{
  "title": "The hovercraft",
  "title_zh": "气垫船",
  "body": {
    "type": "narrative",
    "paragraphs": [
      {
        "en": "Many strange new means of transport have been developed in our century, the strangest of them being perhaps the hovercraft.",
        "zh": ""
      },
      {
        "en": "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.",
        "zh": ""
      },
      {
        "en": "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.",
        "zh": ""
      },
      {
        "en": "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.",
        "zh": ""
      },
      {
        "en": "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.",
        "zh": ""
      },
      {
        "en": "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.",
        "zh": "本世纪已研制出许多新奇的交通工具，其中最新奇的要数气垫船了。1953年，有一位50多岁名叫克里斯托弗.科克雷的原电子工程师，改行在诺福克郡的湖泊地区从事造船业，他向英国政府和工业界提出了他研究多年的一项计划。他的设想是：用一个低压空气或软垫来支撑船体，软垫周围用高压空气环绕。自那以后，人们很难决定是否应该将这种运载工具列为轮船、飞机，或是陆上交通工具，因为它是介于船和飞机之间。作为一个船舶技师，科克雷尔在寻找解决波浪阻力的方法，因为波浪阻力浪费掉了船在水面行驶的大量动力，从而限制了船的速度。他的解决办法是把船体提离水面，让船在一个气垫上行驶，气垫只有一两英尺厚。船底装上大量环状喷气嘴以实现这一目的。这样，船就能飞了，但飞不高。它的飞行限决于它所悬浮的水面或地面。"
      },
      {
        "en": "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.",
        "zh": ""
      },
      {
        "en": "Later it crossed the Channel, riding smoothly over the waves, which presented no problem.",
        "zh": "1959年，在苏伦特海峡进行的首次试航引起了轰动，气垫船先是在水面上行驶，后又登上海岸，爬上沙丘，最后停在路上。后来气垫船跨越英吉利海峡，平衡地在波浪上方行驶，波浪不再产生阻力。"
      },
      {
        "en": "Since that time, various types of hovercraft have appeared and taken up regular service.",
        "zh": ""
      },
      {
        "en": "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.",
        "zh": "从那以后，各种各样的气垫船出现了，并开始了定期航行服务。气垫船在非洲、澳大利亚等交通不发达地区特别有用。它能成为“飞行水果盘子”，把香蕉从种植园运到港口。大型的气垫班轮或许能跨越大西洋。未来的火车或许能成为“气垫火车”，靠气垫在单轨上行驶而不接触轨道，时速可达每小时300英里。气垫船的前途是不可限量的。"
      },
      {
        "en": "EGON LARSENThe Pegasus Book of Inventors",
        "zh": ""
      }
    ]
  },
  "subtitles": [
    {
      "timestamp": null,
      "en": "[ti:The Hovercraft]",
      "zh": ""
    },
    {
      "timestamp": null,
      "en": "Lesson 29",
      "zh": ""
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "00:02.96",
      "en": "The hovercraft",
      "zh": ""
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "00:10.31",
      "en": "What is a hovercraft riding on when it is in motion?",
      "zh": ""
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "00:16.55",
      "en": "Many strange new means of transport have been developed in our century,",
      "zh": ""
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "00:22.29",
      "en": "the strangest of them being perhaps the hovercraft.",
      "zh": ""
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "00:27.29",
      "en": "In 1953, a former electronics engineer in his fifties, Christopher Cockerell,",
      "zh": ""
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "00:35.44",
      "en": "who had turned to boat-building on the Norfolk Broads,",
      "zh": ""
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "00:39.52",
      "en": "suggested an idea on which he had been working for many years to the British Government and industrial circles.",
      "zh": ""
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "00:48.13",
      "en": "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.",
      "zh": ""
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "01:00.20",
      "en": "Ever since, people have had difficulty in deciding whether the craft should be ranged among ships, planes,",
      "zh": ""
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "01:09.38",
      "en": "or land vehicles--for it is something in between a boat and an aircraft.",
      "zh": ""
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "01:17.57",
      "en": "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.",
      "zh": ""
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "01:31.54",
      "en": "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.",
      "zh": ""
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "01:42.60",
      "en": "This is done by a great number of ring-shaped air jets on the bottom of the craft.",
      "zh": ""
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "01:49.60",
      "en": "It 'flies', therefore, but it cannot fly higher--its action depends on the surface, water or ground, over which it rides.",
      "zh": ""
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "02:02.29",
      "en": "The first tests on the Solent in 1959 caused a sensation.",
      "zh": ""
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "02:08.57",
      "en": "The hovercraft travelled first over the water, then mounted the beach, climbed up the dunes, and sat down on a road.",
      "zh": ""
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "02:19.57",
      "en": "Later it crossed the Channel, riding smoothly over the waves, which presented no problem.",
      "zh": ""
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "02:28.89",
      "en": "Since that time, various types of hovercraft have appeared and taken up regular service.",
      "zh": ""
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "02:36.31",
      "en": "The hovercraft is particularly useful in large areas with poor communications such as Africa or Australia;",
      "zh": ""
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "02:44.82",
      "en": "it can become a 'flying fruit-bowl', carrying bananas from the plantations to the ports;",
      "zh": ""
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "02:51.89",
      "en": "giant hovercraft liners could span the Atlantic;",
      "zh": ""
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "02:55.67",
      "en": "and the railway of the future may well be the 'hovertrain',",
      "zh": ""
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "02:59.99",
      "en": "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.",
      "zh": ""
    }
  ],
  "book": 4,
  "lesson": 29
}