S4 Tim Vicary - City of lights | Текст песни

• Тексты песен
• S4 Tim Vicary
• City of lights

1
City of lights
By Tim Vicary
Level 4 Streamline Destinations
Units 1-80 (1250 headwords)
WASHINGTON POST
ASTRONAUT ILL
Astronaut Cathy Fox today lost her job at NASA because she is ill. Another astronaut from NASA, Helen Wilson, said Cathy was
seriously ill and could never fly again. Last year. Astronaut Fox was the pilot on the first flight of the space-plane 'Space Bird
One'.
I remember the day of the take-off. It was a beautiful day -sunshine, blue sky, and no clouds anywhere. I was so
excited, I thought it was the best day of my life.
There was a warm, soft wind, blowing across the desert. I remember that because, as we were walking towards the
plane, the wind blew Mary's hair across her face. The cameramen loved that. Helen and I cut our hair real short, like
all astronauts. But Mary's hair is long and fair. The gentle wind blew it everywhere, and one TV cameraman walked in
front of her, filming it.
There were cameramen everywhere. I guess that it looked real good on breakfast TV — three young women in
silver spacesuits, walking across the desert sand in the early morning sun. And there in front of us, on the runway, was
our fantastic, beautiful, black and silver space-plane.
There were no other planes like this anywhere. And tomorrow this one would be floating beside the orbiting Space
Station. Three days later, we would be back here, on this runway, on Earth.
That is the reason why this plane is so fantastic. It can take off from an ordinary airport, like an ordinary plane, and
fly straight up into space like a spacecraft, then it can fly back down and land again like a plane. It uses its own
engines all the time — jet engines in the atmosphere, rocket engines in space. It is easy. And if the engines are OK, it
can turn round the next day and fly back up again.
And I was going to fly it. Me — Cathy Fox, a twenty-nine-year-old girl from a small town in Georgia — I was
going to be the first person to fly this wonderful, beautiful plane away from Earth and into black starry space.
We climbed in and sat in our seats. I looked at my hands as I touched the controls. They seemed quite still, quite
calm - but inside I wanted to sing, I was so excited. Helen, my co-pilot, sat beside me and Mary sat behind us.
I switched the engines on and slowly turned them up to full power. The noise was terrible. I checked everything
carefully and then talked to Mission Control.
'OK, Space Bird One,' said Mission Control. 'You are OK for take-off. Good luck, everyone!'
'Thank you, Mission Control.' I smiled at Helen, and then turned to look at Mary. 'OK, honey? Are you ready?'
Mary's face was a little white, I thought, but she smiled bravely. 'Sure, Cathy,' she said. 'Let's go.'
I touched the controls. There was a noise like thunder and the little plane screamed down the runway and took off.
Above us, in the clear blue morning sky, I saw the Moon.
Mary looked rather nervous, but I wasn't worried about that. You see, Mary Carter and I had been at school
together. I was her best friend in those days, so I knew her well.
She had looked rather nervous on the day when we had gone spear-fishing underwater for the first time. But she
had caught a baby shark that day, and we had eaten it that evening. We were both ten years old then.
Mary had looked rather nervous on the day when she and I had started hang-gliding. But she had become the best
woman hang-glider in the USA — she was much better at it than me. She was the first woman to fly a hang-glider
from the top of the Rocky Mountains to the sea. She was eighteen then.
Sometimes she looks small and nervous. But I know that inside she's really tough.
After school, I became a pilot and she became a journalist. She went all over the world: Japan, Latin America,
India. Then she got her own TV program. She interviewed scientists and asked them to explain their work. When she
got married and had three kids, she made the kids part of the TV program, too. I think that she loved those kids more
than anything else. I never married. I didn't want kids. I loved flying too much. I didn't see Mary so often. I read her
reports in the newspapers, saw her on TV, and met her once or twice a year. That's all.
When NASA built this space-plane, they wanted a lot of publicity for it. They wanted everyone in the country to
read about it, see it on TV and say how fantastic it was, so they could get money for more space-planes. So NASA
