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　　A few days ago, he was just Colonel(上校)Yang; few people knew his name or recognized his face．But last Thursday, when he came back to the earth after a 21-hour trip to space, Yang Liwei’s smile was seen across the world above the magic words：“China’s first spaceman”．

　　The 38-year-old astronaut was sent into space at 9 a.m．last Wednesday by China’s Shenzhou V spacecraft, which orbited the earth 14 times．He landed safely at 6∶23 a.m．the next day, making China the third country to successfully send a person into space, after the former Soviet Union and the US．

　　Yang was satisfied with his job．“I have seen many landing scenes before on video, and I think ours was one of the most successful,”he said on a special plane to Beijing after landing．

　　Born into an ordinary family in Liaoning Province, he became a pilot in the Chinese Air Force in 1987, spending 1,350 hours in the air．He joined the Chinese space programme 11 years later．

　　While in space, Yang recorded everything he saw as well as showing China’s national flag and the United Nation’s flag to the people watching on TV at home．He also ate a meal of diced chicken and fried rice, before taking a 3-hour nap．The whole project went according to plan, but space exploration is not as easy as it seems．Anyone who saw the destruction of the US space shuttle Columbia in February this year will know that Yang took a great risk．

　　He experienced extremely high temperatures, while the gravitational forces(重力)on takeoff and landing were strong enough to force tears from his eyes．He has spent five years training to become a spaceman．“I eat all of my meals at the space programme’s dining room and have never been able to take my son to kindergarten,”he said．“I’ve never met his teachers.”But becoming China’s first spaceman has made all the effort worthwhile．

　　“When I boarded the spacecraft for the first time, I couldn’t help feeling excited”, he said．“I decided that I had to fly it．”

　　To Chinese people, Yang is now a hero．One visitor to a Xinhua News Agency Online Forum(新华社网上论坛)said：“Yang’s trip is a giant leap forward for China.”Officials say the next Shenzhou will be launched by 2005．China also plans to develop space walking and a space lab．

　　(From 21^st Century, China Daily)

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阅读理解

　　It’s not only rocket scientists and journalists who are following the course of“Shenzhou V”,or“Divine ship/vessel V”．There are also lexicographers, or dictionary compilers．The flight of the Spacecraft last week might help put some new words into orbit．

　　One of them is a western media coinage used to refer to the Chinese astronauts．It’s a combination of the Chinese pinyin“taikong”, meaning space, and the English“astronaut”, from classical Greek：“star sailor/navigator”, for people who was going into space as a career．

　　In the Reuters and AP reports of October 15,“taikonaut”was used as a proper noun．For example：

　　The long March 2F rocket carrying“taikonaut”Yang Liwei lifted off into a clear blue sky over the Gobi desert at 9 am and entered its orbit 10 minutes later．

　　A Long March 2F rocket called the Shemhou V－“divine ship”in Chinese－carried a single“taikonaut”named Yang Liwei, 38, following Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and American Alan Shepard in 1961．

　　The word“taikonaut”is not a newly coined term．It first emerged in November, 1999, when China launched its first unmanned“Shenzhou I”spacecraft．

　　At that lime, some English news media predicted that China would soon launch a manned space flight and created the word“taikonaut”for the Chinese astronauts．It was then borrowed by the Germans media．

　　But it was left out of mainstream dictionaries, such as the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Cambridge Advanced English Learner’s Dictionary．

　　However, the launch of the“Shenzhou V”will most likely help boost its status since there is already a word referring specifically to Russian astronauts in the dictionary entry．

　　An astronaut of Russian(or the former Soviet Union)is called a“cosmonaut”, from the Russian“kosmonaut”．The word was derived from classical Greek：“kosmonaut”(universal)and“nautes”．One might argue that“cosmonaut”is a Russian variation on the earlier word“astronaut”．

　　On March 14,1995, US astronaut Norman Thagard became the first American to ride into space on-board a Russian launch vehicle, arguably making him the first American cosmonaut．

　　And if this trend of coinage continues, more English variations for astronaut will appear as more countries are able to send their own astronauts into outer space, what would Western journalists call an astronaut from India or Africa?We’ll have to wait to see．

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