第31题: [简答题]国际空间站的设计初衷是作为一个向其他星球发送航天器的平台。不过，这一使命后来转变成了一个绕地球运行的实验室，对人类和其他生物体在太空环境下的表现进行试验，希望借此对基本生命功能有更多的了解、发现新的医疗方法。在很多试验中，需要有人类进行或参与。
参考答案:The space station was originally conceived as a platform for sending spacecraft to other planets. But its mission has changed into an orbiting laboratory to conduct experiments on how humans and other organisms fare in a low-gravity environment．The hope is to understand more about basic life function and to discover new medical treatments. And humans are needed to conduct, or be participants in, many of these experiments.
[解析] 国际空间站的设计初衷是作为一个向其他星球发送航天器的平台。
“设计初衷”也就是“起初设计为”，因此译为“was originally conceived as”。在表达结果与初衷不同时，都可以使用“original”或其副词形式来表述初衷的部分。
The space station was originally conceived as a platform for sending spacecraft to other planets.
不过，这一使命后来转变成了一个绕地球运行的实验室，对人类和其他生物体在太空环境下的表现进行试验，希望借此对基本生命功能有更多的了解、发现新的医疗方法。
“太空环境”其实指的就是“太空和地球不同的环境，即没有重力或者是低重力的环境”，译为“low-gravity environment”。这句话首先说明了现今太空站的使命，然后介绍了人们对它寄予的希望，因此翻译时为了体现各自的重点，可将一句话拆分为独立的两句话。
But its mission has changed into an orbiting laboratory to conduct experiments on how humans and other organisms fare in a low-gravity environment. The hope is to understand more about basic life function and to discover new medical treatments.
