10

Martian triuMphNASA’s Curiosity Scores a Perfect Touchdown on the Red Planet探索宇宙生命的謎 好奇號登陸火星

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN ANCHOR

Now NASA called it the most complex

landing ever attempted on Mars. It was

nicknamed the “seven minutes of terror,”

and it ended in triumph.

ALLEN CHEN, NASA ENGINEER

Touchdown confirmed. We’re safe on Mars.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN ANCHOR

Scientists celebrated that success at Mission

Control in California. As you could see,

there were high fives and hugs all around,

even a few tears. Now some people have

worked on this project for the past eight

years. And those plans all came down to

this daring descent.1 It took a supersonic

parachute to slow the one-ton rover,2 but

that alone would not be enough. Then a

rocket-powered sky crane slowly lowered

Curiosity to the surface of Mars. And all of

this happened without any help from Earth.

Now for the next two years, Curiosity

will roam3 the Red Planet. Its mission—

to determine whether Mars ever

supported life. Now, the rover landed

inside Gale Crater; the area may once

have contained water. Now, Curiosity

will travel to the center of the crater to

Mount Sharp. It’s about five kilometers

high. And those layers of rock provide

a history of Mars back to its first billion

years.

Now, Curiosity has already sent back a

couple of images. And better pictures

are expected later this week.

John Zarrella joins us now from the

Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,

California, live. And John, what a night.

Take us back to the so-called “seven

minutes of terror,” the landing process

that gripped4 the entire world.

圖 / NASA/JPL-Caltech

好奇號探測車於太平洋日光節約時間（PDT）8 月 5 日晚間 10 時 32 分著陸火星地表，首批傳回的照片中拍攝到探測車本身的影子。

好奇號確認安然降落火星，NASA 噴射推進實驗室人員欣喜若狂。

NASA 火星探測衛星探勘號拍攝到好奇號降落的身影。

科學 SCIENCE / ★☆☆ 一般 Track 1 慢速 Track 12

Martian Triumph Science

11

Vocabulary

1. descent [d6`s5nt] n. 降落；下降（動詞為 descend [d6`s5nd]）

The plane descended as it approached the airport. 飛機在接近機場時下降。

2. rover [`rov0] n. 探測車

3. roam [rom] v. 漫步；漫遊Vast herds of bison once roamed the prairies. 曾有大群野牛漫步在大草原上。

4. grip [gr6p] v. 吸引；緊抓Fear gripped the passengers of the sinking ferry. 驚恐攫獲了下沉渡船上的乘客。

5. maneuver [m4`nuv0] v. 巧妙地操縱The driver maneuvered the bus into the parking space. 駕駛靈巧地把公車駛入停車位。

6. deploy [d6`pl76] v. 展開The skydiver deployed a parachute. 高空跳傘者打開了降落傘。

7. tether [`t5\0] n. 繫鏈；拴繩

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT

Yeah, well, you know, you just look right

behind me, and you can see the model there

of Curiosity and how big it is—2,000 pounds,

the size of a small car. And while NASA had

tested all of those portions of the landing

independently, they couldn’t test it all together.

So the test bed was the real thing, that seven

minutes, hitting the atmosphere [at] 13,000

miles an hour, then maneuvering5 through the

atmosphere, then the parachute deploys.6 Then

the heat shield comes off, and then the back

shell, and then the sky crane, and on and on

and on, Kristie, until they actually descended.7

And at one point, all three of those tethers8

from the sky crane actually have to be cut at

the exact same time. And if any one of these

events that we just described had gone wrong,

the entire mission would have been lost. So this

was high drama, high anxiety, and something

that had never been tested before.

CNN 主播 克莉絲蒂．魯．史道

美國太空總署稱之為有史以來嘗試過最複雜的

登陸火星任務，這被暱稱為「驚魂七分鐘」，

結果勝利成功。

NASA 工程師 陳友倫

確認著陸，我們安全登上火星了。

CNN 主播 克莉絲蒂．魯．史道

科學家們在加州任務控制中心裡慶祝任務成

功。如你所見，四處都在擊掌、擁抱，甚至有

些眼淚。有些人過去八年來都在進行這個專

案。那些計畫全都是為了這次大膽的降落，需

要用超音波降落傘緩衝這個一公噸重的探測

車，但光是這樣還不夠。接著用有火箭動力的

空中起重機慢慢把好奇號降到火星地表。這整

個過程都沒有用到地球上的任何幫助。

接下來兩年，好奇號將在火星上漫遊，任務是

要確定火星是否曾存在生命。探測車降落在蓋

爾隕坑裡，這個區域可能曾經有水。好奇號會

走到隕坑中間的夏普山，高約五公里，那些岩

層將提供火星以前最初十億年的歷史。

好奇號已經傳回一些影像，預計本週稍後會有

更好的照片。

約翰．札瑞拉從加州巴沙迪納的噴射推進實驗

室和我們現場連線。約翰，今晚真是不得了。

帶我們回顧所謂的「驚魂七分鐘」吧，這個吸

引全世界關注的登陸過程。

CNN 特派員 約翰．札瑞拉

好的，看看我身後就可以看到那個好奇號模型

有多大——二千磅重，跟一輛小車一樣大。雖

然 NASA 已經個別測試過登陸的每個部份，但他們沒辦法整個測試。所以測試台就是真的

火星了，在那七分鐘，以時速一萬三千英里撞

擊大氣層，操控穿越大氣層，然後降落傘展

開。接著防熱屏脫離，再來是底殼，然後空中

起重機，沒完沒了的，克莉絲蒂，直到他們真

的降落了。

在某一刻，空中起重機的三條繫繩其實必須全

部準確同時切斷。如果我們方才描述的這些步

驟有任何一個出了差錯，整個任務就泡湯了。

所以說這真的是戲劇性高漲、緊張刺激，這以

前從沒測試過呢。

53

Silk Road Redux Business財經 BUSINESS / ★★☆ 正常 Track 8 慢速 Track 19

Silk Road Redux1

kazakhstan Refurbishes2 the ancient Trade Route3 Connecting east and West

古代絲路的今與昔

哈薩克（Kazakhstan）是世界上最大的內陸國家（landlocked country），該國的古城塔拉茲（Taraz）、突厥斯坦（Turkistan）與阿拉木圖（Almaty）曾為絲路上重要的中途站（way point、way station）

