The Departed《無間道風(fēng)云》（精講之五）
[ 2007-06-13 18:02 ]
影片對白 The
readiness is all. You know the players. Call the game.
考考你
乘熱打鐵
5. Cross one's mind
這個片語也寫作pass through one's mind，意思是"Suddenly occur to one突然想起，掠過心頭"，例如：It
never crossed my mind that they would turn the proposal down.
文化面面觀
National
Aeronautics and Space Administration
美國國家航空航天局簡介
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the unit of the
federal government charged with operating the nation's space exploration and
aeronautics  programs. The administrator of NASA, an independent agency, is
appointed by the president, subject to Senate confirmation. NASA came into
existence on 1 October 1958, after Congress passed the National Aeronautics and
Space Act of 1958, at the recommendation of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Many
Americans had been highly alarmed when, on 4 October 1957, the Soviet Union put
into orbit Sputnik, the first man-made satellite. In the midst of the Cold War,
Americans feared that the Soviets might develop superior missile and space
technology and use it against the United States. The new agency absorbed the
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, a poorly funded research agency
formed in 1915.
Even though much of NASA's early political support stemmed from America's
Cold War competition with the Soviet Union, NASA was designed as an explicitly
civilian agency to pursue peaceful space activities. Overseeing the military
applications of space technology was left to the Department of Defense. In
practice, however, the distinction has sometimes blurred. From the beginning,
NASA and the military have cooperated in a variety of ways, and many astronauts
have come from military backgrounds.
Projects Mercury and Gemini
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May 5, 1961 launch of Redstone
rocket and NASA's Mercury spacecraft #7 Freedom 7 with Alan Shepard Jr. on
the United States' first manned sub-orbital spaceflight. (Atlas rockets
were used to launch Mercury's orbital
missions.) | NASA designed its first major
program, Project Mercury, to study human abilities in space and to develop the
technology required for manned space exploration. The program and the original
seven astronauts received tremendous public attention, and the astronauts became
national heroes. One of those seven, Alan Shepard, became the first American in
space with his suborbital flight on 5 May 1961. On 20 February 1962, John Glenn
became the first American to orbit the earth (Soviet cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin
was the first human in space and the first to orbit the Earth, on 12 April
1961).
President John F. Kennedy congratulated the astronauts and NASA but said that
the nation needed "a substantially larger effort" in space. Speaking to Congress
on 25 May 1961, Kennedy declared what that effort should be: "I believe that
this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is
out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth."
Kennedy admitted that the lunar program would be expensive and risky, but the
public came to support it enthusiastically. Congress approved the program-called
Project Apollo-with very little debate. Apollo became the most expensive
civilian project in American history.
The Mercury flights (a total of six from 1961 to 1963) and the subsequent
Project Gemini (ten flights from 1965 to 1966) served as preliminary steps to
going to the moon. The larger and more advanced Gemini spacecraft allowed
astronauts to practice maneuvers that would be essential in the Apollo program.
Project Apollo
Ironically, as NASA worked toward fulfilling its exciting goal, public
support for the agency began to decline. After it became clear that the United
States was not really
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Left to Right: Saturn V, which
last carried men to the Moon, the Space Shuttle and the planned Ares I and
Ares V launch vehicles | losing the "space
race" to the Soviet Union, many Americans wondered whether the lunar program was
worth its cost. Then, on 27 January 1967, three astronauts conducting tests
inside a sealed Apollo capsule died when a fire broke out in the spacecraft. A
review board found that NASA had not paid adequate attention to safety.
After several unmanned Apollo test flights and one manned mission that
orbited the Earth, NASA was ready to send a spacecraft into lunar orbit.
Circling the moon on Christmas Eve, 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 beamed back to
Earth spectacular pictures of the moon's surface. NASA sent two more test
flights into lunar orbit and was then ready to land on the moon. Apollo 11
lifted off on 16 July 1969 and landed on the moon four days later. As much of
the world watched televised coverage in awe, Neil Armstrong became the first
human to walk on the moon. Just after he stepped from his spacecraft onto the
lunar surface, Armstrong spoke his immortal line: "That's one small step for [a]
man, one giant leap for mankind." The crew of Apollo 11 returned safely to earth
on 24 July.
Apollo 12 made a smooth journey to the moon and back, but the next
mission-Apollo 13-encountered serious problems. On the way to the moon in April
1970, one of the spacecraft's oxygen tanks exploded, crippling the ship and
leaving doubt whether the crew could return safely. Some ingenious work by the
astronauts and the NASA engineers on the ground brought the crew of Apollo 13
home alive. NASA conducted four more successful expeditions to the moon, but
dwindling public interest and congressional support led to the cancellation of
the final two planned flights.
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