SAT经典范文赏析

哥伦比亚航天飞机失事事件 Columbia Space Shuttle
Jeremy P. The first example of the notion that we learn from our mistakes occurred in 2003 when disaster struck the Space Shuttle Columbia. During takeoff a piece of foam, weighing almost two pounds, detached from the fuel tank of the shuttle and hit the left wing creating a large hole. Nothing was thought of the incident as the flight was going according to plan. It was not until the shuttle was returning to Earth that a problem was evident. The hole created in the heat protective shield of the wing allowed the wing to become exceedingly hot. So hot in fact that all the sensors in the left wing lost contact with NASA as well as the astronauts themselves. Soon afterwards the crew lost contact with ground control completely. The crew was now flying over 200,000 feet above the earth at a speed of Mach 18, without any control of the plane. The heat eventually melted the shuttle in the air and all the astronauts were killed. This loss led NASA to conduct numerous tests and design the Shuttle over again so as to avoid such tragedy. If this had not happened the new designs and technology used on the next shuttle would not have been thought of and put into place.
点评：

文章的细节描写入木三分，真的写得很棒。例如："During takeoff a piece of foam, weighing almost two pounds, detached from the fuel tank of the shuttle and hit the left wing creating a large hole."没有比这更好的细节描述了。