2014英语四级听力练习慢速4.8(1)_大学英语听力

2014英语四级听力练习慢速4.8(1)

　　Back in Maryland, the space station watchers gathered among childrens swings and toy cars. They sought to identify the stars and planets in the clear night sky. One woman repeatedly looked at her wristwatch.

　　Hey, there it is, called a man. He pointed at yellow, red and blue lights sailing through the night. But no, that was an airplane.

　　Isnt that it, cried another watcher? She caught sight of a lighted object as it moved through the skies. No, that also was a plane. The woman worried that perhaps they had missed the sighting.

　　Luckily, help was available. Retired television engineer Paul Monte-Bovi served as a kind of guide and host for the Saturday night event. He has belonged for many years to one of Americas largest amateur astronomy clubs.

　　Mr. Monte-Bovi owns three telescopes. He noted that the space station might look as if it were on the same level with airplanes. But he said it is really more than 300 kilometers up in the sky.

　　And its light looks bright white. The ISS does not show up as the yellowish color of the stars and other objects in the sky. It does look like an airplane, the difference being that the space station does not have flashing lights.

　　The Maryland sky watchers found the ISS by looking to the northwest and watching it move southeast. NASA, the American space agency, says that it not usually the case. But the space stations trajectories, the curved paths, differ.