decided to ask a journalist to fly on the plane, talk on TV and write about it. And Mary got the job.
She was a famous reporter, with her own TV program about scientists. I guess that's why she got the job. Of course,
she was young and pretty with long fair hair, too. And maybe Helen Wilson and I were allowed to fly with her because
they wanted three women in the plane. That would look good on TV, too. We didn't like that, but we didn't care too
much either. Mary was a good journalist, and Helen and I had both been in space twice before. We all knew our jobs.
And it was a really beautiful plane.
Once, a man from the CIA asked me a few questions about Mary. He was worried about some other TV programs.
'Is she OK?' he asked. 'Can she keep quiet, if she has to?'
'Listen,' I said. 'I know Mary. I was at school with her. Of course she can keep a secret. She's a famous journalist.
She knows her job. Don't worry.'
2
That was my first big mistake, I suppose. I forgot that Mary liked to ask difficult questions.
***
'40,000 feet,' said Helen. 'Six minutes to rocket engine start.'
'OK,' I said. 'She's flying beautifully, isn't she?'
'She sure is,' Helen answered. 'She flies like a bird.'
She smiled at me. She was as happy and excited as I was. I didn't know Helen very well, but I knew she was a good
astronaut. She had lived on the Space Station for three months last year.
'Mission Control to Space Bird One. Mary, are you ready to talk to your kids now?'
They wanted her to talk to her kids, on breakfast TV. If she could explain things, which the kids could understand,
then anyone would be able to understand.
'Sure, Control,' said Mary. 'We're ready.'
We heard three excited voices on the radio. 'Hi, Mom! We saw you take off! Hey, how are you?'
'Hello, Danny! Hello, Sue! Hello, David! I'm fine! Can you see me on TV?'
'We can see the plane in the sky. Mom, but it's real small now. Are you very high up? Can you see our house?'
Mary laughed. 'No, Sue, I don't think I can. But it's a beautiful view. I can see the whole of the desert, and the
mountains to the north ...'
Helen smiled at me. 'That's what the world wants to hear,' she said. She was right. At that exact moment, people all
over the world were listening to Mary and her children. The TV camera in the plane was showing pictures of her
pretty, happy face, and the TV camera in her home was showing pictures of her three excited children and their proud
father. That was what NASA wanted. And it was what Mary was good at.
Four minutes later, she asked me to speak.
'OK, kids. Let me show you our pilot, Cathy Fox. Do you remember her?'
'Sure, Mom! Hi, Cathy! Are you really flying that plane?'
'You bet I am. I'm flying the most beautiful plane in the world, and your Mommy is sitting behind me. We're
already higher than any other plane in the world, you know, and we're still going up. But there's not much air around
us now, and the jet engines need air. In about thirty seconds we're going to switch off the jet engines and switch on the
rocket motors. Then we'll be in space. When you see a bright light on your TV screen, that's what it is. Ready
everyone?'
'Ready,' Mary and Helen answered.
'OK. Twenty seconds to rocket engine start... fifteen ... ten ... five, four, three, two, one...'
I switched on the two rocket motors. The plane shot forward, and we were pushed back into our seats. Two minutes
and five seconds later, I switched off the rocket engines. I checked my controls carefully. Speed, fuel, air ... everything
was OK. I sat back in my seat.
'OK, girls. We've done it! We're flying into space!'
Over the radio, we could hear laughs and cheers from Mission Control on Earth, and from Mary's family. Behind
me, Mary started talking again, to the millions of people in her audience on Earth.
'I can see the edge of the Earth now ...and I can see the sea ... I can see all the way across from the Nevada Desert
to the sea, kids! This is wonderful! And the sky isn't blue any more. It's going black, because we're outside the Earth's
atmosphere, yes, the sky's black above us, and I can see the stars and the Moon, but the sun is shining on the sea
below. This is the most fantastic view I have ever seen, kids!'
'Hey, Cathy, we did it! Look up there!' Helen touched my arm and pointed through the window.
'What is it?' I could see a large star in front of us.
'The Space Station. That's where we're going.' Helen smiled.
I looked again. There it was. Six thousand miles to the east, and ten miles above us, the Space Station was orbiting
near the edge of the Earth. It

S4 Tim Vicary еще тексты