Lesson 29 The hovercraft氣墊船
First listen and then answer the following question.聽錄音，然后回答以下問題。
What is a hovercraft riding on when it is in motion?
Many strange new means of transport have been developed in our century, the strangest of them being perhaps the hovercraft. In 1953, a former electronics engineer in his fifties, Christopher Cockerell, who had turned to boat-building on the Norfolk Broads, suggested an idea on which he had been working for many years to the British Government and industrial circles. It was the idea of supporting a craft on a 'pad', or cushion, of low-pressure air, ringed with a curtain of higher pressure air. Ever since, people have had difficulty in deciding whether the craft should be ranged among ships, planes, or land vehicles -- for it is something in between a boat and an aircraft. As a shipbuilder, Cockerell was trying to find a solution to the problem of the wave resistance which wastes a good deal of a surface ship's power and limits its speed. His answer was to lift the vessel out of the water by a great number of ring-shaped air jets on the bottom of the craft. It 'flies', therefore, but it cannot fly higher -- its action depends on the surface, water or ground, over which it rides.
本世紀已研制出許多新奇的交通工具，其中最新奇的要數氣墊船了。1953年，有一位50多歲名叫克里斯托弗.科克雷的原電子工程師，改行在諾福克郡的湖泊 地區從事造船業，他向英國政府和工業界提出了他研究多年的一項計劃。他的設想是：用一個低壓空氣或軟墊來支撐船體，軟墊周圍用高壓空氣環繞。自那以后，人 們很難決定是否應該將這種運載工具列為輪船、飛機，或是陸上交通工具，因為它是介于船和飛機之間。作為一個船舶技師，科克雷爾在尋找解決波浪阻力的方法， 因為波浪阻力浪費掉了船在水面行駛的大量動力，從而限制了船的速度。他的解決辦法是把船體提離水面，讓船在一個氣墊上行駛，氣墊只有一兩英尺厚。船底裝上 大量環狀噴氣嘴以實現這一目的。這樣，船就能飛了，但飛不高。它的飛行限決于它所懸浮的水面或地面。
The first tests on the Solent in 1959 caused a sensation. The hovercraft travelled first over the water, then mounted the beach, climbed up the dunes, and sat down on a road. Later it crossed the Channel, riding smoothly over the waves, which presented no problem.
1959年，在蘇倫特海峽進行的首次試航引起了轟動，氣墊船先是在水面上行駛，后又登上海岸，爬上沙丘，最后停在路上。后來氣墊船跨越英吉利海峽，平衡地在波浪上方行駛，波浪不再產生阻力。
Since that time, various types of hovercraft have appeared and taken up regular service. The hovercraft is particularly useful in large areas with poor communications such as Africa or Australia; it can become a 'flying fruit-bowl', carrying bananas from the plantations to the ports; giant hovercraft liners could span the Atlantic; and the railway of the future may well be the 'hovertrain', riding on its air cushion over a single rail, which it never touches, at speeds up to 300 m.p.h. -- the possibilities appear unlimited.
從那以后，各種各樣的氣墊船出現了，并開始了定期航行服務。氣墊船在非洲、澳大利亞等交通不發達地區特別有用。它能成為“飛行水果盤子”，把香蕉從種植園 動到港口。大型的氣墊班輪或許能跨越大西洋。未來的火車或許能成為“氣墊火車”，靠氣墊在單軌上行駛而不接觸軌道，時速可達每小時300英里。氣墊船的前 途是不可限量的。
New words and expressions 生詞和短語
hovercraft
n. 氣墊船
Norfolk Broads
n. 諾福克郡的湖泊地區
cushion
n. 座墊
ring
v. 圍
Solent
n. （英國的）蘇倫特海峽
sensation
n. 轟動
dune
n. 沙丘
plantation
n. 種植園
hovertrain
n. 氣墊火車
Notes on the text課文注釋
1 the strangest of them being perhaps the hovercraft,
這是現在分詞being的獨立主格結構。
2 in between,介乎...之間，這是一種組合介詞。
3 a surface ship,水面船只。
4 may well be ,很可能。
Lesson 29 課后練習和答案Exercises and Answer
