英语听力：自然百科 金星和水星旅行指南 Venus and Mercury-6

 After Messenger's 3 fly-bys, we've now mapped more than 90% of the planet. Taken from around 124 miles, these images are the clearest to date of Mercury. And it's not hard to spot a crater¹ of epic² proportions, the result of yet another Titanic³ collision.

 

 

 

That's the Caloris basin, this impact basin. It covers almost 3 million square kilometers. It's one of the biggest in the solar system.

 

 

 

The size of / Alaska and California combined, whatever created Caloris almost destroyed the planet.

 

 

 

'It was like something that hangs in the water of a hundred  kilometers in size. It could have been a huge comet or been a very large asteroid⁴. It had a catastrophic effect on the surface.

 

 

 

Shockwaves rippled⁵ around the crust, buckling⁶ it on the opposite side. And near the center of the crater is another spectacular geological puzzle that has experts scratching their heads.

 

 

 

The spider is this really strange feature that is in almost the center of the Caloris basin.''

 

 

 

Oh, the spider, that  really annoys me hearing people call it as it doesn't look like a spider. How many legs spider have? Eight, right?

 

 

 

It looks kind of  like a hundred-legged spider/, but it has all of these radiating cracks coming out of it.

 

 

 

Whether the spider is the result of planetary stretch marks, or some obscure cratering⁷ process? No one knows.

 

 

 

It is a fascinating feature, we don't know how it formed. It’s very canalized. 

 

 

 

So for a planet that appears inactive, more has been going on deep inside  Mercury than we ever gave it credit for. 

 

 

 

There's even more occurring above the surface that can't be seen and it involves the relentless⁸ force of the sun.

1 crater   

n.火山口，弹坑

参考例句：

• With a telescope you can see the huge crater of Ve-suvius.用望远镜你能看到巨大的维苏威火山口。
• They came to the lip of a dead crater.他们来到了一个死火山口。

2 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

3 titanic   

adj.巨人的，庞大的，强大的

参考例句：

• We have been making titanic effort to achieve our purpose.我们一直在作极大的努力，以达到我们的目的。
• The island was created by titanic powers and they are still at work today.台湾岛是由一个至今仍然在运作的巨大力量塑造出来的。

4 asteroid   

n.小行星；海盘车(动物)

参考例句：

• Astronomers have yet to witness an asteroid impact with another planet.天文学家还没有目击过小行星撞击其它行星。
• It's very unlikely that an asteroid will crash into Earth but the danger exists.小行星撞地球的可能性很小，但这样的危险还是存在的。

5 rippled   

使泛起涟漪（ripple的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• The lake rippled gently. 湖面轻轻地泛起涟漪。
• The wind rippled the surface of the cornfield. 微风吹过麦田，泛起一片麦浪。

6 buckling   

扣住

参考例句：

• A door slammed in the house and a man came out buckling his belt. 房子里的一扇门砰地关上，一个男子边扣腰带边走了出来。
• The periodic buckling leaves the fibre in a waved conformation. 周期性的弯折在纤维中造成波形构成。

7 cratering   

n.缩孔（露底），陷穴（漆病），磨顶槽v.火山口( crater的现在分词 )；弹坑等

参考例句：

• In addition, cratering and ground shock phenomena are observed, as will be described in Chapter VI. 此外，还可以观察到巨坑或地面冲击波的现象，这些现象将在第六章中加以叙述。 来自辞典例句
• Check the page without pinhole, bubble cratering and fix it. 查抄版背有无针孔、气泡等弊病，并举动补缀。 来自互联网

8 relentless   

adj.残酷的，不留情的，无怜悯心的

参考例句：

• The traffic noise is relentless.交通车辆的噪音一刻也不停止。
• Their training has to be relentless.他们的训练必须是无情的。