英语听力：探索发现 科学新发现：我们的大气层-2

 Our chemistry, our very nature, our metabolism¹ is completely shaped by the atmosphere. 

 

To appreciate our atmosphere, we’ll rise through its layers, travelling from the planet’s surface, miles up above mountains and the clouds, to the very edge of space. 

 

August 16th, 1960, one man is preparing for a record-breaking journey into the mysterious skies above to a lethal² world above 99% of the Earth’s air where an unprotected human would die in seconds, where the temperatures plunge³ to 67 below and the air pressure is a hundredth of that at the surface. 

 

Colonel Joseph Kittinger will travel almost 20 miles high and then he will jump. This is a key military mission, one of the first steps in the space race. Kittinger will be testing the human body’s resistance to high altitude, low pressure and rapid free fall. He will be trialing new technology (that) he hopes will protect him. 

 

It had never been done before. But we were not there to set a record. We were there to gather information that we needed for our space programme and for our high-flying aviators⁴. 

 

Ground crew prepares his vehicle, a helium ballon and a rudimentary, open-sided gondola⁵, just an open gondola. It was designed just to carry me up there. It was a space platform, an elevator I called it. 

 

1 metabolism   

n.新陈代谢

参考例句：

• After years of dieting,Carol's metabolism was completely out of whack.经过数年的节食，卡罗尔的新陈代谢完全紊乱了。
• All living matter undergoes a process of metabolism.生物都有新陈代谢。

2 lethal   

adj.致死的；毁灭性的

参考例句：

• A hammer can be a lethal weapon.铁锤可以是致命的武器。
• She took a lethal amount of poison and died.她服了致命剂量的毒药死了。

3 plunge   

v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲

参考例句：

• Test pool's water temperature before you plunge in.在你跳入之前你应该测试水温。
• That would plunge them in the broil of the two countries.那将会使他们陷入这两国的争斗之中。

4 aviators   

飞机驾驶员，飞行员( aviator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Analysis on Sickness Status of 1149 Aviators during Recuperation. 飞行员1149例疗养期间患病情况分析。
• In America the whole scale is too big, except for aviators. 在美国整个景象的比例都太大了，不过对飞行员来说是个例外。

5 gondola   

n.威尼斯的平底轻舟；飞船的吊船

参考例句：

• The road is too narrow to allow the passage of gondola.这条街太窄大型货车不能通过。
• I have a gondola here.我开来了一条平底船。