双语：55岁女教师上太空授课(图)

巴巴拉（前）在空间站演示纸飞机飞行

　　The first teacher in space taught her first lesson in zero-gravity Tuesday, answering questions from school children in Idaho from the orbiting International Space Station hundreds of miles above Earth. Barbara Morgan, flanked by crewmates, talked via videolink for 25 minutes to children in Idaho, where Morgan taught at a primary school early in her career.

　　Morgan, now 55, trained as understudy to fellow teacher Christa McAuliffe in the 1980s as the NASA hoped that sending a teacher into space would fire the imaginations of millions and keep up support for its shuttle program. But McAuliffe never made it to space because the Challenger shuttle exploded in 1986. Twenty-two years later, Morgan has fulfilled the aim.

　　She fielded questions such as how fast a baseball travels in space and how to drink in weightlessness. She and her fellow astronauts demonstrated, throwing real balls and swallowing floating bubbles of liquid. Asked how astronauts exercise in space, Morgan grabbed one of her colleagues and lifted him.

　　首个登上太空的老师周二在零重力状态下教了她的第一堂课，从距地面数百英里的国际空间站上回答了身在爱达荷州的学生的提问。巴巴拉·摩根在航天飞机同事的身旁，通过视频连接给爱达荷的学生上了25分钟课，她早年曾在该州的一个小学里教过书。

　　摩根现年55岁，上世纪80年代接受宇航员培训，以担任同为教师的克里斯塔·麦奥利夫的候补，NASA希望把一名教师送上太空能够激发数百万人的想象力以支持其航天飞机计划。但挑战者号航天飞机1986年的爆炸，使麦奥利夫的太空之旅从未成行。22年后，摩根达到了这个目的。

　　她在太空中提问，棒球在太空中飞行的速度有多快以及如何在无重力状态下饮水，并和宇航员同事们亲自演示了投掷棒球以及吞下在空间站中漂浮的水泡。当有学生问宇航员如何在太空中锻炼身体时，她就抓住其中一个同事并把他举了起来。