普通高中课程标准实验教科书 英语必修3 Unit 4 Astronomy: the s

   CAUGHT BY A BLACK HOLE

       The spaceship warned¹ Li Yanping and me to be ready as we were approaching (靠近) the "black hole". We could see some faint² lights around what looked like an empty space. Li Yanping said, "That empty hole is like a mouth always needing to be fed. Those lights are things that are being pulled into it by the gravity³ of the hole." We watched with interest and amazement⁴ at the lights which seemed to be going fainter⁵ and fainter round the edge⁶ of the black hole. Just then the lights on our spaceship went out and the computer stopped working. What was happening? I tried to turn the spaceship away from the hole but it would not move. Would it eat us too?
      Suddenly the spaceship jumped and began to move round the edge of the hole too. The gravity of the "black hole" was pulling us into its "mouth". As the spaceship moved round the black hole, I felt rather sick. My mouth went dry and I closed my eyes. All the stories about what happened when you were caught by the gravity of a "black hole" seemed to be true.
      But then the spaceship jumped again. This time it moved sideways and away from the edge of the "black hole". Someone watching me would have seen the spaceship flying like a bird away from the "black hole". But we felt nothing. At last we were able to look around us. Luckily the computer had started working again. We realized that we had discovered something new about "black holes". If you go inside the edge of a "black hole", it will "eat" you and there is no escape; but if you do not, you may have an opportunity to escape. How exciting!

1 warned   

v.警告( warn的过去式和过去分词 )；提醒；告诫；预先通知

参考例句：

• Motorists have been warned to beware of icy roads. 已经提醒开车的人当心冰封的路面。
• I've warned her countless times. 我警告过她无数次了。

2 faint   

n.昏厥，昏倒；adj.微弱的，无力的，模糊的；vi.昏倒，变得微弱

参考例句：

• He felt faint at the sight of blood.他一见到血就发晕了。
• She threw me a faint smile.她对我微微一笑。

3 gravity   

n.重力，引力，地心引力

参考例句：

• An apple falls down because of gravity.由于重力的关系，苹果往下掉。
• The stone rolled down the mountain by gravity.这块石头由于重力作用而滚下山。

4 amazement   

n.惊奇，惊讶

参考例句：

• All those around him looked at him with amazement.周围的人都对他投射出惊异的眼光。
• He looked at me in blank amazement.他带着迷茫惊诧的神情望着我。

5 fainter   

adj.微弱的( faint的比较级 )；（体力）无力的；易失去知觉的；（动作等）无力的

参考例句：

• The sounds of music grew fainter in the distance. 音乐的声音在远处逐渐变得微弱了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The sounds grew fainter. 声音渐弱。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

6 edge   

n.边(缘)；刃；优势；v.侧着移动，徐徐移动

参考例句：

• Sight along the edge to see if it's straight.顺着边目测，看看直不直。
• She lived on the extreme edge of the forest.她住在森林的最边缘。