四级强化备考阅读练习（5）

　　Our prophecies need not be completely wild guesses. We know science has moved forward rapidly in the past 50 years and will continue to do so. If we allow our imaginations to be guided by known research, our prophecies need not be sheer fantasy. We dont have to go so far as to predict that there will be invasion by men from Mars, or that all food and nourishment will be taken in capsule form, or that mechanical men will roam the world.

　　With the scientific information that we have available now, lets make an estimate of progress in air travel. It is likely that within 50 years we shall travel through the air at a speed of 10,000 miles per hour. Too fast? Not at all. Jet-propelled planes can now travel at least 1,000 miles an hour, and jet planes will be outmoded shortly by guided missiles. The X-15 rockets speed in 1961 was 3,690 miles per hour, and scientists are hoping to double and even triple this speed. They will accomplish this speed-up, because there is no apparent scientific obstacle to prevent it.

　　Some day, certain aerodynamic problems will be overcome and missiles will be enlarged to carry at least 25 passengers. When scientists have solved all the problems of constructing and increasing the speed of apparatus-carrying missiles, their skill will lead them to the next stepmissiles for interplanetary flight. This prediction is a scientific possibility in the near future.

　　Flights into outer space began when Sputnik I was launched in 1957, and man first went into space in 1961. During the late 1950s and early 1960s many satellitesman-made astral bodiesorbited the earth and moon. Satellites, which will be controlled by men on earth, may have many beneficial uses. Perhaps scientists will discover a source of energy 100 miles above the earth. This energy could be transmitted to us as a source of power for manufacturing plants or even for our cook stoves. Or one of these missiles might serve as the medium for transmitting communications across the globe. Telephonic communications might be carried on by beaming waves at the missile, which would in turn beam waves at a telephone halfway across the world. The missile might be the telephonic connection, for example, between you in New York, and a friend in Bangkok.

　　Such a satellite might also be used as the transmitting medium for international television broadcasts. Programs being telecast from a Paris studio could then be seen simultaneously in every other country. This immediate international transmission will surely be a development before the turn of a new century.