新外研版高中英语选择性必修四 Unit 4-6全部课文文本+翻译+录音，收藏备用
Unit 4
Business Blossoms
创业之花
As she spoke, Zhang Yue put her hands behind her back to hide that they were shaking. She couldn't, however, hide the line of sweat running down her forehead, which was caused partly by the heat of the television studio, but more by fear of the four people seated in front of her. They stared back, their blank faces giving no clue as to what they would say next. Feeling dizzy, Zhang Yue took a deep breath as she struggled to finish her presentation, "And that is why need your help in turning my new and exciting business into a successful one."'
发言时，张悦把手藏在背后，以掩饰双手的颤抖。但她无法掩饰从额头淌下的一行汗水。这一部分是由于电视演播室里有些热，但更多的则是由于她害怕坐在她面前的四个人。他们面
无表情地凝视着她，让人根本看不出他们接下来会说什么。张悦感到一阵眩晕，做了个深呼吸，然后努力完成她的陈述，“这就是为什么我需要你们的帮助，使这个全新的、激动人心的创业项目获得成功。”
Now chairwoman of her own company Zhang Yue is fond of saying, "The early bird catches the worm."The place where this happens is a valley, a world away from any television studio. Moving carefully through the darkness, she passes row upon row of rose plants. In an hour, these fields will be full of people, working quickly to pick the flowers before sunrise. "It has to be done then," says Zhang. "These flowers are delicate."
张悦现在是自己公司的总裁，她总喜欢说:“早起的鸟儿有虫吃。”她创业的地点在一个山谷里，这是一个远离任何电视演播室的世界。她小心地在黑暗中穿行，经过一排又一排的玫瑰植株。一小时后就会有许多人来到这里，趁着日出前的时间快速采摘玫瑰花。“必须在那个时候采。”张悦说，“这些花是很娇嫩的。”
Zhang never thought that this was something she would end up doing. Surrounded by roses as she was growing up, she paid them little attention. It was only after graduating from university overseas and returning to visit her parents that Zhang realised the potential. "Conditions are ideal here," she says. "This is a place where roses grow wild."
张悦以前从未想过自己会做这一行。她从小到大，到处都是玫瑰，她很少注意到它们。直到她结束海外留学生活，回国看望父母时，才意识到这里的潜力。“这里的条件非常理想。”她说，“这里适合玫瑰自然生长。”
Zhang therefore decided to return to her home town and grow roses, which surprised many people. "I wanted to experience the freedom of being my own boss," she said. "But I also wanted to give something back to my home town. As people say, 'It takes a village to raise a child.'"
因此，张悦决定回到家乡，开始种植玫瑰，这让很多人感到惊讶。“我想体验自己当老板的自由。”她说，“同时我也想回报我的家乡。有句话说得好:‘养育一个孩子需要整个村庄的力量。”
She is not the only young person to have been bitten by the start-up bug. All over the world, an increasing number of enterprising young people are thinking of starting their own businesses, as the growing economy creates more opportunities. Like Zhang, they present their ideas in the hope of getting investment and advice, and they have the same passion and devotion. The majority meet with rejection. A few, like Zhang Yue, find themselves lucky enough to get investment and the all-important input and support from more experienced business people. The road to their success is however still a long and difficult one, with many challenges along the way.
她并不是唯一一个被创业所吸引的年轻人。在世界各地，经济的不断增长创造了更多的机会，越来越多有事业心的年轻人开始考虑自己创业。像张悦一样，他们表达自己的想法，希望以此获得投资和建议。而且，他们也拥有同样的热情和为事业奉献的决心。他们中的大多数会遭到拒绝，但包括张悦在内的少数人会非常幸送地获得投资，并从更有经验的商界人士那里获得非常关键的投入和支持。不过他们的成功之路仍然漫长而艰难，路上会遇到许多挑战。
As someone who grew up in the country, Zhang already knew about growing plants. However, like any entrepreneur who was just starting out, she still had lot to learn. She has overcome a number of obstacles in nursing her business to the success it is today. "The biggest challenge at the initial phase was to persuade people to work for me, which was totally outside my experience. Few in the village believed I could create a multi-million yuan business from flowers," says Zhang. "After I went on TV, a major Asian manufacturer of cosmetics was willing to purchase my product and help with its distribution. It was only then that the locals began to believe me. Now my product is one of the best in Asia. This year, can pay all my fellow workers a decent bonus.
