万物简史 第52期:埃文斯牧师的宇宙(16)
英语课
About 4.6 billion years ago, a great swirl 1 of gas and dust some 15 billion miles across accumulated in space where we are now and began to aggregate 2. Virtually all of it—99.9 percent of the mass of the solar system—went to make the Sun. Out of the floating material that was left over, two microscopic 3 grains floated close enough together to be joined by electrostatic forces.
大约46亿年之前，一股直径约为240亿公里、由气体和尘埃组成的巨大涡流，积储在我们现在所在的空间，并开始聚积。实际上，太阳系里的全部物质--99.9％的物质--都被用来形成了太阳。在剩下的飘浮物质当中，两颗微粒飘到很近的地方，被静电吸到一起。
This was the moment of conception for our planet. All over the inchoate 4 solar system, the same was happening. Colliding dust grains formed larger and larger clumps 5. Eventually the clumps grew large enough to be called planetesimals. As these endlessly bumped and collided, they fractured or split or recombined in endless random 6 permutations, but in every encounter there was a winner, and some of the winners grew big enough to dominate the orbit around which they traveled.
这是我们的行星孕育的时刻。在整个初生的太阳系里，同样的情况正在发生。尘粒互相碰撞，构成越来越大的团块。最后，这些团块大到了一定程度，可以被称做微行星。随着这些微行星无休止地碰撞，它们或破裂，或分解，或在无休止而又随意的置换中重新合并，但每次碰撞都有一个赢家，有的赢家越来越大，最后主宰了它们运行的轨道。
It all happened remarkably 7 quickly. To grow from a tiny cluster of grains to a baby planet some hundreds of miles across is thought to have taken only a few tens of thousands of years. In just 200 million years, possibly less, the Earth was essentially 8 formed, though still molten and subject to constant bombardment from all the debris 9 that remained floating about.
这一切都发生得相当快。据认为，从小小的一簇尘粒变成一颗直径为几百公里的幼星，只要花几万年的时间。在不过2亿年的时间里，很可能还不到，地球就基本形成了，虽然仍是灼热的，还经常受到仍在到处飘浮的碎片的撞击。
v.(使)打漩，(使)涡卷；n.漩涡，螺旋形
- The car raced roughly along in a swirl of pink dust.汽车在一股粉红色尘土的漩涡中颠簸着快速前进。
- You could lie up there,watching the flakes swirl past.你可以躺在那儿，看着雪花飘飘。
adj.总计的，集合的；n.总数；v.合计；集合
- The football team had a low goal aggregate last season.这支足球队上个赛季的进球总数很少。
- The money collected will aggregate a thousand dollars.进帐总额将达一千美元。
adj.微小的，细微的，极小的，显微的
- It's impossible to read his microscopic handwriting.不可能看清他那极小的书写字迹。
- A plant's lungs are the microscopic pores in its leaves.植物的肺就是其叶片上微细的气孔。
adj.才开始的，初期的
- His dreams were senseless and inchoate.他的梦想根本行不通，很不成熟。
- Her early works are inchoate idea,nothing but full of lush rhetoric.她的早期作品都不太成熟，除了华丽的词藻外就没什麽内容了。
n.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的名词复数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声v.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的第三人称单数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声
- These plants quickly form dense clumps. 这些植物很快形成了浓密的树丛。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- The bulbs were over. All that remained of them were clumps of brown leaves. 这些鳞茎死了，剩下的只是一丛丛的黃叶子。 来自《简明英汉词典》
adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动
- The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
- On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。
ad.不同寻常地，相当地
- I thought she was remarkably restrained in the circumstances. 我认为她在那种情况下非常克制。
- He made a remarkably swift recovery. 他康复得相当快。
adv.本质上，实质上，基本上
- Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
- She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。
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