2016年12月英语六级考试热点：天宫二号

　　The Mid-Autumn Festival, as an anniversary traditional Chinese holiday, we still keep on soaking it in. On the very night, as the first genuine space lab, China’s space lab Tiangong II blasted off successfully.

　　一年一度的中秋佳节，大家尚还沉浸节日其中。在中秋佳节月夜当晚，作为第一个真正意义上的太空实验室“天宫二号”成功发射。

　　In a cloud of smoke underneath a mid-autumn full moon, Tiangong II roared into the air at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gobi Desert, on the back of a Long March-2F T2 rocket at 10:04 p.m. Beijing Time.

　　中秋满月，一团烟雾升起，在中国西北的戈壁沙滩酒泉卫星发射中心，北京时间晚上10:04，搭载着“天宫二号”的长征二号FT2运载火箭发射升空。

　　The Tiangong II, marking another milestone in its increasingly ambitious space program, which envisions a mission to Mars by the end of this decade and its own space station by around 2020. And the space officials said that it will become the country’s largest scientific platform in space.

　　“天宫二号”，标志着中国雄心勃勃的太空计划的另一个里程碑，而且也为这十年底的火星任务计划以及到2020年左右有自己的空间站。太空官方说“天宫二号”将会成为在太空里的最大科学平台。

　　The lab will undergo preparations in space for about one month before the Shenzhou XI manned spacecraft, in a flight scheduled for mid-October, will take two astronauts to the lab to enter it.

　　The astronauts will stay inside the lab for 30 days. The lab will be monitored and controlled mainly by the Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center.

　　在预定十月中旬发射的神舟十一号载人飞船发射前，“天宫二号”实验室将在太空为其着手做准备，届时，将会有两名宇航员进入空间实验室。宇航员们将会在空间实验室里待30天。而且，空间实验室主要由北京航天指挥控制中心监管和控制。

　　Its predecessor, Tiangong I, was launched in September 2011 and was mainly used to test technologies involved in space rendezvous and docking.

　　By comparison, the Tiangong II will conduct more than 40 scientific and technological experiments together with the Shenzhou XI.

　　That is many more than those carried out by the Tiangong I and three previous Shenzhou spacecraft, according to Wu Ping, deputy director of the China Manned Space Agency.

　　作为“天宫二号”的前辈，“天宫一号”于2011年9月发射，而且主要用于测试参与空间交会对接技术。相对比，“天宫二号”将会与神舟十一号共同进行40多项科技实验。据中国载人航天工程副主任武平称，“天宫二号”比之前“天宫一号”和前三次神舟载人飞船执行的任务多很多。

　　And in April 2017, China's first space cargo ship Tianzhou I, which literally means heavenly vessel, will be sent into orbit to dock with the space lab, providing fuel and other supplies.

　　在2017年4月份，中国首个太空货运船“天舟一号”，意味着重型轮船将会被送入轨道与空间实验室对接，并提供原料与其他补给。