英语听力：自然百科 行星旅行指南：木星 Jupiter—12

 Take a night flight, like Galileo’s, over the surface of Io and the view down to the churning lava¹ lakes would be unforgettable. Imagine then a visit to the surface.

 

The landscape might look quite a bit like a red and yellow sulfur²-painted version of what you would see if you went to the big island of Hawaii. With the interesting additions of the effect, you have a very low gravity field. And these geyser(s) are like eruptions³ of sulfur dioxide gas which give you a kind of spray of condensing sulfur dioxide crystals rising up in 100 kilometer height umbrella-shaped foams⁴ and falling back down to the surface.

 

Giant plumes⁵ are snowfall of sulfur, fire fountains of lava, some even hotter than lava on Earth. Just why is Io cooking inside?

 

The reason for Io’s tremendous volcanic⁶ activity is energy that’s being pumped into it from the tides raised by Jupiter. Not talking about liquid tides like out here in the ocean, I’m talking about the whole body of Io is being squeezed by tidal forces. So every day, the surface/of Io at the equator when it’s / closest to Jupiter would be maybe 100 meter higher than it is when it’s furthest from Jupiter. That’s an awful lot of squeezing and pushing.

 

Io is like warm putty in Jupiter’s gravitational hand. Adventure travelers? Take note: a trip out here comes with some pretty hefty health warnings.

 

Io's got a  very, very tenuous⁷ atmosphere, mostly of the gases that are coming out of volcanoes. And so it wouldn’t be a very nice place, basically no air to breathe. It probably would look very beautiful if you could get away from the discomfort⁸ of sitting there, minus 300 degrees Fahrenheit⁹ having to protect yourself from that and also being given a pretty hefty dose of radiation that would be lethal¹⁰.

1 lava   

n.熔岩，火山岩

参考例句：

• The lava flowed down the sides of the volcano.熔岩沿火山坡面涌流而下。
• His anger spilled out like lava.他的愤怒像火山爆发似的迸发出来。

2 sulfur   

n.硫，硫磺（=sulphur）

参考例句：

• Sulfur emissions from steel mills become acid rain.炼钢厂排放出的硫形成了酸雨。
• Burning may produce sulfur oxides.燃烧可能会产生硫氧化物。

3 eruptions   

n.喷发，爆发( eruption的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There have been several volcanic eruptions this year. 今年火山爆发了好几次。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Over 200 people have been killed by volcanic eruptions. 火山喷发已导致200多人丧生。 来自辞典例句

4 foams   

n.泡沫，泡沫材料( foam的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sea water foams under the bow. 海水在船首下面泛起浪花。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The meter handles gases, liquids, foams, and slurries. 这流量计可以处理气体，液体，泡沫状物和稀浆等。 来自辞典例句

5 plumes   

羽毛( plume的名词复数 )； 羽毛饰； 羽毛状物； 升上空中的羽状物

参考例句：

• The dancer wore a headdress of pink ostrich plumes. 那位舞蹈演员戴着粉色鸵鸟毛制作的头饰。
• The plumes on her bonnet barely moved as she nodded. 她点点头，那帽子的羽毛在一个劲儿颤动。

6 volcanic   

adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的

参考例句：

• There have been several volcanic eruptions this year.今年火山爆发了好几次。
• Volcanic activity has created thermal springs and boiling mud pools.火山活动产生了温泉和沸腾的泥浆池。

7 tenuous   

adj.细薄的，稀薄的，空洞的

参考例句：

• He has a rather tenuous grasp of reality.他对现实认识很肤浅。
• The air ten miles above the earth is very tenuous.距离地面十公里的空气十分稀薄。

8 discomfort   

n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便

参考例句：

• One has to bear a little discomfort while travelling.旅行中总要忍受一点不便。
• She turned red with discomfort when the teacher spoke.老师讲话时她不好意思地红着脸。

9 Fahrenheit   

n./adj.华氏温度；华氏温度计(的)

参考例句：

• He was asked for the boiling point of water in Fahrenheit.他被问到水的沸点是华氏多少度。
• The thermometer reads 80 degrees Fahrenheit.寒暑表指出华氏80度。

10 lethal   

adj.致死的；毁灭性的

参考例句：

• A hammer can be a lethal weapon.铁锤可以是致命的武器。
• She took a lethal amount of poison and died.她服了致命剂量的毒药死了。