stepbystep第三册Unit4原文.doc

Unit 4 World News: Up in Space Part I Warming up A 1.An American spacecraft is traveling to Mars to collect information about the red planet.?The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter left Cape Canaveral in Florida on August 12th.?The space?vehicle is expected to arrive in March of next year.?It is to orbit the planet for at least four years. 2.The U.S. space shuttle Columbia has returned to Earth after an abbreviated stay in space because of a mechanical problem.?The Space Agency ordered?the?shuttle back to Earth after one of the three power generators failed Sunday.?The generators called?“fuel cells”?provide all of shuttle’s electrical power, and NASA safety rules require the space ship to return to Earth if any fuel cell fails. 3.US space shuttle Discovery has made a successful lift-off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, en route to the International Space Station.?The shuttle with 5 male and 2 female astronauts onboard will take another section of the half-built International Space Station a little truss, or frame into orbits.?It’s scheduled to come back to earth on December 21. 4.The United States Space Agency NASA says it’s given up any real hope of reviving its space probe on Mars.?The spacecraft Pathfinder made its last transmission of scientific data from the surface of Mars at the end of September, 83 days after landing. 5.The U.S. space shuttle Endeavor is preparing to return home in triumph after completing repairs on the Hubble Telescope. The Endeavor’s scheduled to land Monday at the Kennedy Space Center on Florida’s Atlantic coast, returning to the site where the mission began eleven days ago. ? B Mir means “peace” in Russian. The station had a core block of living quarters and six docking ports for supply ships. Mir was built by the Soviet Union, which is now Russia. It cost $4.2 billion to build and maintain it. Scientists spent ten years building it, from 1986 to 1996. it weighs 135 tons and has a volume of 9900 cubic feet. It is 63 feet wide and 85 feet