时间:2018-12-28 作者:英语课 分类:初学者听力文摘精选


英语课

Has Earth’s Gravitational Pull Been Changing?

地球的引力改变过吗?



Don, why are you slouching? Don’t you know it’s bad for you?

唐,为啥你无精打采?你不知道这对你不好?



Did you know that about 200 tons of debris 1 strike the Earth every day? So I was thinking! Although most of this stuff burns up in the atmosphere, the resulting dust still settles and adds to the Earth’s mass. That’s about half a million tons per year!

你知道每天大约200吨的碎片来到地球?所以我在思考。虽然这些东西中的大部分在大气中烧掉了,但是烧完后的灰尘仍然沉淀并增添地球的质量。大约每年有50万吨。



All right, but what does all this have to do with your posture 2?

好的,但是所有这些与你的仪态有啥关系呢?



Sit Up Straight

笔直端坐



So if the earth keeps accumulating mass, doesn’t that mean that the Earth’s gravitational pull has been increasing? After all, gravity is directly proportional to mass.

所以如果地球持续累积其质量,那不是意味着地球的引力也正在增加?毕竟,引力与质量是成比例的



Are you saying you can’t sit up straight because gravity is stronger now than it used to be?

你说你不能笔直端坐是因为地球引力比以前更强了?



Admit it, Yaël–it’s a good one.

承认这一点吧,耶尔,这是件好事。



Earth’s Mass

地球的质量



Earth’s mass in metric tons is approximately six followed by twenty-one zeroes. So assuming that your estimate is correct, and the Earth accumulates a half a million tons of debris every year, this means that in the sixty million years since dinosaurs 3 existed the Earth would have accumulated approximately thirty trillion tons of meteoric 4 debris. That’s thirteen zeroes.

地球的质量按照公制吨位来衡量大约是6后面加21个0.所以假设你的估计是正确的,并且每年地球积累50万吨的碎片,这意味着自从恐龙存在以来的6000万年,地球已经积累了大约30万亿吨的流星碎片。那是13个0。



The point is that a number with thirteen zeroes is minuscule 5 relative to a number with twenty-four zeroes. While thirty trillion tons sounds impressive, it is nothing compared to the Earth’s total mass. So it’ s definitely not all that extra gravity that’s making you slouch

关键是13个零相对24个零而言是非常小的。虽然30万亿吨听起来很震撼,但是它与地球总的质量相比还是微不足道的。所以很明确的是额外的重力不会使得你无精打采。



1 debris
n.瓦砾堆,废墟,碎片
  • After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
  • Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上,导致蛀牙。
2 posture
n.姿势,姿态,心态,态度;v.作出某种姿势
  • The government adopted an uncompromising posture on the issue of independence.政府在独立这一问题上采取了毫不妥协的态度。
  • He tore off his coat and assumed a fighting posture.他脱掉上衣,摆出一副打架的架势。
3 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》
4 meteoric
adj.流星的,转瞬即逝的,突然的
  • In my mind,losing weight is just something meteoric.在我眼中,减肥不过是昙花一现的事情。
  • His early career had been meteoric.他的早期生涯平步青云。
5 minuscule
adj.非常小的;极不重要的
  • The human race only a minuscule portion of the earth's history.人类只有占有极小部分地球历史。
  • As things stand,Hong Kong's renminbi banking system is minuscule.就目前的情况而言,香港的人民币银行体系可谓微不足道。
学英语单词
a'cockbill
A.F.C
active sleep
alveololabial groove
assinuate
balloonry
beagled
bitter almond camphor
BLUS resifual vector
carpetbagging
case bay part
Chelidonium majus
clean cutting
Colbeckite
Confederate flag
copped tanke
crude test
cruzen i.
depressure tank
Dianthus sinensis L.
directional intermolecular force
down-faulting
duosecant
duration units
earn a good reputation
ex-dividend stock
fatuousnesses
ferryer
floorspace
foreign-exchange dealer
future commission merchant
galvanometer
Gangean
genus Uma
gone poof
half-neighbo(u)rhood
harbor craft
hawse-pipe
heat-resistant coating
helitankers
hoarhead
hyperinsulinemic obesity
instruction-based architecture
intussusceptive growth
lacinia falcata
ladening
leariest
limiter amplifier
lyeth
marchment
merry-go-round machine
microsaccades
microwave acoustics
mildew-retarding agent
missionise
Mitha Singh
molecular heat conduction
morality of law
mystinus
neocerebellar agenesis
no-load field voltage
nuclear power generation
oonin
pentastomiasis
photoerythema
pick-and-mix
pinch for
plywood ceiling
poison parsley
polynomial hazard function models
pop hole
Population-weighted
postflood
practicing
prognathometer
ricers
rippling edit
rober'
s's
Santorini's caruncula major
senior reactor operator
separating yarn
shock incarceration
shunting yard
slaw
small-denomination
starting air distributor
symploce furcata
tape speed
taxloss
Tellerette packing
temporary import
time per piece
to put to use
treib
unlabeled statement
vaginal hysterotomy
valvulae fossae navicularis
vertical photograph
wet process of parting
white gum
X-ray Luminosity of cluster of galaxies