作为一个在农村长大的人，张悦已经比较了解作物种植。不过，跟所有刚起步的企业家一样，她要学的还有很多。为了取得今天的成就，她精心打理生意，克服了许多障碍。“在初始阶段，最大的挑战就是说服人们来为我工作，这完全超出了我的经验范围。村里几乎没人相信我能从花卉生意中赚到几百万元。”张悦说，“我上了电视后，一家亚洲大型化妆品制造商表示愿意购买我的产品并且帮忙分销。直到那时本地人才开始相信我。现在我提供的是亚洲最好的产品之一。今年，我可以给我的同事们发一笔丰厚的奖金了。”
Seeing her peers who also dream of success and independence, Zhang has mixed feelings. Though she welcomes the new entrepreneurial spirit, she advises that people be realistic and seek guidance from expert consultants before rushing into things.
看到同龄人也梦想着成功和独立，张悦的心情很复杂。尽管她希望看到新的创业精神的涌
现，但她也建议他们要现实一些，在仓促行事之前先寻求专业顾问的指导。
"I love running my own business, but it's not for everyone says Zhang. "To succeed in business, you need more than a good idea, hard work and determination. What really matters is a sound business plan, access to capital, and good management and negotiating skills. Most of all, don' t be too ambitious. You should know your own limits and those of the people you work with. For young people who have little life experience, that can be a challenge.
“我热爱经营自己的生意，但不是每个人都适合做这个。”张悦说，“要想在事业上取得成功，你需要的不仅仅是好的理念、勤奋和决心。真正重要的是一个合理的商业计划，获得资金的渠道，以及良好的管理和谈判技巧。最重要的是，不要野心太大。你得知道自己的极限，还有与你共事的人的极限。对于缺乏生活经验的年轻人来说这可能是个挑战。”
What's mine is yours.
我的就是你的
We've been told since we were toddlers that"It's good to share" Parents and teachers keep reminding us to share toys, snacks, books, happy memories, and sometimes even sorrows with others. When we grow up, we share photos, life stories and opinions with people around us and with those we don't know via social media. Taking it as an object of study, psychologists have published various papers stating that the behaviour of sharing is beneficial to setting up positive emotional bonding.
我们还在蹒跚学步的时候就被教导“要懂得分享”。父母和老师不断地提醒我们要与他人分享玩具、零食、书籍以及快乐的回忆，有些时候甚至要分享自己的伤心事。我们长大后，会与周围的人或者是社交媒体上不认识的人分享照片、人生经历和观点。心理学家们将分享作为研究的对象，发表了各种各样的论文来说明分享行为有助于建立积极的情感纽带。
Today, the action of sharing takes on extra meaning. It's not just about sharing sweets or frustration; it has expanded to almost every aspect of our lives -the whole world seems to be into sharing. We are using technology to reduce the money that we spend on goods and services, or to make money out of those that we don't use ourselves all of the time. These vary from car shares to home shares, and even to pet shares. The sharing economy is taking off in all sorts of areas. It is creating new ways of thinking and is providing services to people when and where they want them.
如今，分享行为又多了额外的含义。不仅仅是分享糖果或挫折，分享行为几乎已经扩大到生活的方方面面——整个世界似乎都在分享。我们正在利用科技来减少在商品和服务上的花费，或者用我们一直闲置的物品赚钱:从汽车共享到住房共享，甚至是宠物共享。共享经济正在各个领域红火起来，它创造着新的思维方式，随时随地为有需求的人们提供服务。
This wealth of ways of sharing is a response to our increasing demand for quality goods and services at competitive prices, all delivered at the click of a button. Whether it's an online shop where we can hire designer clothes at rock-bottom prices, or a platform from which we can rent out our flats for a couple of days, it's out there. Whether we're a lender or borrower, it's a win-win situation; everyone makes or saves money. We also make connections and sometimes even make new friends. What's more, sharing encourages us to reuse items, thereby cutting down on waste. And set-ups such as bike and car sharing do a further favour for the environment by reducing the number of polluting vehicles on the road.
