高二英语课文14

高二课文：Unit 14 Satellites
Jane and Zhou Lan are in London. They are wondering what to do today..
珍妮和周兰在伦敦。她们正在想今天该做什么才好。

JANE: What shall we do today? The weather's not very good.
珍妮: 我们今天该做什么呢？天气很不好。

ZHOU LAN: I feel like going to a museum. It's too wet to go walking around London.
周兰: 我想去博物馆。我们又不能绕着伦敦到处走走，地太湿了。

JANE: I agree. Which museum would you like to visit?
珍妮: 我同意。你想参观哪个博物馆呢？

ZHOU LAN: What about the Natural History Museum? So far as I know, it's free.
周兰: 去自然历史博物馆怎么样？据我所知，那儿是免费的。

JANE: No, not any more. It used to be free but now you have to pay to get in.
珍妮: 不，不再免费了。过去是免费，可现在得付钱才能进去呢。

ZHOU LAN: What about you? What do you feel like doing?
周兰: 你看怎么办？你想干什么呢？

JANE: Personally, I'd rather go to the Science Museum. They've got a special exhibition on this month. It's all about space and satellites.
珍妮: 就我个人而言，我倒想去科技馆。这个月他们举办特别的展览，全是有关宇宙和卫星的。

ZHOU LAN: I'd like to see that too. I'm planning to do a special study of satellites next term. Maybe I could find out some useful information.
周兰: 我也想去看看。我计划下学期就卫星的问题做些特别的研究。在那儿我也许会发现一些有用的资料呢。

JANE: Fine! Why don't you get your things ready? I'll tell my mother what we've decided to do.
珍妮: 好极了！干吗还不把东西准备好？我要告诉我妈妈我们的决定。

The moon travels round the earth once every month. It is a natural satellite of the earth. A satellite is an object, either natural or manmade, which travels in an orbit round another object in space.
月亮每个月绕地球运行一周。它是地球的天然卫星。卫星是一种物体，或是天然的，或是人造的，它围绕太空中另一物体的轨道而运行。

Man-made satellites are carried up into space by rockets. To escape the pull of the earth, a rocket must reach a speed of 28,440 km/h. If the rocket does not reach this speed, it will fall back to the earth.
人造卫星由火箭送入太空。为了摆脱地球的引力，火箭必须达到每小时28，440公里的速度。如果火箭达不到这个速度，它就会落回到地球上来。

A satellite is one of the most expensive pieces of scientific equipment in the world. First, it must be very light, the lighter the better, because it has to be sent up into space by a rocket. Second, it usually contains very expensive cameras. It has equipment for making electricity from sunshine, using very broad sun panels. These are folded up inside the satellite.
卫星是世界

上科学设备中最为昂贵的一种。首先，它必须很轻，越轻越好，因为卫星必须用火箭把它送入太空。其次，它通常装有非常昂贵的摄像机。它有太阳能发电设备，用的是很宽大的太阳能电池帆板，这些帆板都折叠在卫星内部。

Once the satellite goes into its orbit round the earth, the panels are unfolded in order to catch the sunshine. There is a rocket motor on the satellite by which the direction of the satellite can be changed if necessary.
一旦卫星进入地球轨道，帆板就打开来吸收阳光。在卫星上还有一个火箭马达，必要时可以用它来改变卫星的方向。

Satellites for broadcasting are used to send radio and TV programs from one part of the world to another. Most of these satellites do not change their positions. They remain above the same place on the earth and travel round it in a very high circle. In this way, they are able to connect broadcasting stations which are a long distance from each other. Signals travel at the speed of light. They reach the satellite and return to the earth in less than a second.
广播卫星是用来把无线电和电视节目从世界的某一部分播送到另一部分。这类卫星大多数是不改变其位置的。它们保持在地面上同一位置的上方，在高空中环绕地球运行。这样，它们就可以把相距遥远的广播电台联系起来。信号以光速传播。从地面发出的信号到达卫星后再传回地面，所需的时间不到一秒钟。

Weather satellites send information and photos of weather conditions to weather stations on the earth. It is therefore possible to say not only what the weather is like at present, but also what is likely to happen in the next day or two. This is very useful when there is a hurricane in an area, as it is possible to see the path of the hurricane in the satellite pictures. Ships and planes can be warned so that they can keep out of the path of the hurricane.
气象卫星给地球上的气象台传送天气情况的信息和图象。因此，它不仅可以报告当前的天气情况，而且可以预报未来一两天内天气可能会发生的情况。在某个地区有飓风时，这就非常有用了，因为在卫星云图上可以看到飓风经过的路线。于是可以给船只和飞机发出警报，使它们能够避开飓风经过的路线。

In 1964 a group of 17 countries set up an organization for sending telephone signals by satellite. Their first satellite was called Early Bird. Today there are more than 100 nations in this group and dozens of satellites have been put into space. You can telephone somebody on the other side of the world with the help of a satellite. Satellites are used more and more to take photos of the earth and to produce maps. Special cameras can produce pictures showing where different metals can be found. They can tell the difference between healthy plants

and plants that are diseased. This is useful for scientists who work in forests and in agriculture.
1964年，17国集团成立了一个通过卫星传送电话信号的组织。它们的第一颗卫星叫做"晨鸟"号。目前这个集团有一百多个国家，送入太空的卫星已有几十颗了。你可以通过卫星同地球上另一边的人通电话。卫星越来越多地被用来拍摄地球的照片，并绘制成地图。特制的摄像机可以拍摄照片，表明哪些地方能够找到不同的金属（矿）。它们还可以识别健康植物和患病植物之间的差异。这对于那些从事森林和农业研究的科学家来说是非常有用的。

There are many research stations on the earth in which outer space is studied. The problem with looking into space from the earth is that there is a lot of dust in the earth's air. The dusty air makes it difficult to get a clear picture of space. With space satellites there are no such problems. They are being used more and more to collect information about space, to carry out experiments and to send the information back to research centers on the earth.
地球上有许多研究外层空间的研究站。从地球上观察太空存在一个问题，这就是地球的大气中有着大量的尘埃，因而难以获取太空的清晰图象。由于有了太空卫星，这类问题就不复存在了。日前正越来越多地利用太空卫星来收集有关太空的信息，进行实验，并将信息发回地球上的研究中心。