中國火星探索的先驅

張嵐

張榮橋是中國首次火星探測任務工程的總設計師，他“仰望星空，腳踏實地”，篤信“這恰恰是社會對我們每個人的需求，是我們在社會上安身立命的途徑，需要我們立足當下，放眼未來”。

1Zhang Rongqiao， chief designer of China's first interplanetary endeavor （努力）—the Tianwen 1 Mars miss?

ion—was named by the top scientific journal Nature as one of the 10 people “who mattered in science” in 2021. The annual list， published on the journal's website， said that Zhang is an engineer who led “China's first successful Mars mission， which reached the planet last year and landed a rover （漫游者） on its surface”.

2Launched in July， 2020 from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan Province， the Tianwen 1 robotic probe， named after an ancient Chinese poem， traveled a total of 475 million kilometers before entering Martian orbit on Feb. 10， 2021.

3After more than three months of preparations， a landing capsule released by the probe descended through the Martian atmosphere in an extremely challenging landing process and finally touched down on the planet on May 15， making China the second country， after the United States， to have successfully conducted a landing on the surface of Mars.

4On May 22， the Chinese rover Zhurong became the sixth vehicle to travel on the Martian surface， following the five predecessors （前任） from the US.

5Born in March， 1966 in Qimen County， Anhui Province， Zhang studied at local schools until he went to Xidian University in Shaanxi Province in 1982. In 1988， he received a bachelor's degree and was admitted as a postgraduate student by the China Academy of Space Technology in Beijing. After graduating in 1991， Zhang started his career at the academy's Beijing Institute of Satellite Information Engineering and gradually moved up through professional ranks to eventually become the institute's head. In 2004， he was named chief engineer of the Lunar Exploration Center under the State Administration of Science， Technology and Industry for National Defense and has worked there since then. Zhang has also taken part in China's lunar exploration and high?resolution Earth observation satellite programs.

Reading Check

Choose the best answers according to the text

Detail 1. What can we know about Zhang Rongqiao from Para. 1？

A. He was elected as an editor of the journal Nature.

B. He contributed a lot to the development of science.

C. He was regarded as the greatest engineer.

D. His paper was published on Nature's website.

Vocabulary 2. What does the underlined word “descended” in Para. 3 probably mean？

A. Took off. B. Moved forward.

C. Climbed up. D. Went down.

Detail 3. How many vehicles have traveled on the surface of Mars according to? Para. 4？

A. Three.? ? B. Four. C. Five.? ? ? ? D. Six.

Inference 4. How does the author develop the last paragraph？

A. By providing examples.

B. By making comments.

C. By following the time order.

D. By explaining the process.

Language Study

Ⅰ. Analyze the difficult sentence in the text

After more than three months of preparations， a landing capsule released by the probe descended through the Martian atmosphere in an extremely challenging landing process and finally touched down on the planet on May 15， making China the second country， after the United States， to have successfully conducted a landing on the surface of Mars. 經過三個多月的準備，探測器釋放的著陸艙在極具挑戰(zhàn)性的著陸過程中穿越火星大氣層，最終于5月15日降落在火星上，使中國成為繼美國之后成功登陸火星表面的第二個國家。

【點石成金】句中的released by the probe是過去分詞短語作后置定語，making China the second country...Mars是現(xiàn)在分詞短語作結果狀語。

Ⅱ. Memorize some text?centered chunks

be named after 用……命名

a total of 總數(shù)為……

more than 超過……

touch down 降落;著陸

move up 上漲;升級;升遷

take part in 參與