我们需要价格有竞争力的优质产品和服务，大量的共享方式是对这种不断增长的需求的回应，现在这些需求都可以通过一键单击来实现。无论是以最低价格出租名牌服装的网店，还是可以把自己的公寓短租几天的平台，都已出现。这对于出租者和租用者来说都是一个双赢的局面;人人都能挣钱，或都能省钱。我们可以建立联系，有时候甚至可以交到新朋友。不仅如此，共享方式鼓励我们将物品再次利用，从而减少浪费。共享单车、共享汽车等计划的实施会进一步保护环境，因为它们减少了行驶在路上的污染排放车辆的数量。
But the sharing economy is not without its problems. As is often the case all over the world with new areas of economic activity, the sharing economy is developing faster than existing regulations or ongoing supervision. Some companies are taking unfair advantage of this situation to expand their share of the market, often at the expense of more traditional and established companies. In addition, the sharing economy is subject to abuse of trust. Some people have experienced damage to their properties whilst renting out their homes and others have found themselves victims of theft or attack while sharing rides. Finally, personal data, the heart of the sharing economy, is not yet secure. Sharing platforms collect personal information about almost every part of our lives, including our names, locations, bank information, and individual preferences for goods and services. Yet, the technology to prevent such information from leaking or being stolen still needs improvement and the awareness of potential risks is low among both service providers and users.
但共享经济并非没有问题。世界上新出现的经济领域通常都是如此，共享经济的发展速度过快，而现有法规和持续监管还未跟上。一些公司正在利用这种情况获取不公平的优势，以扩大市场份额，通常以牺牲已有的更为传统的公司为代价。此外，共享经济容易受到信任滥用的影响。有些人出租房屋时财物遭到破坏，还有人搭顺风车时成为盗窃甚至袭击的受害者。最后一点，个人数据，即共享经济的核心，也并不安全。共享平台收集的个人信息涵盖我们生活的方方面面，包括姓名、位置、银行信息、对商和服务的个人偏好。然而，防止信息泄露或被盗的技术仍然有待改进，服务方和用户对潜在风险的防范意识也较低。
Nonetheless, what is in no doubt is that the sharing economy is increasingly relevant to our daily lives as well as to the global economy. It is expanding at such a rate that we can only imagine what it will comprise in the future. What will we be sharing next? Who will be sharing and how? And the most interesting question of all-what type of society will all this sharing take us to?
尽管如此，共享经济无疑正在与我们的日常生活以及全球经济产生越来越密切的联系。它飞速扩张，我们只能想象它将来会包含什么。我们下一个共享的对象是什么?将由谁来共享以及如何共享?最有趣的问题是—这些共享将会带我们进入什么样的社会?
Unit 5
The Mysteries of THE MAYA
玛雅之谜
Intrigued by Maya civilisation from a very young age, 15-year-old Canadian William Gadoury thought he had made an incredible discovery from his study of ancient star charts. Through comparison, he found that the locations of the 117 known Maya cities correspond to the positions of the stars. Based on this, he believed he had spotted an unknown Maya city buried deep in the jungle. Although his theory has been dismissed by scholars, it shows how powerful the secrets of Ancient Maya civilisation are among people.
十五岁的加拿大少年威廉·加杜里自幼便对玛雅文明着迷，他认为自己通过研究古老星象图有了惊人发现。通过比较，他发现117座已知玛雅城市的位置和星象的位置是对应的。据此，他相信自己发现了一座隐藏于丛林深处的未知玛雅城市的位置。尽管学者们对他的理论不予考虑，但是这表明古玛雅文明的奥秘在人们心中是如此举足轻重。
It isn't difficult to see why. Extending south from parts of what we now know as Mexico into Central America, Maya civilisation has been surrounded by mystery since its rediscovery in the 19th century. The Maya built impressive palaces and temples, including their representative step
pyramids. What is most extraordinary about these complex structures is how they were built without the use of wheels, metal tools or even animal power. The Maya's understanding of mathematics and astronomy was also quite amazing. They applied this understanding to the Maya calendar, which was accurate to within 30 seconds per year. On top of all this was an achievement unique in the Americas at that time: a true writing system. It contained more than 800 characters with some signs representing animals, people and objects and others representing syllables. It was a writing system so complicated that, so far, no one has been able to interpret it completely.
