常春藤生活英語：空中浩劫4

A passenger told a flight attendant that she smelled something funny. Another one asked a different flight attendant if something was wrong. Suddenly, smoke began to fill a 747 jet carrying 263 passengers. There was no real sign of fire but everyone on board started to panic. The pilots looked outside the cockpit window and saw that the plane was coated by a thin cloud. Soon, a shower of sparks was shooting out of the engines.

This may sound like a nightmare that one wishes to wake up from, but the fact is that it happened in 1982. In the all new Air Crash Investigation Season 4, National Geographic Channel recreates this horrific day. In Falling from the Sky, experts investigate this incident and try to determine what happened.

As soon as the sparks stopped, passengers looked out their windows in terror as fire covered the wings. Soon, all of the engines failed and the plane started going straight down. Suddenly, the engines restarted and the plane landed safely. What happened during those critical minutes? NGC and Falling from the Sky try to figure out the answer.

一名乘客告訴空服員她聞到怪味。另一位乘客則詢問其它空服員是否有什么不對勁。突然間，搭載兩百六十三名乘客的747噴射客機開始濃煙密布。雖然沒有火警的確切征兆，但機上每個人都開始恐慌起來。駕駛員注視座艙窗外，看到飛機被一層薄云覆蓋。不久后，引擎噴射出一陣火花。

這聽來也許像是某人希望趕快從中醒來的惡夢，但它卻在1982年真實上演。國家地理頻道在全新的《空中浩劫4》中，重現(xiàn)這可怕的一天。在《英國航空9號班機》節(jié)目里，專家調查這起事件，試圖厘清發(fā)生了什么事。

火花一結束，乘客馬上驚恐地往窗外看著被火舌吞噬的機翼。很快地，所有引擎都熄了火，飛機開始直線墜落。突然間，引擎重新啟動，飛機也安全著陸。在千鈞一發(fā)之際，到底發(fā)生了什么事?國家地理頻道和《英國航空9號班機》試著找出答案。

Building Your Vocabulary

1.panic　vi. 恐慌，驚慌失措(三態(tài)為：panic, panicked, panicked。)

Everyone panicked during the earthquake.

地震時大家都驚慌失措。

2.coat　vt. 覆蓋

Dust coated the furniture in my basement.

我家地下室的家具蓋滿了灰塵。

3.investigate　vt. 調查

The police spent a whole year investigating the murder.

警方花了一整年的時間調查這起兇殺案。

4.determine　vt. 找出;確定

Dr. Lee determined that the cause of Carl's death was cancer.

李醫(yī)師找出了卡爾的死因是癌癥。

5.critical　a. 危急的，緊要關頭的

Dave is at a critical stage in his education.

戴維正處于他學業(yè)上的關鍵時期。

Phrases for Learning

in terror　　驚恐地

Mandy ran out of the burning house in terror.

曼蒂驚慌地跑出著火的房子。

參考字詞

1.flight attendant　n. 空服員

2.cockpit　n. 駕駛艙(本文中作形容詞用)

3.spark　n. 火花

4.investigation　n. 調查

5.recreate　vt. 使再現(xiàn)，重現(xiàn)

6.horrific　a. 可怕的，恐怖的

Tips In Use

...she smelled something funny.

(……她聞到怪味。)

1.funny 在本句中表『古怪的，難以解釋的』。

That's funny! I remember bringing my keys with me, but they're gone now.

(真奇怪!我記得我有帶鑰匙，但現(xiàn)在不見了。)

2.funny 常表『有趣的，滑稽的』。

Josh looks funny in that green suit.

(身著那套綠西裝的喬許看來很滑稽。)

3.funny 亦表『非法的，不老實的』。

Al earned some money through funny business.

(艾爾透過不法活動賺了一些錢。)

Enjoy Box

黑盒子

調查空難原因的當務之急便是尋找『黑盒子』(black box)。究竟黑盒子是什么呢?黑盒子便是『飛航記錄器』(Flight Recorder)的俗稱，它通常安裝在飛機失事后較易殘存的部位──機尾。事實上，民航機上的黑盒子是由兩個盒子組成的。一個是『駕駛艙錄音器』(Cockpit Voice Recorder，簡稱 CVR)，此記錄器的麥克風通常就設在正、副駕駛的駕駛座頭頂上，可以錄下座艙內(nèi)駕駛間的對話和與塔臺的通話、引擎的噪音、失速警鈴、起落架收啟等聲音。

另一個則是『飛行數(shù)據(jù)記錄器』(Flight Data Recorder，簡稱FDR)，此紀錄器儲存時間、高度、航速、方位、及地理位置等飛航數(shù)據(jù)。黑盒子除了須有精密的記錄數(shù)據(jù)功能，還必須能耐攝氏一千一百度以上的高溫達三十分鐘之久、并能承受約六千多公尺水深的高壓，其電池還需在空難后仍能連續(xù)供電達三十天之久。如此一來，即便飛機爆炸、自高空高速墜落、撞擊或跌落深海，它仍能保存重要的相關資料。

此外，黑盒子需具有在深海的高壓下還能自動發(fā)出訊號的功能，以利調查人員搜尋。令人意外的是，黑盒子其實不是黑色的，大多都采醒目的國際應急救援色，即橘紅色或亮黃色，并涂有白色熒光條帶，以反射外部光源以便于搜尋。不幸的空難發(fā)生后，找出黑盒子可協(xié)助分析空難發(fā)生的原因，做為往后改善飛行安全的參考。