而外媒还在延续使用 astronaut,可以看出它们在骨子里的傲慢与狭隘。orbit一词本义是“轨道”,但在政治/商业领域中,常表示国家或企业的“影响范围、势力范围”,其实这两个意思很好联系起来:星球的轨道就是其引力的势力范围,物体在轨道内部就会受到引力控制,脱离轨道就不会受引力控制。比如《经济学人》中曾有段话表达了西方对中国数字发展的担忧:
And it is pulling other countries into its orbit with initiatives such as the “digital Silk Road”, helping them build out their digital infrastructure.中国还通过“数字丝绸之路”倡议,帮助其它国家建设自己的数字基础设施,来把它们拉入自己的势力范围。
(中国奉行和平共处的外交原则,不会像美国一样以援助为筹码、以军事作威胁,搞贸易殖民。)
最后,我们把这段话再整体看一遍:China on Saturday launched a rocket carrying three astronauts - two men and one woman - to the core module of a future space station where they will live and work for six months, the longest orbit for Chinese astronauts.周六,中国发射了一枚搭载三名宇航员(两男一女)的火箭,进入未来空间站的核心舱,他们将在那里生活和工作6个月,这是中国宇航员最漫长的一次轨道飞行。
二、外媒如何评价?
我们再看第二部分:外媒如何评价这次发射?这部分选自CNN的报道:先看题目——China's historic crewed mission arrives at new space station
historic点明这次航天任务具有极高的历史意义。crew作名词指船或飞机上的全体人员,文中crewed mission指“载人任务”。再看第一段的报道:
China's three-person crew arrived at its new space station Saturday morning -- a major step for the country's young space program, which is rapidly becoming one of the world's most advanced.
周六上午,三名中国宇航员抵达了新空间站,这是中国年轻的太空计划迈出的重要一步。中国太空计划正在迅速成为世界上最先进的项目之一。
两点评价:1)a major step for the country's young space program 这是中国年轻的太空计划迈出的重要一步;2)which is rapidly becoming one of the world's most advanced 中国太空计划正在迅速成为世界上最先进的项目之一。advanced可形容技术、思想“先进的”,比如 advanced technology 先进技术。我们可以用of advanced years或at advanced age形容某人年事已高,这是一个非常礼貌的表达。另外形容技术先进,我们也可以用at the cutting edge表示,比如 The diplomat(《外交家》)杂志中曾有篇文章讲到了中国科技的迅速发展,里面有句话就用到了这个表达:
Similarly, China is moving aggressively into cloud computing, 5G networks, driverless cars, and more cutting-edge technologies.同样,中国正在积极进军云计算、5G网络、无人驾驶和更多尖端技术领域。
我们再读两段美国专家的话,看看他们是如何评价中国神舟13号发射任务的:
"What is truly impressive about China's space program is how rapidly it has advanced, on all major fronts, from a pretty low base as recently as the 1990s," said David Burbach, associate professor of national security affairs at the US Naval War College.
美国海军战争学院(US Naval War College)国家安全事务副教授大卫·伯巴赫(David Burbach)表示:“中国太空计划真正令人印象深刻的是,它从上世纪90年代相当低的基础上,在所有主要前沿取得了如此迅速的进展。”
这里的advance是动词,表示“发展、前进”,相当于progress,develop,以后我们在写作中表示“随着 XX 的发展”时,不要再用 With the development of...了,试着用 As... advances 替换。front本义是“正面、前面”,on a...front是固定搭配 表示“在...领域”,比如 on the economic / political front 在经济/政治领域,看两个例句:
On the technical front, there have been a number of important developments.技术领域有了一系列重大进步。
Excellent teamwork from our staff has brought improvement on all fronts.我们员工的精诚合作使得各方面都取得了进展。
文中 on all major fronts 的意思是:在所有重要方面。base有“基础、根基”的意思,文中from a pretty low base的意思是:从相当低的基础上。as recently as体现出时间之近,这部分可理解成:就在上世纪90年代水平还相当低。
"The European Space Agency, Russia, India, and Israel have suffered Moon or Mars probe failures in recent years; China succeeded with both on the first tries," Burbach told CNN via email. Though the US still has the world's leading space program, he said, "there's no doubt that China is the world's Number 2 space power today." alt="直击神舟十八号飞天">
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