这背后的原因不难发现。玛雅文明的范围从现今墨西哥的部分区域向南延伸至中美洲。自从19世纪玛雅文明再现，层层迷雾便一直围绕着它。玛雅人建造了恢宏的宫殿和庙宇，其中
包括代表性建筑阶梯金字塔。这些复杂建筑最不同寻常之处在于，在没有使用机轮、金属工具甚至畜力的情况下，玛雅人是如何建造它们的。玛雅人对数学和天文学的认识也十分令人惊叹。他们将这一认识应用到了玛雅历中，该历法精确程度极高，每年误差不超过30秒。除此之外，还有一项当时美洲独有的成就:一个真正的文字系统。这种文字系统中包含800多个字符，有些符号代表动物、人和物，其他代表音节。这种文字系统很复杂，以至于到目前为止没有人可以将其完全解读。
The fact that Maya society was technologically primitive makes its achievements all the more incredible and mysterious. But the greatest mystery of all is what caused the Maya to abandon most of their great cities. By 700 AD, Maya civilisation was at its peak. Yet, within just a couple of generations, it began to mysteriously decline. The cities were left to be taken back by the jungle. When Europeans arrived in Central America in the early 16th century to claim its riches, the remaining Maya people were living in small settlements.
玛雅社会的科技水平十分原始，这一事实使得玛雅的种种成就更加令人难以置信、神秘莫测。但最大的谜团是为何玛雅人抛弃了绝大部分的大城市。到公元700年时，玛雅文明如日中天。然而，仅仅在几代之内，玛雅文明开始神秘地衰落。城市荒废，任凭丛林蚕食取代。16世纪早期，欧洲人来到中美洲攫取财富时，只剩下一些玛雅人居住在小型聚居区里。
Why Maya civilisation collapsed remains a mystery. Was it a natural disaster? A deadly disease? Conflicts between cities? Or was it a combination of several different factors? Some research seems to indicate that Maya people themselves may have played a part in their downfall. They had turned wetlands into fields for growing grains, and had dug huge canal systems. As their population expanded, yet more land was needed for agriculture and more trees for construction. By changing the landscape in this way, it is possible that the Maya people unknowingly reduced their ability to deal with natural disasters.
玛雅文明倾颓的原因一直是一个谜团。究竟是因为自然灾害、致死疾病、城市间的冲突，抑或是几个不同因素叠加所致?某些研究似乎暗示，玛雅人自己也许就是导致衰落的掘墓人。他们将湿地变成了种植庄稼的田地，还开凿了巨大的运河系统。随着人口增长，人们需要更多土地以发展农业，需要更多树木以修建建筑物。通过这样改变地貌，玛雅人可能在不知不觉中减弱了自己应对自然灾害的能力。
Research also suggests that those natural disasters may have led to the decline of the Maya. Some recent studies have found that there were far fewer tropical cyclones than usual between 700 AD and 1000 AD. This is likely to have led to a series of droughts, each lasting for a couple of years, including a "megadrought" around 900 AD. Many scientists believe that these droughts were the main reason why Maya civilisation began to collapse at different rates in different places. These droughts would have led to food shortages, conflicts and, ultimately, the downfall of the cities.
研究也表明，那些自然灾害可能导致了玛雅文明的衰落。最近一些研究发现，公元700年到公元100年之间，热带气旋的数量远远少于往常。这可能导致了一系列旱灾，每一次旱灾都持续若干年，其中就包括公元900年的一场“百年不遇的旱灾”。许多科学家认为，这些旱灾是玛雅文明在不同地方以不同速度衰落的主要原因。这些旱灾会导致食物短缺、冲突发生，最后导致城市的衰败。
Whatever the reasons, Maya civilisation largely disappeared within the deep jungle. Its once-great cities fell into ruin, leaving various mysteries for later people to solve. Meanwhile, the rise and fall of this civilisation must also leave us thinking about our own past, present and future.
