Virgin Galactic reports high interestin its space flights維珍銀河公司太空飛行獲大量關(guān)注

柳勁雄

你是否也想過(guò)坐航天飛機(jī)去太空一游呢？首次成功試飛太空以來(lái)，維珍銀河公司已收到近8 000個(gè)對(duì)遨游太空感興趣的在線預(yù)訂。該公司表示，這已接近可商業(yè)運(yùn)營(yíng)數(shù)量，并準(zhǔn)備重新開(kāi)放機(jī)票銷(xiāo)售。

1. reservation /？謣rez？藜？謖ve？奘？蘩n/ n. 預(yù)訂;預(yù)約

2. registrant /？謖red？廾？奘str？藜nt/ n. 登記者

The spaceflight company Virgin Galactic has received nearly 8，000 online reservations of interest since its first successful test flight 14 months ago. The company reported this week on the number of people reserving seats for future space flights as it nears commercial operation and prepares to reopen ticket sales. Virgin Galactic already had more than 600 confirmed reservations， from people in 60 countries， before the December 2018 test flight. It then delayed ticket sales.

On Wednesday the company announced that it would begin a process called “One Small Step”. It is for those online registrants who are serious about becoming passenger astronauts. They are now required to pay $1，000 toward the cost of their flights. Virgin Galactic says they will get the money back if they change their minds. Confirming a spaceflight reservation will be a process called “One Giant Leap” and those are the words American astronaut Neil Armstrong said when he became the first person to set foot on the Moon in 1969.

Virgin Galactic did not say when the new set of seats would be released. The company set the cost of the first set of seats at $250，000 each. Virgin Galactic spent years developing and testing its space flight technology at Mojave Air & Space Port in Mojave， California. Now it is moving toward starting actual operations at Spaceport America in southern New Mexico. A start date has yet to be set， however. Virgin Galactic is offering flights just outside Earth？蒺s atmosphere， as high as 80.5 kilometers up in space. There， passengers will see large parts of the planet？蒺s surface and experience a few minutes of weightlessness before the spacecraft returns to Earth.

The current number of online registrations is twice more than the number Virgin Galactic last reported in September 2019.

Stephen Attenborough is the company？蒺s commercial director. He said in a statement that the increasing demand for personal spaceflight was a good sign. Virgin Galactic？蒺s six？鄄passenger spacecraft is called SpaceShipTwo. A carrier aircraft carries it high into the atmosphere and releases it before its rocket engine fires.3

1. What do we know about Virgin Galactic from the first paragraph？

A. Its first test flight was in January 2019.

B. It had more than one hundred confirmed reservations.

C. It delayed ticket sales because of technical problems.

D. It plans to sell tickets for space flights in future.

2. How much will you probably pay if you reserve a seat for the space flight？

A. $900.? B. $1，000.? C. $250，000. D. $251，000.

3. What？蒺s Stephen Attenborough？蒺s attitude towards commercial spaceflight？

A. Positive. B. Negative.? C. Neutral. D. Unclear.

Difficult sentence

Confirming a spaceflight reservation will be a process called “One Giant Leap” and those are the words American astronaut Neil Armstrong said when he became the first person to set foot on the Moon in 1969.

【翻譯】

【點(diǎn)石成金】本句是一個(gè)并列復(fù)合句。Confirming a spaceflight reservation是動(dòng)名詞短語(yǔ)作主語(yǔ)，and連接兩個(gè)并列句，American astronaut Neil Armstrong said是定語(yǔ)從句，修飾先行詞words，when引導(dǎo)時(shí)間狀語(yǔ)從句。