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  3. The seven crew members of the space shuttle Discovery will arrive at Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday to take one of the biggest

The seven crew members of the space shuttle Discovery will arrive at Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday to take one of the biggest

admin2010-05-26  53
问题     The seven crew members of the space shuttle Discovery will arrive at Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday to take one of the biggest risks of their lives. They have a 1-in-100 chance of dying during their spaceflight next month. Those, at least, are the official odds that NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration [美国]国家航空和宇宙航行局) has long given.
    That is because two top officials at NASA took the unusual step of dissenting from the space agency’s  decision to go ahead with the launch without fixing the potentially catastrophic problem of foam falling off the external fuel tank—the very problem that doomed Columbia 3 and 1/2 years ago.
    The agency’ s safety director and chief engineer wanted to wait and fix the problem. But NASA Administrator Michael Griffin decided a July 1 launch is worth the added risk for a variety of masons. "It’s a difficult decision, highly technical, highly subtle, very subtle, involves lots of assessment of statistical risks," Griffin said in an interview with The Associated Press. "What’s really instructive is the way the various players in this controversial choice—from the head of NASA to the safety director to the astronauts themselves—are not only using the facts, but their individual unique perspectives in trying  to figure out what’s right or what’s safe.".
What is the decision of the space agency?
选项
答案Go ahead with the launch．
解析 这是一道词汇和短语含义题。词组“dissenting from”意思是“不同意，反对”。原文的意思是NASA的两名高级官员不同意航空局还没有解决潜在的灾难性问题坚持继续发射飞行器的决定。
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