无论原因如何，玛雅文明几乎消失在了丛林深处。曾经恢宏的城市沦为废墟，留下各种谜团等待后人解开。同时，玛雅文明的崛起与衰落必定也让我们思考自己的过去、现在与将来。
DIVING DEEP
潜入深海
Lying under waters across the globe are an estimated three million shipwrecks. All of them represent attempts over the centuries to explore Earth's furthest corners. Among these is the Esmeralda, the earliest wreck from the age of the European exploration of Asia. Today, some 500 years after the Esmeralda set sail, there is little -if any -land on our planet left unexplored. We have more detailed maps of the Moon, and even of Venus and Mars, than we do of Earth's own sea bed.
全球水域下大约沉睡着三百万艘沉船残骸，每艘都代表了若干世纪以来探索地球最远端的努力尝试。其中就包括了“埃斯梅拉达”号，它是欧洲国家探索亚洲时代留下的最早残骸。如今，距离“埃斯梅拉达”号起航已有500多年，我们星球上尚未被人类探索的土地已经少之又少了。然而，我们手中关于地球自身海底的地图，甚至比不上关于月球乃至金星、火星的天体图详尽。
Given our limited knowledge, it is perhaps no surprise that exploration of the oceans continues to lead to discoveries in various scientific fields. As with the discovery of the Esmeralda, many archaeological finds are made in shallow waters near the coast. These may sometimes include whole cities buried beneath the waves. One such find is the ancient Roman city of Neapolis, discovered off the coast of Tunisia. Believed to have been buried underwater by tsunami in the fourth century AD, the ruins of Neapolis are almost 2,000 years old. The remaining streets and buildings offer a window into a fascinating period in our history. However, we are only beginning to overcome the challenges of pressure, darkness and extreme cold at vast depths. Fragments of the past lying deep beneath the oceans are still waiting to be discovered.
基于我们有限的认知，探索海洋可以带来许多科学领域的新发现，这也许就显得不足为奇了。就像发现“埃斯梅拉达”号的残骸一样，很多考古学发现都发生在近海岸的浅水水域。这些发现有时会包括埋在海浪下的整座城市，其中之一便是在突尼斯近海发现的古罗马城市奈阿波利斯。据悉，在公元4世纪，奈阿波利斯被一场海啸淹没，其废墟至今已有近2，000年的历史。存留下来的街道、建筑为我们打开了一扇窗，让我们得以窥见那段精彩的历史然而，我们才刚刚开始克服广袤的海洋深处的压强、黑暗和极寒所带来的挑战。过去的碎片仍深藏在大洋底部，等待被发现。
Amazing biological discoveries are also being made. The dark zones of the oceans may contain up to 90 per cent of the planet's fish. In these waters, more than 200 metres deep, where light cannot reach, are extraordinary creatures that appear as if they are straight out of science fiction. Imagine bone-white- coral 6,000 metres below the ocean's surface growing at the rate of only one or two millimetres per year Some of these could be 4,000 years old. Swimming through these black depths is the barreleye, a strange fish with eyes that can look upwards through its transparent forehead. In the very deepest ocean trenches that are more than 8,000 metres below the surface, the pressure is equivalent to 50 aeroplanes stacked one on top of another. Yet there is still life to be found, even around the deep-sea volcanic openings. These discoveries all help us understand the capacity for life on our planet, even in the most extreme circumstances.
