VOA常速英语:Artist Inspired by Final Space Shuttle Launch

短语讲解：

1. Standing on the grounds of Kennedy Space Center, facing the launch pad as a space shuttle lifts off, is an experience that defies words.
space shuttle航天飞机

lift off (飞机、火箭等)起飞, 发射升空
例句：The rocket is due to lift off at noon on Friday.
火箭定于星期五中午发射。

2. Upon liftoff, there is a bright blaze from the engines, a flaming trail that cuts the sky vertically, the cloud plume that begins in silence, going up, and then the thunder that mounts and rolls into a noise that seems to make both the sky and your stomach shudder.

in silence安静地, 无声地
例句：The questioner was heard out in complete silence.
大家一言不发地听完了提问者的话。
go up上升, 上涨, 提高, 增加, 增高
例句：I go up by the elevator
我搭电梯上去。

3. Stephen Bach, a landscape painter from Orlando, Florida, watched the launch from the Kennedy Space Center, two paintings in progress on an easel before him, both of the shuttle.

in progress进行中
例句：The construction of that new state highway is now in progress.
那条新的州高速公路的建设现在正在进行中。

4. But Bach is a painter, a man well versed in images and details, and he describes the seconds after Atlantis disappeared above the clouds.

be versed in精通于
例句：He is well versed in history.
他精通历史。

5. You can see the yellow coming through the inside of the plume.

come through穿过; 穿透
例句：The sun came through after days of rain.
下了几天雨之后, 太阳出来了。

6. As Bach still gazed at the plume, barely able to look away, his painting of Atlantis taking flight garnered another shuttle watcher's attention.

gaze at凝视
例句：The climbers stood on the top of the mountain, gazing at the splendid view.
登山队员们站在山顶, 凝视那壮丽的景色。

7. The landscape painter who turned his talents to the sky had an offer to buy, before the plume had even vanished.

turn to转向
例句：More and more people turn to computer science.
愈来愈多的人从事计算机科学研究。