Who Was Neil Armstrong - 尼尔·阿姆斯特朗 Chapter 6 Astronaut Neil Armstrong

In 1962, NASA decided¹ to bring more astronauts into the space program. NASA especially wanted test pilots and men with engineering backgrounds.
Neil Armstrong met all the qualifications. He was less than thirty-five years old, in perfect health, and shorter than six feet tall. (Taller men would be too cramped² inside a small space capsule.) In addition, Neil was a highly skilled pilot and an engineer who knew all about the mechanics³ of planes and flight. Last of all, he was a man. Women were not accepted into the U.S. astronaut program until 1978. (The U.S.S.R. sent a woman cosmonaut into space in 1963.)
Neil went back and forth⁴ about whether to apply. As a test pilot, he was used to flying planes all by himself, being in charge, and making all the decisions during a flight. As an astronaut, he would be inside a spacecraft guided mainly by automatic controls. The top engineers at the NASA command center in Houston would be in charge of every flight. But the dream of reaching the moon was a powerful one. And perhaps Neil thought a new challenge would help take his mind off the loss of his daughter. In the end, he sent in his application. It actually arrived a week after the deadline, but evidently that didn’t matter to NASA. On September 17, 1962, nine men were chosen.
Neil Armstrong was one of them. And suddenly he—and the rest of his family—was famous!
The Armstrongs moved to El Lago, Texas, near the NASA space center in Houston. They had a new house that looked exactly like all the other houses in the neighborhood. It had a swimming pool in the backyard and—best of all—air-conditioning! Summers in Texas would have been very unpleasant without it. All their neighbors were in the space program, too. There were lots of backyard barbecues with the other astronaut families. After Muffie’s recent death, it was a much happier time for Neil, Jan, and their sons. (Mark Stephen Armstrong was born in the spring of 1963.)
The nine new astronauts went through a long and thorough⁵ training period. NASA had to accomplish many tasks in space before being ready to send men to the moon.
On the face of it, some of the training exercises seemed to have nothing to do with space flight. For example, soon after becoming an astronaut, Neil was sent to the steamy jungle of Panama. Why?
The reason was simple. On returning from the moon, a spacecraft might crash anywhere on Earth—a mountaintop, the desert, or the jungle. Astronauts had to be able to survive until rescued. So Neil and a fellow astronaut spent several days in the rain forest in a small tent with just a survival⁶ kit⁷. They ate whatever they could find—even if that meant bugs⁸, roots, and worms!
Being an astronaut became Neil’s life. It was much more than a job. According to Jan, the Apollo mission “consumed” her husband. And the training hardly ever let up—lasting twelve or more hours a day.
In a spacecraft, there is no gravity. Everything is weightless and floats unless it is anchored down. NASA had a special plane in which Neil and the eight others could experience weightlessness for short periods of time. Its nickname⁹ was the “Vomit Comet¹⁰.” It would dive down from a high altitude, then climb up steeply for another dive. It was like being on a roller coaster. At the very top of each climb, the astronauts would experience weightlessness for about thirty seconds.
Due to his demanding job, Neil spent less time at home. One night he arrived home very late. Neil hadn’t been asleep for very long when both he and Jan woke up. The house was hot, very hot. And it wasn’t because the air-conditioning was broken. The Armstrongs’ house was on fire!
Ed White, an astronaut who lived next door, jumped over the fence between the two houses. He got out the hoses¹¹ even before the fire engines arrived. No one was hurt, but the Armstrongs’ house had to be rebuilt. Many photographs of little Muffie were lost in the fire as well.
Neil also had to spend a lot of time away from home giving speeches around the country. It was his least favorite part of the job. But people needed to understand the importance of the space program and why such vast amounts of money were needed for it. And of course people loved meeting the astronauts. They were young, bright, attractive men. They put a human face on the space program.

1 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。

2 cramped   

a.狭窄的

参考例句：

• The house was terribly small and cramped, but the agent described it as a bijou residence. 房子十分狭小拥挤，但经纪人却把它说成是小巧别致的住宅。
• working in cramped conditions 在拥挤的环境里工作

3 mechanics   

n.力学，机械学；结构

参考例句：

• The mechanics of fixing a car are very long.修理一部汽车的过程很长。
• The mechanics of the machine are very old.这台机器的机件非常老。

4 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

5 thorough   

adj. 彻底的，完全的，精心的

参考例句：

• He made a very thorough analysis on the situation.他对形势的分析很透彻。
• The committee reported its findings after a thorough investigation.委员会在彻底调查以后报告了调查结果。

6 survival   

n.留住生命，生存，残存，幸存者

参考例句：

• The doctor told my wife I had a fifty-fifty chance of survival.医生告诉我的妻子，说我活下去的可能性只有50%。
• The old man was a survival of a past age.这位老人是上一代的遗老。

7 kit   

n.用具包，成套工具；随身携带物

参考例句：

• The kit consisted of about twenty cosmetic items.整套工具包括大约20种化妆用品。
• The captain wants to inspect your kit.船长想检查你的行装。

8 bugs   

adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误

参考例句：

• All programs have bugs and need endless refinement. 所有的程序都有漏洞，都需要不断改进。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The sacks of rice were swarming with bugs. 一袋袋的米里长满了虫子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 nickname   

n.绰号，昵称；v.给...取绰号，叫错名字

参考例句：

• She called me by my nickname.她叫我的外号。
• Why do you fasten such a nickname on her?你为什么给她取这样一个绰号？

10 comet   

n.慧星

参考例句：

• Recently they have discovered a comet.最近他们发现了一颗彗星。
• Halley's Comet is going to come back in 2061.哈雷彗星将于2061年回归。

11 hoses   

n.连裤袜( hose的名词复数 )；长统袜；软管；胶管

参考例句：

• The fireman trained their hoses on the burning building. 消防队员把水龙带对准燃烧的建筑物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Are there any fire hoses in the building? 在这幢大楼里有消防水管吗？ 来自《简明英汉词典》