生物学领域也有惊人的发现。海洋的黑暗区域里或许生存着多达地球上90％的鱼类。在200多米以下、阳光照不到的深水水域里，住着一些看起来就像是刚从科幻小说中走出来的奇异的生物。想象一下，在海平面下6000米深处，骨白色的珊瑚以每年仅一到两毫米的速度缓慢生长着，它们中有些已经存活了4，000年。漆黑的深海里管眼鱼游来游去，这是种奇特的鱼，其眼睛可以透过透明的前额向上看。在海平面以下8，000多米处最深的海沟里，压强相当于50架飞机堆叠在一起，然而这里仍有生命的存在，甚至在深海海底的火山口周围也有生命。这些深海发现帮助我们理解地球上生命的承受力，甚至是在最极端的环境下的承受力。
Furthermore, the oceans are a valuable source of natural resources, some of which are completely new to us. Most notable of these is China's discovery of an ice-like substance, known as "fire ice", under the South China Sea. In addition, China's underwater vessels, such as the Jiaolong and Shenhai Yongshi, have been exploring waters at depths of thousands of metres. The Jiaolong even holds the record for the deepest dive by a manned submarine, at 7,062 metres, giving China its place alongside the world's top ocean explorers The research conducted by these vessels is giving scientists a greater understanding of how the sea bed was formed, as well as helping identify areas for deep-sea drilling, taking deep-sea exploration into a whole new era.
此外，海洋还包含着珍贵的自然资源，其中一些对我们来说完全是新的资源。最值得一提的便是中国在南海发现的冰状物质一—可燃冰。此外，中国的水下舰艇如“蛟龙”号和“深海勇士”号，一直在数千米深的水域探索。“蛟龙”号甚至创造了载人潜舰的最深下潜纪录7，06米，使中国跻身于世界顶级海洋探索国之列。借助这些潜水器所完成的研究有利于科学家进一步了解海床的形成过程，帮助确定深海钻探区域，将深海勘探带入一个崭新的时代。
Being a tough environment of complete darkness, enormous pressure and intense cold, the ocean depths have long been beyond the reach of human exploration. However, through closer international scientific economic and cultural cooperation, we are all becoming part of a global mission to open up our planet's final frontier. Humankind is entering a new age of oceanic discovery, and the world beneath the waves may one day be almost as familiar to us as the land we walk upon today.
深海区域环境恶劣，完全黑暗、压强极大、极度寒冷，长期以来都是人类探索无法企及的区域。然而，通过更紧密的国际科学、经济以及文化合作，我们都在成为开拓地球最后疆域这一全球使命的参与者。人类正走向海洋发现的新时代，或许有朝一日，我们会像熟悉脚下的土地一样熟悉那海浪下的世界。
Unit 6
The Call of the challenger
“挑战者”的呼唤
Ever since Neil Armstrong first set foot on the Moon back on 20 July 1969, people have become accustomed to the notion of space travel. Millions watched that first lunar landing on black and white television sets, their hearts in their mouths, aware of how arduous and hazardous an undertaken it was, and of the many things that could go wrong. With Armstrong's now famous words "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind", what had once been considered impossible had now been achieved. Guided by a computer that was much less powerful than the ones used by today's average school students, all three astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission made it safely back to Earth.
Following the Moon landings, space travel rapidly became unexceptional to the public, as innovations succeeded each other. By the early 1980s, the great rockets previously used in the American space programme had been replaced by the space shuttle. When the Challenger space shuttle took off on 28 January 1986, the world seemed to have lost its wonder at the amazing achievements of the astronauts involved. But this was going to be no ordinary excursion, and millions of people tuned in to witness the take-off on TV. It was special because Christa McAuliffe aged 37, an ordinary teacher and mother, was about to become the first civilian in space. She planned to give two 15-minute lessons from orbit: the first to demonstrate the controls of the spacecraft and explain how gravity worked, and the second to describe the objectives of the challenger programme. Christa hoped to communicate a sense of excitement and rekindle interest in the space programme. With the eyes of students across the nation upon her, she might have inspired an entirely new generation of astronauts and space scientists.
