新概念英语（第四册，旧版）复习（原文及全文翻译）——Lesson 35 - The Pegasus Book of Inventors（发明者的灵感）

Lesson 35 - The Pegasus Book of Inventors

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. 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. 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.

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.

EGON LARSEN The Pegasus Book of Inventors

参考译文——发明者的灵感

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·科克雷的前电子工程师，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。

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。

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。

参考资料：

http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~yuana/new_concept_english.html