The hovercraft

  • hovercraft /ˈhʌvɚˌkræft/ 气垫船
  • hover /‘hʌvɚ/ To hover means to stay in the same position in the air without moving forward or backward.
  • craft /kræft/ You can refer to a boat, a spacecraft, or an aircraft as a craft. 船; 航天器; 航空器

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.

  • turn to 转行
  • industrial circles 工业界

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.

  • cushion /‘kʊʃən/ A cushion is a fabric case filled with soft material, which you put on a seat to make it more comfortable. 坐垫
  • ringed with：If a building or place is ringed with or by something, it is surrounded by it. 围住
  • curtain /‘kɝtn/ something that covers or hides something else — usually + of
  • ever since 从那时起

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 making it ride on a cushion of air, no more than one or two feet thick. This is done 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.

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.

  • sensation /sɛn’seʃən/ If a person, event, or situation causes a sensation, they cause great interest or excitement. 轰动
  • dune /dʊn/ A dune is a hill of sand near the ocean or in a desert. 沙丘
  • … first …, then …, and …

Since that time, various types of hovercraft have appeared and taken up regular service–cruises on the Thames in London, for instance, have become an annual attraction. But we are only at the beginning of a development that may transport net-sea and land transport. Christopher Cockerell’s craft can establish transport works 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.

  • bowl /bol/ 碗
  • plantation /plæn’teʃən/ A plantation is a large piece of land, especially in a tropical country, where crops such as rubber, coffee, tea, or sugar are grown. (尤指热带国家的橡胶、咖啡、茶、甘蔗) 种植园
  • the possibilities appear unlimited 前途不可限量

Exploring the sea-floor

  • sea floor 海底

Our knowledge of the oceans a hundred years ago was confined to the two-dimensional shape of the sea-surface and the hazards of navigation presented by the irregularities in depth of the shallow water close to the land. The open sea was deep and mysterious,and anyone who gave more than a passing thought to the bottom confines of the oceans probably assumed that the sea-bed was flat.

  • the shallow water 浅水区
  • a passing thought A sudden desire or change of mind, especially one that is unusual or unexplained.

Sir James Clark Ross had obtained a sounding of over 2,400 fathoms in 1836 but it was not until 1800, when H.M.S. Porcupine was put at the disposal of the Royal Society for several cruises, that a series of deep soundings was obtained in the Atlantic and the first samples were collected by dredging the bottom. Shortly after this the famous H.M.S. Challenger expedition established the study of the sea-floor as a subject worthy of the most qualified physicists and geologists. A burst of activity associated with the laying of submarine cables soon confirmed the Challenger’s observation that many parts of the ocean were two to three miles deep, and the existence of underwater features of considerable magnitude.

  • fathom /‘fæðəm/ A fathom is a measurement of 6 feet or 1.8 metres, used when referring to the depth of water. 英寻
  • dredge /drɛdʒ/ When people dredge a harbour, river, or other area of water, they remove mud and unwanted material from the bottom with a special machine in order to make it deeper or to look for something. 清淤; 挖掘
  • cruise /krʊz/ A cruise is a holiday during which you travel on a ship or boat and visit a number of places. 海上航游
  • worthy of
  • the most qualified …
  • 热潮 a brust of activity

Today enough soundings are available to enable a relief map of the Atlantic to be drawn and we know something of the great variety of the sea-bed’s topography. Since the sea covers the greater part of the earth’s surface it is quite reasonable to regard the sea-floor as the basic form of the crust of the earth, with superimposed upon it the continents, together with the islands and other features of the oceans.

  • sounding /‘saʊndɪŋ/ 水深测量
  • topography /tə’pɑgrəfi/ 地形学
  • it is quite reasonable to xxx 因此完全有理由xxx
  • crust /krʌst/ A crust is a hard layer of something, especially on top of a softer or wetter substance. 硬外壳

The continents form rugged tablelands which stand nearly three miles above the floor of the open ocean. From the shore-line out to a distance which may be anywhere from a few miles to a few hundred miles runs the gentle slope of the continental shelf, geologically part of the continents. The real dividing-line between continents and oceans occurs at the foot of a steeper slope.

  • rugged /‘rʌɡɪd/ A rugged area of land is uneven and covered with rocks, with few trees or plants. 崎岖多岩的
  • tableland /‘tebllænd/ a plateau 高地
  • slope /slop/ A slope is the side of a mountain, hill, or valley. (山丘或山谷的) 斜坡
  • the gentle slope of the continental shelf
  • dividing line

This continental slope usually starts at a place somewhere near the ice-fathom mark and in the course of a few hundred miles reaches the true ocean-floor at 2,500-3,000 fathoms. The slope averages about 1 in 30, but contains steep, probably vertical, cliffs, and gentle sediment-covered terraces, and near its lower reaches there is a long tailing-off which is almost certainly the result of material transported out to deep water after being eroded from the continental masses.

  • in the course of xxx 延伸到xxx
  • average about
  • 1 in 30
  • sediment /‘sɛdɪmənt/ 沉积物
  • terrace /‘tɛrəs/ 梯田
  • lower reaches 低处
  • erode /ɪˈrod/ If rock or soil erodes or is eroded by the weather, sea, or wind, it cracks and breaks so that it is gradually destroyed. 侵蚀
  • tailing-off 尾沙地带