登月后，随着新事物接连出现，宇宙航行迅速成为公众眼中的寻常之事。20世纪80年代早期，美国太空计划中使用的大型火箭已被航天飞机所代替。当“挑战者”号航天飞机于1986年1月28日发射时，对于宇航员所获得的令人惊叹的成就，全世界似乎已经失去了新鲜感然而这将不是一次普通的航行，数百万人打开电视，共同见证这次发射。这次航行的特殊之处在于一位37岁名为克丽斯塔·麦考利夫的普通教师兼母亲将会成为第一位到访太空的普通公民。她计划在“挑战者”号沿轨道运行时讲两节课，每节15分钟。第一节课要展示航天器的操控装置，并解释一下引力是如何发挥作用的;第二节课要讲述“挑战者号太空计划的目的。克丽斯塔希望借此传达她的激动之情，重新燃起人们对太空计划的兴趣。当全国学生的目光都聚集在她身上时，她或许能激发他们成为新一代宇航员和太空科学家的理想。
Tragically, she never returned to her classroom as the shuttle exploded just over a minute after taking off in Florida, and all seven astronauts on board were killed. The world went into shock, most people having assumed that this space flight would be no more dangerous than travelling in an aeroplane. How wrong they had been! Instantaneously, excitement and optimism turned into terror and failure. It was the most disastrous space accident ever, and it cast a shadow on people's hearts.
令人悲痛的是，她再也没能回到她的课堂。航天飞机在佛罗里达州发射仅一分多钟后就发生了爆炸，机上七名宇航员全部牺牲。全世界都震惊了!大多数人本以为这次太空航行不会比乘飞机旅行更加危险，但是所有人都大错特错了!激动和乐观瞬间化为恐惧和挫败，这是有史以来最惨烈的航天事故，给人们心里蒙上了阴影。
"I can remember that day so clearly, watching the take-off on TV at school, said one student. "There was an ordinary teacher on the Challenger, and we were all very excited. We didn't have much patience waiting for the launch. We had seen the smiling faces of the astronauts waving to the world as they stepped into the shuttle. Then, little more than a minute after take-off, we saw a strange red and orange light in the sky, followed by a cloud of white smoke. The Challenger had exploded in mid-air and we all started screaming.
一个学生回忆道:“我非常清楚地记得那天，我在学校通过电视观看发射场景。有位普通教师在挑战者’号上，我们都非常激动，迫不及待地等着发射。我们看到宇航员笑容满面，向世界挥手致意，步入航天飞机。然后，发射仅仅一分多钟后，我们就着到空中奇异的红色和橙色的光芒，紧接着是一大团白烟。‘挑战者’号在半空中爆炸了，我们都开始尖叫。”
Following the shock of the Challenger disaster, space shuttle flights were suspended for nearly three years while the cause of the disaster was investigated, and some of the shuttle's components were redesigned. But there was never any doubt that manned flights would continue, and on 29 September 1988, the space shuttle programme resumed with the successful launch of Discovery.
“挑战者”号令人震惊的灾难发生后，航天飞机航行中止了近三年时间，同时调查事故原因，重新设计飞行器的部分零件。但是毫无疑问，载人飞行绝不会就此停止1988年9月29日，随着“发现”号的成功发射，航天飞机项目重新启动。
It has now been over 30 years since the loss of Challenger and although the lives of its crew were cut tragically short, they take their place alongside the other heroes of space exploration, such as Gagarin, Tereshkova, Armstrong and Yang Liwei. The memory of those seven will live forever, written in the stars, inspiring us to join them in humanity's greatest journey of exploration and discovery. The sacrifice of the Challenger calls to us, reminding us that we must continue to reach for the stars, no matter how distant they might seem.
“挑战者”号失事至今已有30多年了。虽然“挑战者”号的机组人员英年早逝，但他们与加加林、捷列什科娃、阿姆斯特朗和杨利伟等进行太空探索的英雄们一道，都在历史上占有一席之地。他们七位的事迹将永存于世，书写在漫天星辰中，激励我们加入他们，共向致力于人类最伟大的探索发现之旅。“挑战者”号的牺牲召唤着、提醒着我们，不管星空看起来多么遥不可及，我们都要持之以恒地去探索。
EYES UPON THE NIGHT
眺望夜空的眼睛
The night sky has been an endless source of fascination since the start of human history. For example, the mysterious large-eyed, bronze statues of the ancient Shu Kingdom, discovered at the Chinese archeological site at Sanxingdui, were believed to have been able to look across great distances into the stars. In reality, humans can see very little of the night sky with the naked eye. And, for a long while, people were unable to understand what they could see. Not knowing what the stars were, people in ancient times used their imaginations to create a world in the sky.
