内容正文:
练案[16] UNIT 4 JOURNEY ACROSS A VAST LAND
Section Ⅳ Writing
Ⅰ. 阅读理解
On July 11th Virgin Galactic finally realized the
promise that it would take passengers on life ̄changing
trips in its spaceships. For 4 minutesꎬ its six
temporarily weightless passengersꎬincluding the firms
co ̄founderꎬ Sir Richard Bransonꎬ saw the planets
curvature ( 曲 度 ) against the blackness of outer
space. He may have gloated (窃喜) over beating Jeff
Bezos ( much richer )ꎬ Amazons retired bossꎬ who
would go slightly higherꎬ for slightly less timeꎬ in a
vehicle built by his own companyꎬ Blue Originꎬ on
July 20th.
The two are among a growing group of
enthusiasts who believe space tourisms time has
come. Suborbital ( 亚 轨 道 ) tourism is part of a
broader space economy that has boomed over the past
decade thanks to technological advances. Those at
Morgan Stanley expect the entire space economy to
generate $ 1trm in revenue by 2040ꎬfrom $ 350bn
today. UBS (瑞银集团) expects the entire space
economy to produce $ 800 billion by the end of this
decade. Space tourismꎬ it thinksꎬ will make “ a big
contribution” to that total.
But that is highly unlikely. For exampleꎬ space
tourism is not even Blue Origins main goal. The
company is focusing on developing a large new rocket
for launching satellitesꎬ on selling advanced rocket
engines to other companies and on winning NASA
contracts such as that for a system to land humans on
the Moon. In the long runꎬMr. Bezos doesnt see Blue
Origin as provider of services to thrill ̄seekers.
The business could be profitable once regular
flights begin to offset ( 抵 消 ) the rockets
development costs. But how fast and by how much is
uncertain. Without tourist ̄friendly destinations to
visitꎬspace tourismꎬwith its far higher ticket pricesꎬ
will not be a huger earner.
Another challenge—and the biggest uncertainty—
relates to safety. History has shown that a disaster can
set progress back by years. Even with no accidentsꎬ
problems may arise. Strict top down regulation