(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. On a cold October day in nineteen fifty-seven, the Soviet Union launched a small satellite into orbit around the Earth. Radio Moscow made the announcement. "The first artificial Earth satellite in the world has now been created. This first satellite was today successfully launched in the USSR." The world's first satellite was called Sputnik 1. Sputnik was an important propaganda victory for the Soviets in the Cold War with the United States. Many people believed the nation that controlled space could win any war. And the Soviet Union had reached outer space first. The technology that launched Sputnik probably began in the late nineteenth century. A Russian teacher of that time, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, decided that a rocket engine could provide power for a space vehicle.
In the early nineteen hundreds, another teacher -- American Robert Goddard -- tested the idea. He experimented with small rockets to see how high and how far they could travel. In nineteen twenty-three, a Romanian student in Germany, Hermann Oberth, showed how a spaceship might be built and launched to other planets. Rocket technology improved during World War Two. It was used to produce flying bombs. Thousands of people in Britain and Belgium died as a result of V-1 and V-2 rocket attacks. The rockets were launched from Germany. The larger V-2 rocket had the ability to hit the United States. After the war, it became clear that the United States and the Soviet Union -- allies in wartime -- would become enemies in peacetime. So, both countries employed German scientists to help them win the race to space. The Soviets took the first step by creating Sputnik. This satellite was about the size of a basketball. It got its power from a rocket. It orbited Earth for three months. The Soviets launched a dog named Laika on Sputnik 2 in November 1957. She survived just hours. Within weeks, the Soviets launched another satellite into Earth orbit, Sputnik 2. It was much bigger and heavier than Sputnik 1. It also carried a passenger: a dog named Laika. Laika orbited Earth for seven days (but died after several hours.)
The United States joined the space race about three months later. It launched a satellite from Cape Canaveral, in the southeastern state of Florida. This satellite was called Explorer 1. It weighed about fourteen kilograms. Explorer One went into a higher orbit than either Sputnik. And its instruments made an important discovery. They found an area of radiation about nine hundred-sixty kilometers above Earth. The next major space victory belonged to the Soviets. They sent the first man into space. In April nineteen sixty-one, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was launched in the vehicle known as Vostok. He remained in space for less than two hours. He landed safely by parachute near a village in Russia. Less than a month later, the United States sent its first astronaut into space. He was Alan Shepard. Shepard remained in space only about fifteen minutes. He did not go into Earth orbit. That flight came in February, nineteen sixty-two, with John Glenn. By nineteen sixty-five, the United States and the Soviet Union were experimenting to see if humans could survive outside a spacecraft. In March, Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first person to do so. A strong tether connected Leonov to the spacecraft. The tether gave him oxygen to breathe. And it permitted him to float freely at the other end. After about ten minutes, Leonov had to return to the spacecraft. He said he regretted the decision. He was having such a good time!
A little more than two months later, an American would walk outside his spacecraft. Astronaut Edward White had a kind of rocket gun. This gave him some control of his movements in space. Like Leonov, White was sorry when he had to return to his spacecraft. Later that year, nineteen sixty-five, the United States tried to have one spacecraft get very close to another spacecraft while in orbit. This was the first step in getting spacecraft to link, or dock, together. Docking would be necessary to land men on the moon. The plan called for a Gemini spacecraft carrying two astronauts to get close to an unmanned satellite. The attempt failed. The target satellite exploded as it separated from its main rocket. America's space agency decided to move forward. It would launch the next in its Gemini series. Then someone had an idea: why not launch both Geminis. The second one could chase the first one, instead of a satellite. Again, things did not go as planned. It took two tries to launch the second Gemini. By that time, the first one had been in orbit about eleven days. Time was running out. The astronauts on the second Gemini moved their spacecraft into higher orbits. They got closer and closer to the Gemini ahead of them. They needed to get within six hundred meters to be considered successful.
After all the problems on the ground, the events in space went smoothly. The two spacecraft got within one-third of a meter of each other. The astronauts had made the operation seem easy. In January nineteen fifty-nine, the Soviets launched a series of unmanned Luna rockets. The third of these flights took pictures of the far side of the moon. This was the side no one on Earth had ever seen. The United States planned to explore the moon with its unmanned Ranger spacecraft. There were a number of failures before Ranger 7 took pictures of the moon. These pictures were made from a distance. The world did not get pictures from the surface of the moon until the Soviet Luna 9 landed there in February, nineteen sixty-six. For the next few years, both the United States and Soviet Union continued their exploration of the moon. Yet the question remained: which one would be the first to put a man there. In December, nineteen sixty-eight, the United States launched Apollo 8 with three astronauts. The flight proved that a spacecraft could orbit the moon and return to Earth safely.
