时间:2018-12-11 作者:英语课 分类:万花筒2009年


英语课

French researchers are predicting doom 1 for Planet Earth.


They believe neighboring planets could stray out of orbit and collide with the Earth billions of years from now. The BBC's David Shukman explains their theory.


A view of Earth from orbit and a strange question "how long would it last?" Scientists have long known about the violent events that formed solar system.   But now they have studied the movements of our nearest neighbors.  Mars, they reckon, could drift uncomfortably close or do this.  If we are really unlucky, it could actually collide with us. Literally 2, the end of the world.


"So what exactly is this research saying? Well,one key thing that the orbits of the planets which look steady aren’t all that regular. Over the years, some start to move pretty wildly. These are the projected tracks. And the odds 3 are that will lead to a very big collision in about three billion years’ time."


With that long to go, the researcher involved doesn’t look too worried. But amid the old instruments of the observatory 4 in Paris where he works, he has a doom-laden message about the future and what a collision would eventually mean.


"It would be totally devastating 5 because the relative speed is very high. They go at ten kilometers per second. So it’s ten times the velocity 6 of a bullet .   And the impact is enormous. Everything will be destroyed on Earth."


Until now, the worry has been one of these, an asteroid 7. It's thought one of them finished off the dinosaurs 8. Think what a planet would do. But this is just a computer graphic 9. The calculations may be wrong. The only people who need to react to this research are film producers in Hollywood. David Shukman, BBC News.


We are gonna have to say those might be the most menacing graphics 10 we’d ever used. Watching things collide on the planet that I live on? Can’t say I like that very much.


It’s almost Biblical-financial meltdown, swine flu and now this. What’s next, the rain of frogs?


But still watch the news. We want you to keep watching.


Yeah.  Please do. You'll still be here as long as that doesn't happen.


Yeah.

 



1 doom
n.厄运,劫数;v.注定,命定
  • The report on our economic situation is full of doom and gloom.这份关于我们经济状况的报告充满了令人绝望和沮丧的调子。
  • The dictator met his doom after ten years of rule.独裁者统治了十年终于完蛋了。
2 literally
adv.照字面意义,逐字地;确实
  • He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
  • Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候,她不走到真正要昏厥了,决不肯坐下来。
3 odds
n.让步,机率,可能性,比率;胜败优劣之别
  • The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
  • Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗?
4 observatory
n.天文台,气象台,瞭望台,观测台
  • Guy's house was close to the observatory.盖伊的房子离天文台很近。
  • Officials from Greenwich Observatory have the clock checked twice a day.格林威治天文台的职员们每天对大钟检查两次。
5 devastating
adj.毁灭性的,令人震惊的,强有力的
  • It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
  • Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。
6 velocity
n.速度,速率
  • Einstein's theory links energy with mass and velocity of light.爱因斯坦的理论把能量同质量和光速联系起来。
  • The velocity of light is about 300000 kilometres per second.光速约为每秒300000公里。
7 asteroid
n.小行星;海盘车(动物)
  • Astronomers have yet to witness an asteroid impact with another planet.天文学家还没有目击过小行星撞击其它行星。
  • It's very unlikely that an asteroid will crash into Earth but the danger exists.小行星撞地球的可能性很小,但这样的危险还是存在的。
8 dinosaurs
n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 );守旧落伍的人,过时落后的东西
  • The brontosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. 雷龙是所有恐龙中最大的一种。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. 恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
9 graphic
adj.生动的,形象的,绘画的,文字的,图表的
  • The book gave a graphic description of the war.这本书生动地描述了战争的情况。
  • Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons.用图标来区分重要的文本项。
10 graphics
n.制图法,制图学;图形显示
  • You've leveraged your graphics experience into the video area.你们把图形设计业务的经验运用到录像业务中去。
  • Improved graphics took computer games into a new era.经改进的制图技术将电脑游戏带进了一个新时代。
学英语单词
Adrenocorticosteroids
alternaria nelumbii (ellis et everhart)enlows et rand
anthysteric
Astroturfed
Ban Sangphok
Beer Lambert law
bent-kneest
berth declinity
Beta-Chlor
bisecting compass
blastochore
Boehmenism
bubbly-jock
burst on the wing
busard
by-pass(flow)
Chuzik
closerest
complementarians
cross-laying angle
data transmission testing set
define tape file command
definite time delay operation
devona
directors' interests
double thickiness
down-cut shears
dredging anchor
enneaploid
Enterprise contract management responsibility system
equiangular involution
exponential law of attenuation
fan runner
firing rule
flake powder
focusing lamp
gene silencing
Goryeo
group incentive system
Hemimonstrosity
Higgs-like
Holophane
home-from-home
hyperthyroid cardiopathy
inflammable film
jhaveri
Kolbingen
kopstein
Koulamoutou
Kubalakh
labour party
lamina profunda (fasci? temporalis)
loimographia
luborsky
lymphadenosis bernigna cutis
magnetisms
main instruction buffer
Martinmas summer
medis
meteorological record
modulation jamming
monoderm
multi-beacon
muota
myomonitor
Odelouca
opticomalacia
outrowing
parallel distributed processing model (pdp model)
payable at a definite time
peg method
perfect negative relation
photoelectric width meter
power cut-over relay
PR (progress report)
Primitive security
puzzledly
quantimeters
rack space
ranalian complexes
remainderings
rescowe
retroversion
Rhododendron lindleyi
Salam
selfdiffusion
shear-strength
ship hydrodynamics
single-beam spectrometer
social work statistics
special preferences
starch sulphate
str8
sweet corns
switching locomotive
tinea interdigitalis
tps (total productive system)
two-phase clock
two-year ice
vitelline sacs
Wiarton
within the age bracket of