VOA慢速英语:Deep Space Is Next Aim for NASA After Shuttles

短语讲解：

1. The space station is in low-Earth orbit. NASA will turn its attention to deep space.

turn one's attention to把注意力转向
例句：They began to turn their attention to the current situation, and concern themselves with the future of the nation.
他们开始注意当前的形势，关心国家的前途。

2. For the shuttle program, NASA came to depend mostly on workers from private companies instead of government employees.

depend on依赖, 依靠
例句：All living things depend on the sun for their growth.
万物靠太阳生长。
instead of而不是…
例句：We shall have tea in the garden instead of in the house.
我们将在花园里用茶, 而不在室内用。

3. And I expect to be around to see it.

be around to 在某地；在附近；可得到的
例句：These figures suggest that headhunters will be around for years to come.
这些数据表明，猎头公司今后还会继续存在下去。

4. Challenger exploded shortly after launch. Columbia broke apart just minutes before it was supposed to land.

break apart使…分裂开
例句：Scientists have developed ways to break apart the genetic material. 
科学家已研究出分离遗传物质的方法。
be supposed to应该,被期望
例句：You are supposed to be smart.
你应该聪明点儿。

5. He urged the nation to set a goal to put astronauts on the moon by the end of the sixties.

by the end of到…为止
例句：He had finished his great works by the end of 1980.
到1980年底, 他已完成了他的巨著。

6. It carried him and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin to the surface in an area known as the Sea of Tranquility.

known as以…知名；被认为是
例句：This property is known as ductility.
这个性能叫做延展性。

7. Buzz Aldrin graduated third in his class from the United States Military Academy at West Point in New York. He was a fighter pilot in the Korean War who shot down two enemy fighters.

graduate from从…毕业
例句：He was graduated from a normal college.
他是一个师范学院的毕业生。
shoot down击落
例句：The airplanes were shot down in flames.
那些飞机被击中起火坠落。

8. He carried out a spacewalk that lasted more than five hours.

carry out执行; 贯彻; 进行
例句：He carried out the plan in very detail.
他一丝不苟地执行那项计划。

9. But that choice was really not up to me, and I wouldn’t have traded the opportunity that I had to be a part of Apollo eleven or certainly anything that could have come along.

come along取得进展
例句：I began to come along well in English after I improved my study methods.
改进了学习方法以后, 我的英语开始有所进步。

10. And, as it turned out, I inherited genes from my mother’s side of the family.

turn out结果是, 原来是
例句：He said he was a doctor; but later he turned out to be a cheat.
他自称是个医生, 结果证明他是个骗子。

11. The former astronaut says he would like to go back to the moon to see how the American flag he and Neal Armstrong planted there is doing.

go back to回去
例句：They yearned to go back to their homeland.
他们念念不忘要回到祖国。