The Apollo 9 spacecraft had two vehicles. One was the command module. It could orbit the moon, but could not land on it. The other was the Lunar module. On a flight to the moon, it would separate from the command module and land on the moon's surface. Apollo 10 astronauts unlinked the Lunar module and flew it close to the moon's surface. After those flights, everything was ready. "Twelve ... eleven ... ten ... nine ... ignition sequence start ... six ... five ... four ... three ... two ... one ... zero. All engines running. Liftoff. We have a liftoff. Thirty-two minutes past the hour, liftoff of Apollo 11." On July sixteenth, nineteen sixty-nine, three American astronauts lifted off in Apollo 11. On the twentieth, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin entered the Lunar module, called the Eagle. Michael Collins remained in the command module, the Columbia. The two vehicles separated. It was a dangerous time. The Eagle could crash. Or it could fall over after it landed. That meant the astronauts would die on the moon. Millions of people watched on television or listened on the radio. They waited for Armstrong's message. "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." The Eagle has landed. Then they waited again. It took the astronauts more than three hours to complete the preparations needed to leave the Lunar module. Finally, the door opened. Neil Armstrong climbed down first. He put one foot on the moon. Then, the other foot. And then came his words, from so far away: "That's one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind." That's one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind. "Man on the Moon. Oh, boy! Whew, boy! " "OK, were gonna be busy for a minute."
CBS Television newsman Walter Cronkite shared the excitement that he and so many people felt as man first walked on the surface of the moon. Years later, Cronkite would remember the historical significance (importance) of that moment in nineteen sixty-nine. "It's hard, I think, to imagine our emotions at the moment. It really was something that had to grip you. It was as if you could have stood at the dock and waved goodbye to Columbus. You knew darn good and well that this was the real history in the making." Armstrong walked around. Soon, Aldrin joined him. "They're setting up the flag now." The two men placed an American flag on the surface of the moon. They also collected moon rocks and soil. When it was time to leave, they returned to the Eagle and guided it safely away. They reunited with the Columbia and headed for home. The United States had won the race to the moon. "The thing that made this one particularly gripping was that sense of history -- that, if this was successful, this was a date that was going to be in all the history books, for time evermore. I think we sensed that at the time, sitting there at the Cape [Canaveral], watching that great beast get on its way, that this was it."
重点解析
1.as a result of 由于；由于……的结果
As a result of this conflict he lost both his home and his means of livelihood.
这场冲突使他同时失去了住所和生计来源。
