At the base or foot of the rocket there is an opening or nozzle. A fuse hangs out like a tail from the nozzle. A long stick attached along the body serves to direct the rocket before the fuse is lighted.
When the gunpowder burns, hot gases rush out of the nozzle. The hot gases continue to rush out as long as the gunpowder burns. When these gases shoot downwards through the nozzle the rocket is pushed upwards. This is called jet propulsion. The simple experiment, shown in the picture, will help you to understand jet propulsion. 翻译参考答案： 什么是重力?
假如你把一个球往上抛，它还会掉下来。球为什么会掉下来呢?球掉下来是因为球被吸引或拉向地球。地球对所有物体都施加吸引力。离地球较近的物体所受的吸引力，比远离地球的物体所受的吸引力大。这种吸引力通常叫做重力。作用于地球表面上物体的引力，叫做物体的重量。
空间所有的天体，如月球﹑行星和星星，对物体也都有吸引力。物体越大﹑越重，其引力也就越大。既然月球比地球小，因此，月球对月球表面上一物体施加的力，将比地球对地球表面上同一物体施加的力要小。实际上，月球的引力只有地球引力的六分之一。这就是说，地球上一个重120公斤的物体，在月球上会只重20公斤。因此，在月球上你能举起的重量，将是你在地球上所能举起的最大重量的六倍。
地球的引力或拉力，使我们和地球上别的任何东西都不致漂浮到空间中。要飞向空间并到月球或其他行星去旅游，就必须克服地球的引力。 进入空间
怎么才能克服地球的引力呢？科学家们为此进行了长期的研究。直到最近，他们才能够制造出足以克服地球引力的强有力的机器。这种机器就称为宇宙火箭。宇宙火箭的巨大速度和强大的动力，帮助它挣脱地球的引力而进入空间。 火箭
强大的宇宙火箭的工作原理和简单的烟火火箭是一样的。烟火火箭有一圆柱形壳体和一锥形头部。壳体内充填黑色火药作为燃料。它是一种化学品的混合物，能迅速燃烧形成炽热的气体。
火箭的底部有一个通道，即喷口。从喷口伸出一根尾巴似的引信。沿壳体装着一根长棍，用以在引信点着以前确定火箭发射的方向。
当黑色火药燃烧时，炽热的气体，即燃气从喷口急速排出。只要黑色火药还在燃烧，燃气就不断急速排出。当这些燃气通过喷口往下喷出时，火箭就被向上推进。这就叫做喷气推进。图中所示的简单实验，可以帮助你了解喷气推进。 Basketball Diplomacy
CHINA”S TALLEST SOLDIER never really expected to live the American Dream. But Wang Zhizhi, a 7-foot-1 basketball star from the People’s Liberation Army, is making history as the first Chinese player in the NBA. In his first three weeks in America the 23-year-old rookie has already cashed his first big NBA check, preside over “Wang Zhizhi Day” in San Francisco and become immortalized on his very own trading cards. He’s even played in five games with his new team, the Dallas Mavericks, scoring 24 points in just 38 minutes. Now the affable Lieutenant Wang is joining the Mavericks on their ride into the NBA playoffs — and he is intent on enjoying every minute. One recent evening Wang slipped into the hot tub behind the house of Mavericks assistant coach Donn Nelson. He leaned back, stretched out and pointed at a plane moving across the star-filled sky. In broken English, he started singing his favorite tune: “I believe I can fly. I believe I can touch the sky.”
Back in China, the nation’s other basketball phenom, Yao Ming , can only dream of taking flight. Yao thought he was going to be the first Chinese player in the NBA. The 7-foot-5 Shanghai sensation is more highly touted than Wang: the 20-year-old could be the No.1 overall pick in the June NBA draft. But as the May 13 deadline to enter the draft draws near, Yao is still waiting for a horde of business people and apparatchiks to decide his fate. Last week, as Wang scored 13 points in the Dallas season finale, Yao was wading through a stream of bicycles on a dusty Beijing street. Yao and Wang are more than just freaks of nature in basketball shorts. The twin towers are national treasures, symbols of China’s growing stature in the world. They’re also emblematic of the NBA’s outsize dreams for conquering China. The NBA, struggling at home, sees salvation in the land of 1.3 billion potential hoop fans. China, determined to win the 2008 Olympics and join the World Trade Organization, is eager to make its mark on the world — on its own terms. The two-year struggle to get these young players into the NBA has been a cultural collision — this one far removed from U.S.-China bickering over spy planes and trade liberalization. If
it works out, it could be — in basketball parlance — the ultimate give-and-go. “This is just like Ping-Pong diplomacy,” says Xia Song, a sport-marketing executive who represents Wang. “Only with a much bigger ball.”
Two years ago it looked more like a ball and chain. Wang’s Army bosses were miffed when the Mavericks had the nerve to draft their star back in 1999. Nelson remembers flying to Beijing with the then owner Ross Perot Jr. — son of the eccentric billionaire — to hammer out a deal with the stone-faced communists of the PLA. “You could hear them thinking: ‘What is this NBA team doing, trying to lay claim to our property?’” Nelson recalls. “We tried to explain that this was an honor for Wang and for China.” There was no deal. Wang grew despondent and lost his edge on court.
