普通高中课程标准实验教科书 英语选修7 Unit 3 Under the sea -

19th January

      I'm sitting in the warm night air with a cold drink in my hand and reflecting on the day – a day of pure magic! I went snorkelling¹ on the reef² offshore³ this morning and it was the most fantastic thing I have ever done. Seeing such extraordinary beauty, I think every cell in my body woke up. It was like discovering a whole new dimension⁴ of life.

          The first thing I became aware of was all the vivid colours surrounding me - purples, reds, oranges, yellows, blues⁵ and greens. The corals were fantastic - they were shaped like fans, plates, brains, lace⁶, mushrooms, the branches of trees and the horns of deer. And all kinds of small, neat and elegant⁷ fish were swimming in and around the corals. 

          The fish didn't seem to mind me swimming among them. I especially loved the little orange and white fish that hid in the waving long thin seaweed. And I also loved the small fish that clean the bodies of larger fish - I even saw them get inside their mouths and clean their teeth! It seemed there was a surprise waiting for me around every corner as I explored small caves, shelves and narrow passages with my underwater flashlight: the yellow and green parrotfish was hanging upside down, and sucking tiny plants off the coral with its hard bird-like mouth; a yellow-spotted red sea-slug was sliding by a blue sea-star; a large wise-looking turtle was passing so close to me that I could have touched it.

          There were other creatures that I didn't want to get too close to - an eel⁸ with its strong sharp teeth, with only its head showing from a hole, watching for a tasty fish (or my tasty toe!); and the giant clam⁹ halt¹⁰ buried in some coral waiting for something to swim in between its thick green lips. Then there were two grey reef sharks, each about one and a half metres long, which suddenly appeared from behind some coral. I told myself they weren't dangerous but that didn't stop me from feeling scared to death for a moment!

          The water was quite shallow¹¹ but where the reef ended, there was a steep drop to the sandy ocean floor. It marked a boundary and I thought I was very brave when I swam over the edge of the reef and hung there looking down into the depths of the ocean. My heart was beating wildly - I felt very exposed in such deep clear water.

          What a wonderful, limitless world it was down there! And what a tiny spot I was in this enormous¹² world!

1 snorkelling   

v.使用水下呼吸管潜游( snorkel的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The planned snorkelling was cancelled due to rough waves. 原计划进行的潜泳因巨浪而被迫取消了。 来自互联网
• Snorkelling was amazing, daily seeing reef sharks, parrot fish and sting rays. 浮潜是惊人，每天看礁鲨，鹦鹉鱼和魟鱼。 来自互联网

2 reef   

n.礁，礁石，暗礁

参考例句：

• The ship and its crew were lost on the reef.那条船及船员都触礁遇难了。
• The ship was wrecked on a coral reef.这条船在珊瑚暗礁上撞毁了。

3 offshore   

adj.海面的，吹向海面的；adv.向海面

参考例句：

• A big program of oil exploration has begun offshore.一个大规模的石油勘探计划正在近海展开。
• A gentle current carried them slowly offshore.和缓的潮流慢慢地把他们带离了海岸。

4 dimension   

n.尺寸，长(或宽、深、厚)度；大小，程度

参考例句：

• A third dimension has been recently added,that of service.最近又提出了第三方面的需求，即服务的需要。
• Length is one dimension,and breadth is another.长是一种度量，宽又是另一种度量。

5 blues   

n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐

参考例句：

• She was in the back of a smoky bar singing the blues.她在烟雾弥漫的酒吧深处唱着布鲁斯歌曲。
• He was in the blues on account of his failure in business.他因事业失败而意志消沉。

6 lace   

n.饰带，花边，缎带；v.结带子，饰以花边

参考例句：

• She let a piece of lace into her dress.她在衣服上镶了一块花边。
• The bride is wearing a wedding dress made of lace.新娘穿一件蕾丝婚纱。

7 elegant   

adj.优美的，文雅的，简练的，简结的

参考例句：

• She was an elegant and accomplished woman.她是位优雅的才女。
• She has a life of elegant ease.她过着风雅悠闲的生活。

8 eel   

n.鳗鲡

参考例句：

• He used an eel spear to catch an eel.他用一只捕鳗叉捕鳗鱼。
• In Suzhou,there was a restaurant that specialized in eel noodles.苏州有一家饭馆，他们那里的招牌菜是鳗鱼面。

9 clam   

n.蛤，蛤肉

参考例句：

• Yup!I also like clam soup and sea cucumbers.对呀！我还喜欢蛤仔汤和海参。
• The barnacle and the clam are two examples of filter feeders.藤壶和蛤类是滤过觅食者的两种例子。

10 halt   

n.停住，停止，暂停；v.(使)停住，(使)停止

参考例句：

• When the children's play got too noisy, their mother called a halt.当孩子们的游戏过于吵闹时，他们的母亲叫他们停下来。
• No one can halt the advance of history.没人能阻挡历史的前进。

11 shallow   

adj.浅的，肤浅的，浅显易懂的；n.(pl.)浅滩，浅处；v.变浅

参考例句：

• The dish is too shallow to serve soup in.盘子太浅，盛不了汤。
• His analysis was always shallow.他的分析总是很肤浅的。

12 enormous   

adj.巨大的；庞大的

参考例句：

• An enormous sum of money is injected each year into teaching.每年都有大量资金投入到教学中。
• They wield enormous political power.他们行使巨大的政治权力。