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1、 Lesson 29 The hovercraft气垫船听录音，然后答复以下问题。What is a hovercraft riding on when it is in motion? Many strange new means of transport have been developed in our century, the strangest of them being perhaps the hovercraft. In 1953, a former electronics engineer in his fifties, Christopher Cockerell, who
2、had turned to boat-building on the Norfolk Broads, suggested an idea on which he had been working for many years to the British Government and industrial circles. It was the idea of supporting a craft on a ”pad”, or cushion, of low-pressure air, ringed with a curtain of higher pressure air. Ever sin
3、ce, people have had difficulty in deciding whether the craft should be ranged among ships, planes, or land vehicles - for it is something in between a boat and an aircraft. As a shipbuilder, Cockerell was trying to find a solution to the problem of the wave resistance which wastes a good deal of a s
4、urface ship”s power and limits its speed. His answer was to lift the vessel out of the water by a great number of ring-shaped air jets on the bottom of the craft. It ”flies”, therefore, but it cannot fly higher - its action depends on the surface, water or ground, over which it rides. The first test
5、s on the Solent in 1959 caused a sensation. The hovercraft travelled first over the water, then mounted the beach, climbed up the dunes, and sat down on a road. Later it crossed the Channel, riding smoothly over the waves, which presented no problem. Since that time, various types of hovercraft have
6、 appeared and taken up regular service. The hovercraft is particularly useful in large areas with poor communications such as Africa or Australia; it can become a ”flying fruit-bowl”, carrying bananas from the plantations to the ports; giant hovercraft liners could span the Atlantic; and the railway
7、 of the future may well be the ”hovertrain”, riding on its air cushion over a single rail, which it never touches, at speeds up to 300 m.p.h. - the possibilities appear unlimited. EGON LARSEN The Pegasus Book of Inventors New words and expressions 生词和短语 hovercraft n. 气垫船 Norfolk Broads n. 诺福克郡的湖泊地区
8、cushion n. 座垫 ring v. 围 Solent n. （英国的）苏伦特海峡 sensation n. 轰动 dune n. 沙丘 plantation n. 种植园 hovertrain n. 气垫火车参考译文 本世纪已研制出很多新颖的交通工具，其中最新颖的要数气垫船了。1953年，有一位50多岁名叫克里斯托弗.科克雷的原电子工程师，改行在诺福克郡的湖泊地区从事造船业，他向英国政府和工业界提出了他讨论多年的一项打算。他的设想是：用一个低压空气或软垫来支撑船体，软垫四周用高压空气围绕。自那以后，人们很难打算是否应当将这种运载工具列为轮船、飞机，或是陆上交通工具，由于它是介于船和飞机
9、之间。作为一个船舶技师，科克雷尔在查找解决波浪阻力的方法，由于波浪阻力铺张掉了船在水面行驶的大量动力，从而限制了船的速度。他的解决方法是把船体提离水面，让船在一个气垫上行驶，气垫只有一两英尺厚。船底装上大量环状喷气嘴以实现这一目的。这样，船就能飞了，但飞不高。它的飞行限决于它所悬浮的水面或地面。 1959年，在苏伦特海峡进展的首次试航引起了轰动，气垫船先是在水面上行驶，后又登上海岸，爬上沙丘，最终停在路上。后来气垫船跨越英吉利海峡，平衡地在波浪上方行驶，波浪不再产生阻力。 从那以后，各种各样的气垫船消失了，并开头了定期航行效劳。气垫船在非洲、澳大利亚等交通不兴旺地区特殊有用。它能成为“飞行水果盘子”，把香蕉从种植园动到港口。大型的气垫班轮或许能跨越大西洋。将来的火车或许能成为“气垫火车”，靠气垫在单轨上行驶而不接触轨道，时速可达每小时300英里。气垫船的前途是不行限量的。
