英语听力精选进阶版 7213

Background: 在人类探索宇宙奥秘的同时，大量的太空垃圾也被遗弃在地球轨道上。这些人造太空物体对宇航员造成了生命危害，同时也容易破坏卫星的运作。一位意大利航天局的研究人员建议发射一系列自动清扫机来清理这些太空垃圾。

After a half century of successes in space, low-Earth orbit has become a very messy place.

More than 17,000 pieces of space junk bigger than a hand's breadth are floating around up there; the largest of them weighs nearly ten tonnes.

The debris¹ poses a growing risk to communication satellites and occasionally manned space missions.

As time goes on catastrophic collisions become more likely, which would create even more debris.

Marco Castronuovo has a simple plan to solve the problem, starting with the largest, heaviest threats.

He's proposed sending up a robotic mission that will skip between chunks² of junk, affixing³ a little rocket to each one that will drive them out of orbit.

The debris would then burn up harmlessly in the atmosphere over an ocean.

Each orbital housekeeper⁴ could clean up five objects a year, and would be sent on a seven-year mission.

It's a slow but straightforward⁵ solution to a problem that could otherwise leave low-Earth orbit completely unusable.

Glossary⁶ 词汇表

messy 乱七八糟的 

space junk 太空垃圾 

a hand's breadth 一手宽 

a manned space mission 载人航天计划 

a threat 危险 

to skip 跳越 

harmlessly 无害的 

an orbital housekeeper 轨道管家 

a straightforward solution 简明易懂的解决方案 

unusable 无法使用

Questions:

1. How will the proposed device work? 

It would attach a little rocket to a piece of junk and make it leave the Earth's orbit and burn up in the atmosphere.

2. Which would be the first items to be targeted? 

The largest and heaviest ones.

3. How many objects can the proposed device remove from space? 

Up to five objects a year.

4. True or false? Marco Castronuovo’s solution was described as simple and speedy.

False. It was described as simple and straightforward but slow.

1 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。

2 chunks   

厚厚的一块( chunk的名词复数 )； （某物）相当大的数量或部分

参考例句：

• a tin of pineapple chunks 一罐菠萝块
• Those chunks of meat are rather large—could you chop them up a bIt'smaller? 这些肉块相当大，还能再切小一点吗？

3 affixing   

v.附加( affix的现在分词 )；粘贴；加以；盖（印章）

参考例句：

• Formally approves a document by affixing a signature. 以签名的形式正式批准文件。 来自互联网
• Forfixing, insulating, shock affixing parts or screws of many items such as appliances, stereos, and eyeglasses. 电器、音响响、光学学、电脑等的零件、螺丝固定绝缘、防震与接著。 来自互联网

4 housekeeper   

n.管理家务的主妇，女管家

参考例句：

• A spotless stove told us that his mother is a diligent housekeeper.炉子清洁无瑕就表明他母亲是个勤劳的主妇。
• She is an economical housekeeper and feeds her family cheaply.她节约持家，一家人吃得很省。

5 straightforward   

adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的

参考例句：

• A straightforward talk is better than a flowery speech.巧言不如直说。
• I must insist on your giving me a straightforward answer.我一定要你给我一个直截了当的回答。

6 glossary   

n.注释词表；术语汇编

参考例句：

• The text is supplemented by an adequate glossary.正文附有一个详细的词汇表。
• For convenience,we have also provided a glossary in an appendix.为了方便，我们在附录中也提供了术语表。