2.belong to 归于；归属
Earls, princes, and kings belong to the nobility.
伯爵、亲王和国王属于贵族。
3.call for 呼吁；主张
Your plan will call for a lot of money.
你的计划需要许多钱。
4.run out 用完；耗尽
By now the plane was running out of fuel.
现在，这架飞机的燃料快用完了。
参考译文
欢迎收听VOA慢速英语之建国史话节目，我是史蒂夫·恩伯。1957年10月的一个寒冷的日子，苏联发射一颗小型卫星进入地球轨道。莫斯科广播电台宣布了这一消息。“世界上第一颗人造地球卫星已经诞生。今天，第一颗卫星在苏联成功发射。”世界上第一颗人造卫星被称为“史普尼克一号”，史普尼克一号是苏联在对美冷战过程中，在宣传方面取得的胜利。许多人相信，控制太空的国家能在任何战争中获胜，苏联首先到达了外层空间。发射人造卫星的技术始于19世纪末。当时，俄罗斯教师康斯坦丁·齐奥科夫斯基认为，火箭发动机能为太空飞行器提供动力。
在19世纪初，另一位教师美国人罗伯特·戈达德测试了这个想法。他用小火箭进行试验，看看它们飞行的高度和距离。1923年，德国的一名罗马尼亚学生赫尔曼奥伯思，展示了如何建造一艘宇宙飞船，并把它发射到其他行星。二战期间，火箭技术得到了改进，它被用来制造飞行炸弹。英国和比利时数千人死于V-1和V-2火箭袭击，火箭是从德国发射的，更大的V-2火箭能够击中美国。很显然，美国和苏联这对战时的盟友，在战后的和平时期将成为敌人。因此，两国都雇佣了德国科学家，帮助他们赢得太空竞赛。苏联迈出了创造人造卫星的第一步。这颗卫星大约有篮球那么大，其动力来自火箭，绕地球运行三个月。1957年11月，苏联在发射的人造卫星史普尼克二号上，携带了一只叫莱卡的狗。她活了数小时。几周内，苏联又发射了一颗人造卫星“史普尼克二号”，进入地球轨道。它比史普尼克一号体积更大，重量也更重，上面还载有一名乘客：一只名叫莱卡的狗。莱卡绕地球行驶了七天（但几个小时后就死了。）
大约三个月后，美国加入了太空竞赛。美国从佛罗里达州东南部的卡纳维拉尔角发射了一颗卫星，名为探险者1号，约重14公斤。探险者一号进入了比两颗史普尼克人造卫星都高的轨道，卫星上的仪器也获得了重要的发现。他们在距离地球960公里的地方发现了一个辐射区。下一次太空大胜利属于苏联，他们第一次把人送入太空。1961年4月，宇航员尤里·加加林乘坐名为“沃斯托克”的航天器发射升空。他在太空中呆了不到两个小时，乘降落伞安全降落在俄罗斯的一个村庄附近。不到一个月后，美国将其第一名宇航员送入太空，这个人就是艾伦·谢泼德。谢泼德只在太空停留了大约15分钟，没有进入地球轨道。那次飞行发生于1962年2月，同行者是约翰·格伦。到1965年，美国和苏联都在试验，看看人类是否能在太空船外生存。同年3月，俄罗斯宇航员阿列克谢·列昂诺夫成为第一个这样做的人。利昂诺夫和宇宙飞船之间有一条牢固的系绳相连。这根系绳为他提供呼吸的氧气，还能让他在另一端自由漂浮。大约十分钟后，列昂诺夫不得不返回太空船。他说，他后悔做了这个决定。他当时玩得真开心！
两个多月后，一个美国人会走出他的太空船。宇航员爱德华·怀特有一种火箭枪。这让他对自己在太空中的动作有了一定的控制。怀特和列昂诺夫一样，在不得不返回飞船时也感到遗憾。1965年晚些时候，美国试图让一个航天器在轨道上接近另一个航天器。这是使航天器连接或对接在一起的第一步，人类登月需要进行这种对接。该计划要求一艘搭载两名宇航员的双子座宇宙飞船，接近一颗无人驾驶的卫星。这一尝试失败了，目标卫星与主火箭分离时发生爆炸。美国航天局决定继续进行开发。它将推出下一个双子座系列。后来，有人想出一个办法：为什么不同时发射两个双子座呢。第二个可以追着第一个，而不是一颗卫星。同样地，事情并没有按计划进行。发射第二颗双子星时，进行了两次尝试。那时，第一颗卫星已经在轨道上运行了大约11天。时间所剩无几，双子座二号上的宇航员把飞船移到更高的轨道上。他们离前面的双子座卫星越来越近，他们需要到达600米以内才算是成功。
解决了所有问题后，太空活动进展顺利。这两艘宇宙飞船相距不到三分之一米，宇航员们似乎很轻松地完成了这次任务。1959年1月，苏联发射了一系列无人驾驶的月球火箭。其中的第三次飞行，拍摄到月球的远端。这是人们在地球上从未见过的一面，美国计划用无人驾驶飞船探索月球。在“漫游者七号”拍摄月球之前，所做的尝试曾多次失败，这些照片是从远处拍到的。直到1966年2月，苏联的月球9号登陆月球后，人们才从月球表面获得照片。在接下来的几年里，美国和苏联都继续探索月球。但问题仍然存在：谁会第一个实现人类登陆月球。1968年12月，美国发射了阿波罗8号，上面载有三名宇航员。这次飞行证明了航天器可以绕月球轨道飞行，并能安全返回地球。
阿波罗9号宇宙飞船有两个飞行器。一个是指挥舱，可以绕月球运行，但不能在月球上着陆。另一个是登月舱，在前往月球的飞行中，它将与指挥舱分离，降落到月球表面。阿波罗10号宇航员解开了登月舱的连接，并将其飞近月球表面。这些飞行结束后，一切准备就绪。“12......11......10......9......启动点火顺序......6......5......4......3......2.......1......0。所有发动机开始运转，升空。我们要升空了。1小时32分，阿波罗11号升空。”1969年7月16日，三名美国宇航员乘坐阿波罗11号升空。20日，尼尔·阿姆斯特朗和埃德温·奥尔德林进入名为“鹰”号的登月舱。迈克尔·柯林斯留在哥伦比亚号指挥舱。两架航天器分离了。那是一个危险的时刻，鹰号可能坠毁，或是在它着陆后翻倒。这意味着宇航员会死在月球上。数以百万计的人观看电视或收听收音机，他们等待着阿姆斯特朗的消息。休斯顿，这里是宁静基地，鹰号已经着陆。”鹰号着陆了，然后他们又开始等待。宇航员们花了三个多小时，才完成离开月球舱所需的准备工作。最后，舱门打开了。尼尔·阿姆斯特朗先爬了下来，他把一只脚伸到月球上，然后是另一只脚。随后，从远处传来他说的话语：“这是人类迈出的一小步，却是文明迈出的一大步。”这是人类迈出的一小步，却是文明迈出的一大步。“人类登月，哦！哇，太棒了！”“好吧，我们会很忙的。”
哥伦比亚广播公司电视台新闻记者沃尔特·克朗凯特，分享了人类首次登上月球时的激动心情，他和许多人都有这种感觉。多年后，克朗凯特将会记得1969年那个具有历史意义（重要性）的时刻。“我想，很难想象我们现在的情绪。这真是一件让人感到激动的事情，就好像你站在对接台上，向哥伦比亚号挥手告别。你很清楚，这就是真正的历史。”阿姆斯特朗四处走动。奥尔德林很快加入到他的行列中。“他们现在正在摆放国旗。”这两人在月球表面插上一面美国国旗，他们还收集了月球上的岩石和土壤。要离开时，他们返回鹰号旁边，安全地把它引走。他们与哥伦比亚号会合，然后返程。美国赢得了这场登月竞赛。“这件事特别令人激动之处在于它对历史的理解——如果这次行动成功的话，这一天将永远铭刻在所有教课书中。我想我们当时感觉到，坐在卡纳维拉尔角上，看着那只巨兽上路，就是这样。”
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