it is. And any change in availability would be most detrimental¹⁵ to that group of people.”

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Mr. DeBolt found two things that were plentiful¹⁶ and would not create competition between food and fuel. Coconut shells and mango pits are generally thrown out. Yet they have a lot of energy stored in them. Mr. DeBolt says the heating value of a coconut shell compares to that of low- to moderate-grade coal. The same is true for the pit of an olive, or the shell of an almond or walnut¹⁷. All someone needs is a way to release the energy.

Mr. DeBolt says a company in India called Husk Power Systems is using small generators¹⁸ to make electricity from rice hulls¹⁹. The devices use a process called gasification: heating plant material in a low-oxygen container releases gases. The gases can be burned in an engine that turns a power-making turbine.

MARIO RITTER: Mr. DeBolt says his team saw the possibilities for coconut and mango power. Their findings were reported in the Proceedings²⁰ of the National Academy of Sciences.

He and other scientists used estimates of coconut and other fruit production and the efficiency of the gas-powered generators. They found these systems could prove as much as thirteen percent of the energy needs of a country like Indonesia.

Other countries producing large amounts of coconuts²¹ or similar fruits also could use this kind of energy. However, Mr. DeBolt warns there are technical concerns, like how to safely deal with the waste by-products of gasification. And there needs to be money to launch these projects. Still, Mr. DeBolt sees a possibility for coconut power to help in reducing rural poverty.

(MUSIC)

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Brianna Blake and Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was June Simms. I’m Shirley Griffith.

MARIO RITTER: And I’m Mario Ritter. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

1 coconut   

n.椰子

参考例句：

• The husk of this coconut is particularly strong.椰子的外壳很明显非常坚固。
• The falling coconut gave him a terrific bang on the head.那只掉下的椰子砰地击中他的脑袋。

2 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

3 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

4 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

5 disappearance   

n.消失，消散，失踪

参考例句：

• He was hard put to it to explain her disappearance.他难以说明她为什么不见了。
• Her disappearance gave rise to the wildest rumours.她失踪一事引起了各种流言蜚语。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 rumor   

n.谣言，谣传，传说

参考例句：

• The rumor has been traced back to a bad man.那谣言经追查是个坏人造的。
• The rumor has taken air.谣言流传开了。

8 rumors   

n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷

参考例句：

• Rumors have it that the school was burned down. 有谣言说学校给烧掉了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Rumors of a revolt were afloat. 叛变的谣言四起。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

10 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

11 interpretation   

n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理

参考例句：

• His statement admits of one interpretation only.他的话只有一种解释。
• Analysis and interpretation is a very personal thing.分析与说明是个很主观的事情。

12 rangers   

护林者( ranger的名词复数 )； 突击队员

参考例句：

• Do you know where the Rangers Stadium is? 你知道Rangers体育场在哪吗？ 来自超越目标英语 第3册
• Now I'm a Rangers' fan, so I like to be near the stadium. 现在我是Rangers的爱好者，所以我想离体育场近一点。 来自超越目标英语 第3册

13 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

14 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。

15 detrimental   

adj.损害的，造成伤害的

参考例句：

• We know that heat treatment is detrimental to milk.我们知道加热对牛奶是不利的。
• He wouldn't accept that smoking was detrimental to health.他不相信吸烟有害健康。

16 plentiful   

adj.富裕的，丰富的

参考例句：

• Their family has a plentiful harvest this year.他们家今年又丰收了。
• Rainfall is plentiful in the area.这个地区雨量充足。

17 walnut   

n.胡桃，胡桃木，胡桃色，茶色

参考例句：

• Walnut is a local specialty here.核桃是此地的土特产。
• The stool comes in several sizes in walnut or mahogany.凳子有几种尺寸，材质分胡桃木和红木两种。

18 generators   

n.发电机，发生器( generator的名词复数 )；电力公司

参考例句：

• The factory's emergency generators were used during the power cut. 工厂应急发电机在停电期间用上了。
• Power can be fed from wind generators into the electricity grid system. 电力可以从风力发电机流入输电网。 来自《简明英汉词典》

19 hulls   

船体( hull的名词复数 )； 船身； 外壳； 豆荚

参考例句：

• Hulls may be removed by aspiration on screens. 脱下的种皮，可由筛子上的气吸装置吸除。
• When their object is attained they fall off like empty hulls from the kernel. 当他们的目的达到以后，他们便凋谢零落，就象脱却果实的空壳一样。

20 proceedings   

n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
• to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼

21 coconuts   

n.椰子( coconut的名词复数 )；椰肉，椰果

参考例句：

• We found a bountiful supply of coconuts on the island. 我们发现岛上有充足的椰子供应。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Coconuts provide "meat", drink, oil, soap and fiber for fishing line. 椰子提供“肉类”，饮料、油脂、肥皂和做钓（鱼）丝的纤维。 来自百科语句