問題詳情

   Nearly 100 years after the first airplane flew across the Atlantic Ocean, the first fullysolar powered aircraft is set to make its way across the pond. Solar Impulse 2, a fully solarpowered founded by two Swiss pioneers, Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, will takeoff on Sunday from the John F. Kennedy International Airport for Europe on thesecond-to-last leg of its journey to circumnavigate the earth.   The two pilots began the mission to promote clean energy technologies and to “showthat the world can run on clean technologies,” the pilots said in a statement. After taking offfrom Abu Dhabi in March 2015, they flew to India, China, Japan, and across the PacificOcean to Hawaii. They also made several stops across the U.S..   The Solar Impulse 2 is an interesting animal. With a wing wider than the Boeing 747, it isdeceptively light and appears almost flimsy, weighing 5,070 pounds, which is lighter than afamily car. Most of this weight is taken up by the cockpit. About 3.8 cubic meters in size, isonly large enough to fit Piccard and Borschberg (one in the pilot seat and the other in thepassenger seat).   But this is their home while they’re in the air. Also, the cockpit is non-pressurized, whichmeans it also has to carry oxygen cylinders for the pilots. Given that it is powered entirelyby solar, and runs on solar power and batteries that store the solar power, the airplane isextremely slow. It can fly at a speed of 190 kilometers per hour, which means it would takefour or six days to fly from New York across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. The cockpits,hence, are also stocked with their food and water supplies.    The plane is also connected to the ground via satellite, so the pilots can chat with peoplefrom the skies, and transmit data to the Mission Control Center (MCC) in Monaco, France,where a team monitors the route and manages performance.   Food, water, oxygen — check. But sleep? The pilots rarely get any while on the plane.Sleep is entirely prohibited while flying over populated areas. Over the oceans, however, theyare allowed short naps of up to 20 minutes at a rate of one to 12 times a day. Hence, thepilots have turned to other unique methods to handle sleep.   Trained in yoga by a guru from India, Borschberg uses yoga and meditation techniquesto manage his sleep schedules. Piccard, a trained medical doctor and psychiatrist, uses othermedical techniques.   And this way, the two pilots have managed over 120 hours on the aircraft, and are nowgetting set to head to Europe and then finally back to Abu Dhabi, where the Solar Impulse 2originally began its round-the-world journey.
45. What does the word “flimsy” in the third paragraph mean?
(A) light and strong
(B) weak, thin, and fragile
(C) worn and tattered
(D) fashionable and eye-catching

參考答案

答案：B
難度：適中0.5
統計：A(0),B(0),C(0),D(0),E(0)

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