宇航员为太空行走做准备

    CAPE¹ CANAVERAL — Two American astronauts will venture outside the International Space Station Monday to stow a failed coolant pump and extend the outpost's Canadian railway.
    Wearing protective spacesuits in a deadly vacuum(真空) environment, Stephen Bowen and Al Drew will exit the U.S. Quest airlock at 11:18 a.m.
    The spacewalk（太空漫步） will be the 154th performed since the first two station building blocks were linked in late 1998.
    A late substitute for original lead spacewalker Tim Kopra, Bowen only had a month to train for the dangerous work.
    "Steve brings a wealth of (spacewalking) experience," NASA flight director David Korth said Sunday. "He's a very seasoned shuttle astronaut, and he picked up quickly in (training) runs, coming up to speed on the path that we have."Kopra was injured in a mid-January bicycle accident. Bowen, who flew aboard Atlantis last May, is a veteran of five spacewalks and is the first U.S. astronaut to fly consecutive² missions.
    PHOTO GALLERY: Discovery's final mission"He'll be just fine, and we have absolutely every confidence that we'll knock out all these tasks," Korth said.
    Drew will be making his first spacewalk.
    Their tasks include:
    — Rigging up an electrical extension cable between the U.S. Unity³ module⁴ and the Quest airlock.
    The cable routes power to airlock heaters. Adding an extension will make future maintenance work easier once Discovery's prime payload — a permanent stowage unit — is put in place on Unity's Earth-facing port.
    — Moving a refrigerator-sized ammonia pump to an external stowage platform. The pump failed last August.
    — Installing a new section of track for the Canadian rail car system that runs atop the station's 335-foot-long central truss and is used for moving cargo⁵.
    — Canting a video camera stanchion to provide clearance⁶ from an external stowage platform installed Saturday.
    Still to come: a decision on a proposal to do a fly-around to document the first and only time a U.S. shuttle, a Russian Soyuz space taxi and cargo carriers from Russian, Japan and Europe all are docked at the complex.
    Landing at Kennedy Space Center is set for March 7.（本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑）

1 cape   

n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风

参考例句：

• I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
• She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。

2 consecutive   

adj.连续的，联贯的，始终一贯的

参考例句：

• It has rained for four consecutive days.已连续下了四天雨。
• The policy of our Party is consecutive.我党的政策始终如一。

3 unity   

n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调

参考例句：

• When we speak of unity,we do not mean unprincipled peace.所谓团结，并非一团和气。
• We must strengthen our unity in the face of powerful enemies.大敌当前，我们必须加强团结。

4 module   

n.组件，模块，模件；(航天器的)舱

参考例句：

• The centre module displays traffic guidance information.中央模块显示交通引导信息。
• Two large tanks in the service module held liquid oxygen.服务舱的两个大气瓶中装有液态氧。

5 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。

6 clearance   

n.净空；许可(证)；清算；清除，清理

参考例句：

• There was a clearance of only ten centimetres between the two walls.两堵墙之间只有十厘米的空隙。
• The ship sailed as soon as it got clearance. 那艘船一办好离港手续立刻启航了。