Aral Sea

Caspian Sea

Kazakhstan

China

Russia

古絲路路線圖

AlmatyTurkistan Taraz

54

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR

All this week, we’ve got our Eye on Kazakhstan here at CNN,

home to a large part of the ancient Silk Road, one of the world’s

oldest trading routes that connected east Asia to the Roman

Empire. Well now, plans are underway to modernize4 that route.

Have a look at this.

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT

You know, Kazakhstan is such a huge and vast country that

you can’t really experience it unless you take a road trip. So

today, we’re going to take a journey down what used to be the

ancient Silk Road, where this country’s constructing a new super

highway.

The journey begins in Almaty, the largest city and former

capital. Pretty soon, we’re making our way through the amazing

mountain landscapes5 of eastern Kazakhstan, a rural area with

interesting traditions. A little dip in the river, more or less

clothed. Turns out, this is a wedding party.

You guys after weddings go bathing in the river normally?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE

Of course, it’s not our tradition normally, but we wanted to

share our joy in the river and in nature with our guests, the

bride’s family. They came from so far away.

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT

In eastern Kazakhstan, that means a lot of vodka and fearless

stunts.6 Kazakhstan is the largest landlocked7 country in the

world, its population and geography extremely diverse.8

Merchants9 passed through here on the ancient Silk Road

hundreds of years ago, and now that trade between east and

west is booming10 again, the government has decided it needs

to upgrade11 its infrastructure.12

A new highway is under construction that will span13 the entire

country and replace many of the bumpy14 back roads that make

travel here such a chore.15 Murat Kadyrov is in charge of building

this section and says the new road will help boost16 mobility17

and safety.

66

Hollywood Heads eastWestern Studios1 Look to China for Inspiration and Profits

未來好萊塢在北京

圖 / 資料圖片

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN ANCHOR

I t seems l i ke Hol lywood i sn ’ t the

only place with the power to attract

filmmakers anymore. Now movers and

shakers have been turning to Beijing and

the Chinese film industry for more than

just a little inspiration. Eunice Yoon goes

behind the scenes.

EUNICE YOON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT

Lights, camera, action. A gambling scene

of China in the 1930s shot at a moneyed2

movie capital. No, we’re not talking about

Hollywood, but Beijing, home to one of

the biggest studios in the world.

“Chinese movies can be just as good as

any,” says this executive.

China is now the second-biggest movie

market behind the U.S. Eight new screens

open here every day, attracting top

《神鬼傳奇3》（2008）圖 / UIP

娛樂 ENTERTAINMENT / ★★☆ 一般 Track 10 慢速 Track 21

Hollywood Heads East Entertainment

67

Vocabulary

1. studio [`studio] n. 製片廠；工作室

2. moneyed [`m9nid] adj. 有錢的The area is home to the estates of several moneyed families. 這個區域是好幾個富有家族的地產所在地。

3. blockbuster [`bl3k~b9st0] n. 鉅資強片；大轟動

4. box-office [`b3ks`7f6s] adj. 票房的Box-office receipts for the film exceeded expectations. 該片的票房收入超過預期。

5. smash [sm1]] n. 【口】（演出等的）成功；轟動

CNN 主播 克莉絲蒂．魯．史道

看來好萊塢似乎不再是唯一能吸引電影工作者的地方了。重量級片

商已轉向北京及中國電影業，他們尋求的可不只是些許靈感而已。

來自優妮絲．尹的幕後報導。

CNN 國際特派員 優妮絲．尹

燈光、攝影機、開拍。一場一九三○年代中國的賭博戲在一個資金

充裕的電影之都拍攝。不，我們說的不是好萊塢，而是北京，這裡

是全世界最大片廠之一的所在地。

「中國電影能拍得和別人一樣好，」這位高層這麼說。

中國是目前僅次於美國的第二大電影市場。這裡每天有八個新放映

廳啟用，吸引了好萊塢像詹姆士‧柯麥隆這樣的大導演前來，他的 3D 賣座電影《阿凡達》在這裡開出票房紅盤。

Language Notes

1. movers and shakers 舉足輕重的人物

mover 和 shaker 原本指上帝，因為萬事萬物皆由上帝安排，現在則用來指某個領

域或事件中具有十足影響力、「舉足輕重

的人物」。

• The actor is among the movers and shakers in the film industry. 那名演員是電影產業裡的重量級人物 之一。

2. behind the scenes 幕後scene 是指「舞台佈景；（電視）鏡頭」，behind the scenes 字面意思是「在場景或鏡頭後面」，可引申表示「在幕後」或

「祕密地」。

• In his speech the mayor thanked those who worked behind the scenes to improve the city. 市長在致詞中感謝那些在幕後努力改善這

座城市的人。

scene相關片語make the scene 到場參與；露面

• Ted made the scene at the dance club last night. 泰德昨晚去了那家舞廳。

burst onto the scene 突然成名

• The band burst on the scene with a surprise hit song. 該樂團以一首意外熱門的歌曲竄紅。

Hollywood filmmakers like James Cameron, whose

3-D blockbuster3 Avatar was a box-office4 smash5

here.

《上海》（2010） 資料圖片