This year Yao became the anointed one. He eclipsed Wang in scoring and rebounding, and even stole away his coveted MVP award in the Chinese Basketball Association league. It looked as if his Shanghai team — a dynamic semicapitalist club in China’s most open city — would get its star to the NBA first.
Then came the March madness. Wang broke out of his slump to lead the Army team to its sixth consecutive CBA title — scoring 40 in the final game. A day later the PLA scored some points of its own by announcing that Wang was free to go West. What inspired the change of heart? No doubt the Mavericks worked to build trust with Chinese officials (even inviting national- team coach Wang Fei to spend the 1999-2000 season in Dallas). There was also the small matter of Chinese pride. The national team stumbled to a 10th-place finish at the 2000 Olympics, after placing eighth in 1996. Even the most intransigent cadre could see that the team would improve only if it sent its stars overseas to learn from the world’s best players. 参考答案： 篮球外交
姚和王不仅仅是篮球队员中的奇人。这两座塔是国家的财富，是中国在世界上地位提高的象征。他们也是NBA梦想征服中国的象征。NBA，还在国内争斗的时候，就看到了在13亿潜在篮球迷的国土上的前景。中国——志在夺取2008年奥运会主办权和加入世界贸易组织——正急于在世界上留下标记，当然是按照自己的条件。两年来，让这些年轻球员加盟NBA的斗争已经演变成一场文化冲突——这种冲突被美中之间关于侦察飞机和贸易自由化
的争吵大大淡化了。如果成功的话，它可能是——用一句篮球术语来说——最终的二人配合。“这就像乒乓外交，”夏松，一个代表王的体育市场经理人说，“只不过球个大些。” 两年前，这件事情更像是锁链。当小牛队早在1999年要挑选他们的明星时，王所在部队的头头们非常恼火。尼尔森仍记得与当时(小牛队)的拥有人罗斯·小皮劳特——那个行为古怪的亿万富翁的儿子——一块飞往北京，同面孔古板的人民解放军干部敲定一项交易的情景。“你能听见他们所想的：‘这个NBA球队在干什么，想对我们的财产提出要求吗?’” 尼尔森回忆道。“我们试图解释这对王和中国都是一件光荣的事。”交易没达成。王变得十分沮丧，失去了场上锋芒。
这年，姚成为选定球员。他在得分和挣抢蓝板球方面超过了王，甚至在中国篮球协会联赛中夺走了他垂涎已久的MVP(最有价值球员)奖。表面看来，似乎他所在的上海队——一个中国最开放城市中充满活力的半资本主义俱乐部——将首先把它的球星送进NBA。 后来，3月巅峰来临。王打破消沉，率领八一队连续第六次摘取联赛桂冠——他在决赛中独得40分。一天以后，人民解放军宣布王可以自由地去西方，又为自己赢了不少分。是什么因素导致了这种变化?毫无疑问，与小牛队致力于与中国官员建立信任的努力密不可分(甚至邀请国家队教练王飞在达拉斯度过1999-2000赛季)。当然还有一些小小的中国人的自尊心因素。国家队在2000年奥运会结束时踉踉跄跄地挤到第10位，而在1996年列第8位。即使是最顽固的干部也会明白，只有把自己的球星派到海外向世界最优秀的球员学习，才能提高球队的水平。
Compulsory Translation (必译题)
中华民族历来尊重人的尊严和价值。还在遥远的古代，我们的先人就已提出“民为贵”的思想，认为“天生万物，唯人为贵” ，一切社会的发展和进步，都取决于人的发展和进步，取决于人的尊严的维护和价值的发挥。中国共产党领导人民进行革命、建设和改革，就是要实现全中国人民广泛的自由、民主和人权。今天中国所焕发出来的巨大活力，是中国人民拥有广泛自由、民主的生动写照。中国在公元一世纪人口就已达到过六千万左右，众多人口的衣食住行，几千年来一直是中国历代政府所要解决的首要人权问题。今天的中国是一个有十二亿多人口的发展中大国，仍然必须首先保障最广大人民的生存权和发展权，不然一切其他权利都无从谈起。中国确保十二亿多人的生存权和发展权，这是对世界人权进步事业的重大贡献。 参考答案：
The Chinese nation has always valued human dignity and value. Even in the ancient days, our ancestors came up with the idea of people being most important, believing
that “man is the most valuable among all the things that heaven fosters.” Progress and development of a society hinge on human progress and development and depend on how well human dignity is maintained and how much human value is realized. The Communist Party of China has led the Chinese people in carrying out revolution, development and reform precisely for the purpose of ensuring the entire Chinese people broad freedoms, democracy and human rights. The immense vitality displayed by China today is a vivid reflection of the broad freedoms and democratic rights enjoyed by the Chinese people. China’s population reached around 60 million as early as in the first century. For several thousand years, to meet the people’s need for food, clothes, housing and transport has all along been the primary human rights challenge for successive governments in Chinese history. In today’s China, which is a large developing country with a population of over 1.2 billion, top priority should still be given to ensuring the greatest possible majority of its people the rights to subsistence and development. Otherwise, there would be no other rights to speak of. To have been able to ensure our people these rights is in itself a major contribution to the progress of the world human rights cause.