【轻松英文阅读】宇宙中的灾难
时间：2018-12-28 作者：英语课 分类：轻松英文阅读
英语课
While you were going about your day on February 24th of this year, the sun was ejecting a massive jet of particles into space. This phenomenon is known as a CME, a coronal mass ejection and they often come after a solar flare 1.
Luckily for us on earth, this one was not pointing our way. According to scientists, this CME was one of the most massive ever observed. If it had hit the earth, it would have severely 2 damaged communication networks and power grids 3 all over the globe. They estimate the damages would have been over 2.6 trillion dollars. To put it in perspective, that is ten times more costly 4 than the Fukushima disaster, the most expensive disaster in history.
The last time the earth was hit by a similar CME was in the mid-19th century. People said that the night skies were so lit up by solar radiation it was as bright as daylight.
1 flare
v.闪耀，闪烁；n.潮红；突发
- The match gave a flare.火柴发出闪光。
- You need not flare up merely because I mentioned your work.你大可不必因为我提到你的工作就动怒。
2 severely
adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地
- He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
- He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。