Dialogue 1

Jingjing: Hey Mark, did you hear about the plane that almost crashed?
京晶：馬克，聽說那個飛機差點墜毀的事件了嗎？
Mark: Which one? You mean the flight in China that was saved by the captain?
馬克：哪一個？你指發生在中國的那個被機長救回來的航班？
Jingjing: Yeah, Captain Liu. He's a hero. Last week, it was all over the media.
京晶：是的，劉機長。他是一個英雄。上周，全國媒體都在報道此事。
Mark: It's a good thing he had his seatbelt on.
馬克：幸好他系好了安全帶。
Jingjing: It sure is. I read that the flight had reached a cruising altitude, and they were already starting meal service in the cabin.
京晶：的確。我了解到飛機那時已經到達巡航高度，機艙里已經開始在準備供應早餐了。
Mark: Wow, it's pretty rare for things to go wrong at that time in a flight. Luckily, the captain responded quickly and landed the plane safely.
馬克：天哪，在飛行中的那個時段發生事故挺罕見的。幸運的是，機長迅速反應，讓飛機安全著陸。
Jingjing: He had to land the plane manually. The plane was headed for Lhasa. But they had to do an emergency landing in Chengdu.
京晶：他必須得手動操作降落。飛機是飛往拉薩去的，但必須在成都緊急迫降。
Mark: The flight was out of Chongqing, wasn't it?
馬克：飛機是從重慶起飛的吧？
Jingjing: That's right. So, they didn't get very far.
京晶：是的。所以，還飛得不太遠。
Mark: I read another story last month about a Southwest Airlines flight that had a similar problem. Someone got sucked halfway out of the plane.
馬克：我上個月還讀到西南航空的一架飛機遇到類似問題。有人在途中被吸出飛機窗外。
Jingjing: Was it a passenger? Were they okay?
京晶：是乘客嗎？他們一切順利嗎？
Mark: He was injured in the flight, and died later. But, you know, it's not like in the movies. It just takes a few seconds for the air pressure to equalize; and there's usually not enough force to propel a person very far.
馬克：他在機上受傷了，之后不治身亡。但你知道，不像在電影里演的，其實幾秒鐘氣壓就可以恢復平衡，通常也沒有那么大的力度把人推出那么遠。
Jingjing: That's a relief. Whenever I hear a loud noise on a flight—usually just the landing gear or something—I worry that a hole is going to appear near my seat and take a bunch of people out.
京晶：那真是舒了一口氣。只要我聽到飛機上有很大聲的噪音—通常是起落架或者別的，我都擔心我的座位會出現一個洞，然后把一些人吸出去。
Mark: Well, that's not very likely. But every time something goes seriously wrong on a flight, it's a frightening reminder for everyone who travels by air.
馬克：這是不太可能的。但每次飛機上出了什么嚴重狀況，都會給坐飛機出行的人留下陰影。
Jingjing: I'm going to look up some facts on the Web about that stuff. See you later this afternoon.
京晶：我這就去網上查下這方面的資料。一會兒下午見。

New words: 習語短語

cruising altitude 飛機的巡航高度
the distance above sea level ideal for long-range flight (~35,000 feet)
cabin 機艙
the part of a plane for passengers and crew
manually (adverb) 手動操作地
controlled by a human, rather than automated
landing gear 起落架
the wheels, etc, of a plane

Dialogue 2

Mark: Well, Jingjing, did you spend all afternoon researching plane crashes?
馬克：那，京晶，你整個下午都在搜關于墜機的東西嗎？
Jingjing: Naw, I just spent a few minutes before buckling down to work. But I did get some fun facts.
京晶：沒有呢。開始工作前就花了幾分鐘看了看。確實找到了些有趣的事實。
Mark: Oh yeah, what'd you find out?
馬克：找到了些什么呢？
Jingjing: The odds of a flight crashing are 1 in 270,417.
京晶：墜機的幾率是1/270417
Mark: Really, that doesn't sound so bad.
馬克：是嗎，聽上去不那么糟。
Jingjing: Someone has to take 187,438 flights in order for their odds to reach 50%.
京晶：一個人必須要乘坐187438次飛機來次幾率提升到50%。
Mark: I'll trust your math on that. Just for comparison, did you look up auto fatalities?
馬克：那我就相信你的數學了。只是比較一下，你查過車禍死亡率嗎？
Jingjing: I did. 88 people die in car accidents for every one person who dies in a commercial flight.
京晶：查過。88人死于車禍才有一人死于空難。（車禍死亡率是空難的88倍）
Mark: Yikes, now I'll be more careful than ever crossing the street.
馬克：我的天哪，以后我過馬路可得更加小心了。
Jingjing: Yeah, and buckle up when you ride in a car. Hey, back to the topic of air travel: did you see the movie Sully?
京晶：駕車時一定系好安全帶。說回飛行這個話題，你看過電影《薩利機長》嗎？
Mark: Yeah, I loved that movie! I saw it the day it opened in theaters, September 9 last year, and again on the internet when I found the video.
馬克：看過，我太喜歡了，上映那天我就在影院里看了，去年的九月九號，在網上找到視頻后我又看了一遍。
Jingjing: I thought that was a very well-made movie. Clint Eastwood directed it.
京晶：我認為這是一部拍得很好的片子。克林特·伊斯特伍德執導的。
Mark: Yeah, I'm a fan of all of his work. It was great to see Tom Hanks and Aaron Eckhart.
馬克：他導的所有片子我都愛看。還能看見湯姆·漢克斯和阿倫·艾克哈特太棒了！
Jingjing: Maybe they'll make a movie about Captain Liu.
京晶：也許他們要給劉機長拍部電影。
Mark: I'd see that. We need more stories to be told about real heroes.
馬克：我相信。我們需要更多的真英雄的故事。

New words: 習語短語

buckling down to work 開始專注工作
focusing, going to work for several hours uninterrupted
auto fatalities 車禍致死率
deaths caused by cars (including passengers and pedestrians killed)
commercial flight 非軍用或體育類普通飛行，民用飛行
regular air travel (not military or sports)
buckle up 系好安全帶
wear a seat belt