英语听力：自然百科 行星旅行指南：木星 Jupiter—8

 Picture a suicide dive into the mysterious depth? Relax, Galileo's already done it for you. 

 

We separated the probe from the Galileo mother ship. We were flying in toward Jupiter, basically a ballistic bullet. 

 

The Galileo probe went in at an unbelievable speed because Jupiter's gravity just accelerated it on the way in. 

 

Now you've seen pictures of meteor fireballs in the Earth atmosphere. Well，

 

this is hundreds of times worse in terms of the heat and shock，that was more like sitting in front of a nuclear blast. 

 

The violence lasted only minutes. On December 7th, 1995, the probe dropped through alien skies at about 60 miles an hour and with all instruments blazing. 

In terms of what it might look like, it is not dissimilar to the upper atmosphere of the Earth. If you were descending¹ along with the Galileo probe, looking out of the window, you would see some sensuous² clouds go by, then you might see some other clouds that might be somewhat strange. 

 

But it would be like dropping into an alien chemical factory. These clouds not only look strange, they really stink³. 

You have more than one substance forming clouds on Jupiter, ammonia which is clean and fluid, then H2S, which is the rotten egg gas, and then below that, is water. 

 

Like giant thunderheads, these deep water clouds are the source for Jupiter's ferocious⁴ lightning. Things are getting hotter now, and the pressure is heavier. Then, the clouds end. 

 

If you imagine going through the cloud depth of Jupiter, and emerging from underneath⁵ the base of the water clouds,

 

it would be like breaking out into/clear skies and descent on an airliner⁶ on the Earth.

 

1 descending   

n. 下行 adj. 下降的

参考例句：

• The results are expressed in descending numerical order . 结果按数字降序列出。
• The climbers stopped to orient themselves before descending the mountain. 登山者先停下来确定所在的位置，然后再下山。

2 sensuous   

adj.激发美感的；感官的，感觉上的

参考例句：

• Don't get the idea that value of music is commensurate with its sensuous appeal.不要以为音乐的价值与其美的感染力相等。
• The flowers that wreathed his parlor stifled him with their sensuous perfume.包围著客厅的花以其刺激人的香味使他窒息。

3 stink   

vi.发出恶臭；糟透，招人厌恶；n.恶臭

参考例句：

• The stink of the rotten fish turned my stomach.腐烂的鱼臭味使我恶心。
• The room has awful stink.那个房间散发着难闻的臭气。

4 ferocious   

adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的

参考例句：

• The ferocious winds seemed about to tear the ship to pieces.狂风仿佛要把船撕成碎片似的。
• The ferocious panther is chasing a rabbit.那只凶猛的豹子正追赶一只兔子。

5 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

6 airliner   

n.客机，班机

参考例句：

• The pilot landed the airliner safely.驾驶员使客机安全着陆。
• The passengers were shepherded across the tarmac to the airliner.旅客们被引导走过跑道去上飞机。