时间:2018-12-27 作者:英语课 分类:一起听英语


英语课

在火星上骑行是一种怎样的体验,一定比在伦敦上下班高峰期开车还费劲吧......


Neil: Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English, I'm


Neil and with me today is Chris.


Chris: Hello there.


Neil: Now Chris, are you fan of driving?


Chris: Erm not really. I do have a driving licence but I don’t actually drive that


often.


Neil: OK then, so how do you think you would you like to try driving on Mars?


 


Chris: On Mars? Wow, yes, I suppose that would be even more challenging than


the London rush hour.


Neil: Well, our story today is about driving on Mars, though the vehicle which


has been sent up there is remotely controlled. It means there isn’t a


person driving it. It’s controlled using a machine back on Earth.


Chris: Wow, it sounds just like the best Christmas present I ever got as a child!


Neil: Well, you’re going to like this programme then today! But before we get


into the details, though, let’s have our quiz question. It’s Mars-related, of


course. I want to know how long a Mars year is. So, how long does it take


Mars to go around, or orbit, the Sun? Is it:


a) 152 days


b) 687 days


c) 2024 days


Chris: That’s quite a tricky 1 one. I will say b) 687 days.


Neil: OK, we will find out if you are right at the end of the programme. Now,


some more information about this vehicle on Mars.


Chris: Yes, this isn’t the first rover – or driverless car - to drive on the surface of


the red planet.


Neil: No, there have been plenty of others but this is by far the most


sophisticated. It’s called the Curiosity rover and was made by NASA, the


American Space Agency.


6 Minute English © British Broadcasting Corporation 2012


Page 2 of 4


bbclearningenglish.com


Chris: It took eight months to get to Mars and it’s about the size of a family car.


While it’s up there, Curiosity will spend about two years exploring.


Neil: After that, there’s a plan to send up a new robot called InSight. Listen to


this first part of a report from the BBC’s correspondent Jonathan Amos.


What does he say the robot will be doing?


Insert


InSight will put seismometers on the surface of the Red Planet and listen for


‘Marsquakes’. From the pattern of signals it picks up, the spacecraft should be able to


work out where the different rock boundaries lie inside the planet


Neil: Some interesting vocabulary there, Chris.


Chris: Yes, the robot will put some seismometers on the surface of Mars. A


seismometer is a machine which measures sudden movements under the


surface of a planet.


Neil: These seismometers will listen for what they’re calling ‘Marsquakes’.


Chris: When the earth shakes violently, it’s called an earthquake. Because this


is Mars, they are calling them ‘Marsquakes’.


Neil: They also hope to find out more about Mars’s core – that’s the centre of


the planet.


Chris: Listen out for a word which describes metal or rock which is so hot, it is


liquid. Here’s the second part of the BBC report.


Insert


It should also be able to establish whether Mars has a molten core. It is Earth's swirling 2


iron core that gives it the magnetic field which protects our atmosphere and oceans from


being eroded 3 by the Sun. Mars doesn't have that and this probably goes a long way to


explaining why the cold, desiccated world appears to have no life on it today.


Neil: Very interesting stuff there. They want to find out if the core of Mars is


molten. That’s the word which describes rock or metal which is so hot it’s


liquid.


Chris: The Earth’s core is made from iron. This spinning iron ball gives us the


magnetic field which protects our atmosphere. They think that Mars


doesn’t have that and so its atmosphere is very thin. Therefore, it’s not


protected from the Sun and that’s also why there is probably no life on


Mars.


Neil: No life on Mars!? Oh, come on Chris, don’t disappoint me.


6 Minute English © British Broadcasting Corporation 2012


Page 3 of 4


bbclearningenglish.com


Chris: Well, according to scientists, it’s very unlikely. But they do hope the


explorations will give them some clues about whether there ever was life


on the red planet.


Neil: It’s a shame. It would be so fascinating to discover there was life on Mars.


Just think how amazing it would be to discover little green men alive on


Mars!


Chris: Er, yeah, you sound a little bit obsessed 4 with this idea of life on Mars,


Neil. But you’re not the only one, according to some critics of NASA.


Neil: Let’s hear the final part of this BBC report from Jonathan Amos. What do


they say NASA should be doing?


Insert


Nasa says the selection of InSight was made before its latest rover, Curiosity, landed a


fortnight ago, and so recent events had no influence on the decision. But there are those


within the planetary science community who believe the agency is becoming Marsobsessed,


and they would like to see a more diverse list of exploration targets.


Chris: Critics of NASA say they should be looking at a more diverse list of


exploration targets. Basically, this means they should be looking at a


variety of places in space rather than concentrating on Mars.


Neil: Well, I’d be quite happy for them to keep concentrating on Mars, actually!


Chris: But you don’t work for NASA.


Neil: That is very true. Now, we're coming to the end of the programme, so


there's just time to answer the quiz question. I wanted to know how long


a Mars year is. So how long does it take Mars to go around, or orbit, the


Sun? Is it:


a) 152 days


b) 687 days


c) 2024 days


Chris: And I said b) 687 days.


Neil: And you were absolutely right. I think you should be the one working for


NASA, Chris.


Chris: Thank you!


Neil: That's all from us, but do join us again for more 6 Minute English from


bbclearningenglish.com. Goodbye for now!


Chris: Bye!



1 tricky
adj.狡猾的,奸诈的;(工作等)棘手的,微妙的
  • I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手,你能帮我吗?
  • He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题,只做了个笼统的表述。
2 swirling
v.旋转,打旋( swirl的现在分词 )
  • Snowflakes were swirling in the air. 天空飘洒着雪花。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • She smiled, swirling the wine in her glass. 她微笑着,旋动着杯子里的葡萄酒。 来自辞典例句
3 eroded
adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的
  • He's obsessed by computers. 他迷上了电脑。
  • The fear of death obsessed him throughout his old life. 他晚年一直受着死亡恐惧的困扰。
学英语单词
acardias
Adephos
advisory funds
aflatoxins M
aluminum plant
Angerboda
Antichristic
aphthovirus
appeal against a charge
appellativeness
aquanaut work
arch contour
astragaluss
batching by weight
Bragg-Gray principle
butt cable
c-series
character specifier
charge storage flip-flop
chargehouse
consistency limit
copy-protections
deaf theater
desire of
double-sideband multiplex equipment
dray-horses
dummy pill
eddr
electric performance
entocythere
erratic variation
eye-brain system
fazzini
fertilizer unit
fifty-second
flash back voltage
FTIR-Ramanbb
fueling-defueling system
gas fuel nozzle
half-days
hand tester
have belief in
heavy dumper
Inspector Poo-sow
iophobia
Klisura
leakage testing socket
lethal dose (LD)
line-of-sight course
linear wave
locomotive repair in works
loppered
man-induced factor
massicotite
Maurer's nomogram
maybelle
mechanical thermal conversion
Monticelli d'Ongina
Mutāli'
Myodin
niobium-stabilized
noncondom
onto something
oological
otono
P.V. diagram
Pan-Asianism
penalty kill
phosphatidate
phrenicoabdominal branches
piston unit area power
positive air pressure control
post-detection integral
purple osier
push-back
pyxine sorediata
ramera
reputational
responsible cabinet
returned cheque
revenues from special assessment
rolling speed control
rotary planing
Ruffini cylinder
saccharine vegetable
San Jaime
scissortailed flycatcher
segur
Semenchenko
shuttle feeler bracket
somesthesis
sports-minded
successour
time multiplexed system
toggle-type tablet machine
trichroic mineral
tubotaiwine
twigil
Vanoise, Messif de la
variable speed generator
Yandina
yard arm group