[page]中英文本[/page]

First up today, a new museum display in Washington, D.C., that's out of this world, at least it has been. The space shuttle Discovery reached its retirement home yesterday. Before we talk about that arrival, John Zarrella looks back at the shuttle's history and space travel's future.

Booster ignition.

February 24th of last year, the 39th and final liftoff of the shuttle Discovery, 148 million miles traveled over a quarter-century.

Discovery now making one last reach for the stars.

The oldest of the three orbiters, Discovery was the first to be retired. At first light Tuesday morning, this time, no roar of rocket engines, just jet engines, riding piggyback on a 747. Destination: permanent display at the Smithsonian in Washington.

This things just beckons, like come on I can take this on again, come on, just hop in. Let's fire up and go again.

The astronauts who flew Discovery that last time are here to watch her off.

It's sad in that we're done, and, you know, she's going away. On the other hand, she's going to the Smithsonian where hopefully millions of people over the next gazillion years are going to get to go see Discovery.

The U.S. now relies on the Russians to ferry its astronauts to the International Space Station. The cost, about $60 million dollars a seat. NASA is stuck with this arrangement for at least the next four years. That's until a commercial company is ready.

I am confident that commercial space will eventually succeed and do great things. If you asked me to put my money on any one company and say this company is going to be the one that does it or succeeds, I don't know, they just don't I just they are all taking very different approaches.

Space X hopes to be that company.

We have liftoff of the Falcon 9.

It has already orbited its Dragon Spacecraft around the Earth. At the end of this month, the company's toughest test to date, an attempt to rendezvous its unmanned Dragon and berth it to the space station. By then, Discovery will be on display.

Enterprise, a test shuttle which was in the Smithsonian, will be in New York, going to the Intrepid Museum.

For me personally, once we get Discovery to the Smithsonian and we've done all the work and she's ready to go and now it's my time to walk away and leave her there, I'll now start focusing on Enterprise and getting Enterprise up to New York. But that's going be very hard to leave Discovery for that last time.

At least now, everyone will have the opportunity to look up close at a space flying machine unlike anything ever built.

Discovery will be formally welcomed to the Smithsonian collection during a ceremony tomorrow. After that, people can visit the famous flyer at the museum.

But a lot of folks had the chance to check out Discovery on its way to that retirement spot. They gathered around the National Mall or at other spots in D.C. to watch the shuttle and its carrier as they approached Washington. The pilot seemed happy to accommodate the crowd, circling the mall a few times for pictures and cheers.

Eventually, Discovery did come in for a landing, not the only shuttle going on display, though. You heard John Zarrella mention that Enterprise is heading to New York. Endeavour will be at a museum in Los Angeles, and Atlantis will stay on display at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

We want you to watch the left side of your screen closely here. All right. You see that? Kind of looked like the sun burped up some energy. Well, that was a solar flare. NASA's Solar Dynamics Laboratory caught this on video. Looks pretty impressive, but scientists say that on the scale of solar flares, this one was just medium-sized.

Sometimes these kinds of eruptions on the sun can have an impact here on Earth. Not this one, though. The spot where this happened was pointed away from the planet when the flare erupted.[qh]首先今天一个新的博物馆在华盛顿特区对世人展示，至少它已经完全出乎世界的预料。“发现号”航天飞机昨天到达它的新家。在我们谈论它的到达之前,约翰?扎利亚回顾航天飞机的历史和太空旅行的未来。
助力器点火。
去年的2月24日,第39次，也是最后一次任务，“发现号”航天飞机发射，1.48亿英里,走过25年。
发现号现在的任务是登陆行星。
发现号是三个轨道飞行器中年龄最大的一个,也是第一个退休。星期二早晨天刚亮,这一次,火箭引擎没有咆哮,只有喷气引擎的轰鸣,在747飞机的肩上。目的地:在华盛顿的史密森博物馆永久展示。
这好像是招手示意,像是在说来吧，我可以再来一次的,来啊。点火起飞。
发现号的宇航员最后一次到这里来就是为了看她。
太伤感了,因为我们已经完成,并且,你知道,她已经离开。另一方面,她要去史密森博物馆，而在那里希望数以百万计的人在未来几年都会去参观发现号。
美国现在依赖俄罗斯将宇航员运往国际空间站。一个座位的成本大约是6000万美元。NASA至少在未来四年内都会这样安排，直到一家商业公司已经准备就绪。
我相信,商业空间最终会获得成功并且做伟大的事情。如果你要把我的钱投资到一家公司,并且说这家公司会获得成功,我自己不是很清楚,我只是认为他们会采取非常不同的方式。
空间X希望成为那个公司。
我们已经将猎鹰9号送入太空。
它已经和地球附近的龙号飞船接轨。在这个月底,公司最艰难的考验即将到来。它试图和无人的龙号飞船会合并且停泊在空间站。到那时,发现号将已经展览供人参观。
企业号,史密森博物馆测试飞船,将在纽约的航空航天博物馆进行展出。
对我个人来说,我们一旦将发现号送往史密斯博物馆,我们就已经完成所有的工作,她准备出发,现在是时候我离开,把她留在那里。我现在开始关注企业号到纽约的事情。但最后一次和发现号离别肯定会非常难过。
至少现在,每个人都将有机会近距离观看这个曾经建造的独一无二的空间飞行器。
明天史密森博物馆将举行仪式正式欢迎发现号。在那之后,人们可以在博物馆参观她了。
但很多人有机会在发现号退休的路上一睹她的芳容。当他们走近华盛顿，他们聚集在国家广场或者华盛顿的其他景点观看航天飞机和载体。飞行员似乎很高兴能接待人群,环绕广场多次以供游人拍照和欢呼。
最后,发现号着陆,当然它不是唯一进行展示的飞船。你听约翰提到企业号正前往纽约。奋进号将会在洛杉矶的博物馆,亚特兰提斯号将继续在佛罗里达州的肯尼迪航天中心进行展示。
我们想要你密切关注屏幕左边。好的。你看见了吗?一种看起来像太阳发出的一些能量。好了,这是太阳耀斑。NASA的太阳能动力学实验室称捕捉到这一录像。看起来让人印象深刻,但科学家称,这样的太阳耀斑只是中等规模。
有时, 太阳这种类型的爆发会对地球产生影响。虽然不是这一个。当耀斑爆发，发生的地方离地球很远。
注：听力文本来源于普特
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[page]词语解释[/page]
1. shuttle n. 航天飞机

The U.S. made the first space shuttle in the world.
美国制造了世界上第一架航天飞机。

2. ignition n. 点火，点火器

The ignition of the forest was caused by lightning.
森林起火是由雷电引起的。

3. orbiter n. 轨道飞行器，人造卫星

Each orbiter was designed to be reused up to 100 times.
每个飞行器设计为可以重复使用一百次。

4. rendezvous v. 汇合，集合

He didn't tell me the rendezvous.
他没有告诉我约会时间与地点。

5. opportunity n. 机会，时机

You must grasp this opportunity.
你必须抓住机会。