从人类有史以来，夜空就一直是让人浮想联翩的不竭源头。例如在中国考古遗址三星堆发掘的古蜀国神秘的巨目铜像，古时的人们认为它能够看到遥远的星空。事实上，人类仅凭肉眼只能看到夜空很小的一部分。并且在很长一段时间里，人们都无法理解他们所看到的事物古时的人们并不知道星星到底是什么，所以他们便凭着想象去创造了一个空中世界。
Our power to investigate and thus understand space changed dramatically when the first telescope was angled at the night sky, increasing as it did the power of the human eye and enabling us to understand that the universe is far larger than was previously imaginable. The planets were seen to be worlds similar to our own, many of them even having their own moons. Soon, it was understood that the Sun was just one star among billions in the galaxy we call the Milky Way. Some 300 years later, we learnt that the Milky Way itself was just one galaxy among billions of others, spread across the blackness of space like great islands of light and matter floating in a vast cosmic ocean.
当第一台望远镜对准夜空时，我们探索进而理解太空的能力就发生了巨大变化，它不仅增强了人类肉眼观测的能力，而且也让我们明白宇亩要比之前想象的大得多。每个行星都可以被
视为和我们地球类似的星球，其中许多行星甚至有它们自己的卫星。很快，我们明白太阳只不过是银河系中数十亿计的恒星中的一个。大约300年后，我们又得知，银河系只是数十亿个散落在黑色太空中的星系之一，就像漂浮在宇宙汪洋中的一座光与物质组成的大型岛屿。
Almost 400 years after the first Earth-based telescope was invented, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched into orbit, giving astronomers-indeed all of us-the first breathtakingly beautiful images of our universe taken from beyond Earth. Nothing in history has allowed us to see so much over such great distances, from enormous clouds of gas where stars are being born, to huge black holes, and even to new planets where we might conceivably find life. Not only that-it has also helped us to work out the age and nature of the universe, and discover the incredible fact that the universe is expanding at an ever-increasing speed.
第一个地基望远镜问世将近400年之后，哈勃空间望远镜发射入轨，不仅让宇航员，事实上还让我们所有人，都看见了来自地球之外令人叹为观止的宇宙美景。它让我们史无前例地看到了如此遥远的景观一一从星体诞生的巨大气体云团，到巨型黑洞，甚至到可能会发现生命迹象的新行星。不仅如此，它还帮助我们测算宇宙的年龄并分析宇宙的本质，且发现了惊人的事实——宇宙正在以不断增加的速度扩大。
To see even further into the universe, many countries are now engaged in building ever more advanced telescopes. Currently, China operates the world's largest and most powerful radio telescope, the FAST telescope, completed in 2016. The 500-metre dish of the "Eye of Heaven" as it is known, is being used in the search for dark matter, thought to be composed of subatomic particles invisible to ordinary telescopes. This vast dish also has the ability to explore regions of space billions of light years away, right at the edge of the visible universe.
为了能更加深入地观察宇宙，很多国家开始投入研发更先进的望远镜。近来，中国研发了世界最大、功能最强的射电望远镜——FAST望远镜，于2016年建成。众所周知，这个被称为“天眼”的500米口径巨盘用于探寻暗物质。暗物质被认为由亚原子粒子组成，一般望远镜是观测不到的。这个巨盘还能探索数十亿光年之外的太空领域，那里是看得到的宇宙的边界。
The Hubble and the space telescopes constructed after it will allow us to see further and further into space. We will view stars and galaxies billions of light years away and look back at a past that was billions of years ago. Using ever-larger radio telescopes as our eyes, we will one day be able to look back to a time in the very early universe, before the existence of light. But the human quest for knowledge reaches even beyond that. So much of the universe remains unexplored that we are still close to the start of this incredible journey of discovery.
哈勃望远镜以及在它之后建成的太空望远镜将使我们能看见更加遥远的太空。我们将能观察几十亿光年外的星体和星系，回看数十亿年之前的过去。终将有一天，我们会使用更巨大的射电望远镜，当作人类之眼，回看在光产生之前的宇宙的最早时期。但人类对知识的渴望不止于此。宇宙还有很多的未知领域，我们才刚刚接近这段奇幻发现之旅的起点。
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