英语听力：探索发现 科学新发现：我们的大气层-3

 My crew chief said, “are you ready?” I said, “I’m ready, let’s go.” It was a very smooth take-off and I started ascending¹ up, up, up. 

 

30 minutes after take-off, Kittinger reaches 29,000 feet, the middle of the troposphere. At this altitude, the air is so thin that each breath contains only a third of the oxygen found at sea level. Kittinger breathes from gas bottles connected to his sealed helmet. He’s still barely² a third of the way to the jump-point. 

 

There are another 14 miles to go. And the air pressure is dropping rapidly. So at about forty thousand feet, suddenly the pressure suit starts inflating³ and that’s when you start checking it to make certain that it’s working properly. 

 

But there is a crucial fault in the suit. The glove covering this right hand is not sealed. 

 

I had an option to tell the ground that I had a problem. And I knew that if I did, they’d probably make me abort⁴ the flight and I was concerned that if we had to abort that flight, then we would have been turned down to try to do it again. So I didn’t tell them.

 

Kittinger prays that this is an isolated⁵ fault and continues to climb at 1000 feet per minute. After 89 minutes, he approaches his target altitude. The balloon’s climb slows and then stalls⁶.

1 ascending   

adj.上升的，向上的

参考例句：

• Now draw or trace ten dinosaurs in ascending order of size.现在按照体型由小到大的顺序画出或是临摹出10只恐龙。

2 barely   

adv.仅仅，几乎没有，几乎不

参考例句：

• The male bird is barely distinguishable from the female.雄鸟和雌鸟几乎无法辨别。
• He took barely enough money to keep the children in bread.他赚很少的钱仅够孩子们勉强糊口。

3 inflating   

v.使充气（于轮胎、气球等）( inflate的现在分词 )；（使）膨胀；（使）通货膨胀；物价上涨

参考例句：

• I felt myself inflating slowly with rage, like a tyre. 我感到自己体内的怒气正慢慢膨胀，像一只轮胎那样。 来自互联网
• Many are already overheating, with prices rising and asset bubbles inflating. 随着物价日益上涨、资产泡沫膨胀，很多新兴国家经济已经过热。 来自互联网

4 abort   

v.使流产，堕胎；中止；中止(工作、计划等)

参考例句：

• The captain instructed them to abort the mission.上尉指示他们中止执行任务。
• With this button the user can abort the audio sequence.用户可以用该按钮终止音频序列。

5 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

6 stalls   

n.戏院正厅前排座位，前座观众；摊( stall的名词复数 )；熄火；厩；（房间内的）小隔间

参考例句：

• market stalls selling cheap bric-a-brac 集市上出售廉价小摆设的货摊
• the front row of the stalls 正厅第一排