VOA标准英语2015--保持华盛顿领空安全是艰巨的任务

Keeping Washington DC Airspace Safe Is Tall Order 保持华盛顿领空安全是艰巨的任务

WASHINGTON—

Being the home of all three branches of the U.S. federal government makes Washington, D.C., the prime target for those who want to make their messages and ideas heard. Unfortunately, many of them choose to deliver them in unorthodox ways, including from the air, as a recent incident clearly showed involving a gyrocopter landing on the Capitol’s West Lawn.

When Florida Postal¹ Service worker Doug Hughes landed his homemade gyrocopter on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol, in a daring bid to deliver a political message to the lawmakers, the security services were taken by surprise.

He was quickly surrounded and taken away by police, his aircraft was checked for explosives, and now he faces several years of prison.

But his stunt²  highlighted once more that the airspace around most of the public buildings is easily penetrated³ by drones and light piloted aircraft, too small and flying too low to be safely prevented from reaching their goals.

Difficult detection

John Hansman a professor of Aeronautics⁴ and Astronautics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said small, flying vehicles are not easy to detect and stop.

“If you have a very small target, like a gyrocopter, which doesn't have a very large radar⁵ cross-section, so it's not reflecting much energy back, and it's close to the ground, you might get some signal coming there, but you may actually think it's a building or a car moving on the ground, not a helicopter," he said.

Hansman noted⁶ that heavy traffic in downtown Washington makes it even more difficult.

“If you have a complex environment like an area around Washington where you have lots of other vehicles on the ground, you have vehicles in the air, and you have something very small like this, it's actually not that difficult for it to slip through the protection,” said Hansman.

Inadequate⁷ systems

The chairman of the American Leadership and Policy Foundation, David Stuckenberg, is a former military pilot who writes about the airspace security. Speaking via Skype, he said the present safety systems are inadequate.

“We need to understand that we've been lucky and as technology increases and as drones proliferate⁸ people will increasingly look at these as weapons of opportunity or technologies that can be adapted for ill intent,” he said.

Stuckenberg said a lot more needs to be done before such systems are in place, such as conducting thorough analyses and bringing new regulations.

1 postal   

adj.邮政的，邮局的

参考例句：

• A postal network now covers the whole country.邮路遍及全国。
• Remember to use postal code.勿忘使用邮政编码。

2 stunt   

n.惊人表演，绝技，特技；vt.阻碍...发育，妨碍...生长

参考例句：

• Lack of the right food may stunt growth.缺乏适当的食物会阻碍发育。
• Right up there is where the big stunt is taking place.那边将会有惊人的表演。

3 penetrated   

adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式

参考例句：

• The knife had penetrated his chest. 刀子刺入了他的胸膛。
• They penetrated into territory where no man had ever gone before. 他们已进入先前没人去过的地区。

4 aeronautics   

n.航空术，航空学

参考例句：

• National Aeronautics and Space undertakings have made great progress.国家的航空航天事业有了很大的发展。
• He devoted every spare moment to aeronautics.他把他所有多余的时间用在航空学上。

5 radar   

n.雷达，无线电探测器

参考例句：

• They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
• Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。

6 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

7 inadequate   

adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的

参考例句：

• The supply is inadequate to meet the demand.供不应求。
• She was inadequate to the demands that were made on her.她还无力满足对她提出的各项要求。

8 proliferate   

vi.激增，(迅速)繁殖，增生

参考例句：

• We must not proliferate nuclear arms.我们决不能扩散核武器。
• Rabbits proliferate when they have plenty of food.兔子有充足的食物就会繁衍得很快。