英语听力：自然百科 行星旅行指南：木星 Jupiter—3

 This giant gas bag is built from the flimsiest materials in the universe. But for all its squishy bulk, it’s a great little mover. Jupiter spins at such a breakneck speed that it bulges¹ at the equator, so fast in fact that a day here lasts less than ten hours, the shortest of all the planets. 

 

Our gaze was first drawn² to the attractions of Jupiter 400 earth years ago when Italian astronomer³ Galileo pointed⁴ his telescope toward the planet on January 7th, 1610. His curious novelty quickly became one of the most powerful scientific instruments of all time and turned our world on its head.

 

What he saw for the first time was that Jupiter had four moons. And he could see those four moons were going around the planet. And this is what really first told him that the earth couldn’t possibly be the center, here were objects going around something other than the earth.

 

It was a revelation. Io, Europa, Callisto and Ganymede, were these worlds like our own, circling a distant master? It’s a cosmic experience anyone with a backyard telescope can have. Point at Jupiter and you’ll see for yourself. 

 

Jupiter is like a little miniature / solar system by itself. It has many moons, four of which are very large and bright, for rest of which are very small and faint. But these moons are all different.

 

The court of the king of the planets is crowded. At last count, an entourage of 62 moons was in attendance, all dancing to Jupiter’s heavy gravitational tune⁵. It is even crowned by a trail of faint gossamer⁶ rings.

 

1 bulges   

膨胀( bulge的名词复数 )； 鼓起； （身体的）肥胖部位； 暂时的激增

参考例句：

• His pocket bulges with apples. 他的衣袋装着苹果鼓了起来。
• He bulges out of his black T-shirt. 他的肚子在黑色T恤衫下鼓鼓地挺着。

2 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

3 astronomer   

n.天文学家

参考例句：

• A new star attracted the notice of the astronomer.新发现的一颗星引起了那位天文学家的注意。
• He is reputed to have been a good astronomer.他以一个优秀的天文学者闻名于世。

4 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

5 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

6 gossamer   

n.薄纱，游丝

参考例句：

• The prince helped the princess,who was still in her delightful gossamer gown.王子搀扶着仍穿著那套美丽薄纱晚礼服的公主。
• Gossamer is floating in calm air.空中飘浮着游丝。