VOA慢速英语2011--Research Shows Thinning Snow Layers in t

SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Research Shows Thinning Snow Layers in the Rocky Mountains over Hundreds 

FAITH LAPIDUS: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus.
BOB DOUGHTY¹: And I’m Bob Doughty. Today, we tell about evidence of what some scientists are calling one of the last dinosaurs³ to exist. We tell about shrinking snow cover in North America’s Rocky Mountains. We also talk about the Microsoft Imagine Cup finals in New York City.
(MUSIC)
FAITH LAPIDUS: Scientists think parts of the Earth may have sounded like this about sixty-five million years ago.
(SOUND)
Then, suddenly, there was this:
(SOUND)
FAITH LAPIDUS: For thirty years, scientists have found evidence that a huge rock from space, an asteroid⁴, struck the Earth, killing⁵ all dinosaurs. They think the asteroid hit somewhere near the Gulf⁶ of Mexico. They say it was so powerful that a large amount of very hot dirt, dust, and water was thrown into the air and then began to circle the Earth. Those creatures not killed by the explosion soon died from extreme heat in the air.
BOB DOUGHTY: But wait! That may not be true, say scientists who have another idea. They agree that a large object from space probably hit our planet millions of years ago. But the scientists say that when that happened, the dinosaurs had all been dead for a long time.
Researchers from Yale University now think they know what really happened. The researchers found a bone from the head of a large dinosaur². They made the discovery in the Hell Creek⁷ area in the American state of Montana. The location of the bone is the clue to solving the mystery.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Geologists⁸ often study what scientists call the K-T boundary. That is a layer of soil and rock that marks major changes in the earth’s history, like when the asteroid hit. When dinosaur bones are found in the lower parts of the K-T boundary, it suggests to some scientists that those animals died a very long time ago. They say the dinosaurs died long before the asteroid struck the Earth.
The bone that the Yale researchers found was much higher in that layer of rock and dirt. The researchers believe the bone was from a Triceratops that died sixty-five million years ago. The discovery was made just a few centimeters below what became the K-T boundary line. That means that this creature and probably many others were alive until the asteroid hit the earth.
Dinosaurs did not slowly die out millions of years ago. The huge asteroid, the scientists say, was the cause of their extinction⁹. They were killed within a very short period of time when the violent explosion took place.
BOB DOUGHTY: Until now, geologists have been surprised by the lack of dinosaur bones and other fossils within three meters below the K-T line. This area is known among scientists as the “three meter gap.” In the words of Yale University researcher Tyler Lyson, “This discovery suggests that the ‘three meter gap’ does not exist. At least some dinosaurs were doing just fine right up until the impact.” And that makes this Triceratops the youngest dinosaur ever found, and the closest in time to the big asteroid’s crash.
The results of the latest research on Montana dinosaurs were published last month in “Biology Letters.”
(MUSIC)
FAITH LAPIDUS: Millions of people depend on the snowpack in North America’s Rocky Mountains for water. But a new report says the amount of snow that stays on the ground there each spring has shrunk over the past eight hundred years. The report appeared last month in Science magazine.
The report says one cause of the thinning snowpack may be climate change, the warming of Earth’s atmosphere. Gregory Pederson was a leader of the study. He works for the United States Geological Survey in Bozeman, Montana. He notes that during warmer weather, the northern Rocky Mountains usually receive rain instead of snow. The rain does not stay. And whatever snow that falls melts faster than normal.
BOB DOUGHTY: Much research on the subject has been reported during the past ten years. Mister Pederson says those studies identified human activity as the cause of some of the changes in the permanent snow. He says his team’s findings support the results of the earlier studies.
GREGORY PEDERSON:”Attributing a proportion of those changes to human impacts has been done by well over a decade of observational and modeling studies… “And what we are documenting here is that trees are telling the same story about snowpack change.”
BOB DOUGHTY: Conditions in the ocean and the atmosphere that can make spring temperatures warmer also may influence the changes.
FAITH LAPIDUS: The research team studied places that produce major amounts of water. They include drainage basins, areas of water fed by three rivers -- the Colorado, the Columbia and the Missouri. The researchers say the basins provide sixty to eighty percent of the water needs of more than seventy million people.
The report says there were extremely unusual losses in water flowing into those areas in the late twentieth century. This was found to be especially true after the nineteen eighties.
BOB DOUGHTY: The news of reduced snowpack in the Rockies may surprise people who live there. Record-size snowpack and heavy flooding have affected¹⁰ the area recently. But Gregory Pederson says the unusually large snowpack demonstrates only one single weather event. He said the unusual conditions do not represent the climate over hundreds of years.
The research team measured tree rings to help learn about the climate over time. Trees form these rings, or circles of new growth, each year. The circles develop between the bark, or outside skin, of the tree and its core, or center. The lines help tell the age of the tree.
GREGORY PEDERSON “They [the trees] can be accurately¹¹ dated to the calendar year.”
FAITH LAPIDUS: To examine the rings, the team made small holes into several trees and removed small pieces of wood. He said the places where the trees were cut soon closed over and healed.
Mister Pederson says tree rings can tell about moisture and cloud conditions. They also can provide climate information, including temperatures and the flow of waterways. In some cases, tree rings can show tree injuries from snow slides.
(MUSIC)
BOB DOUGHTY: Finally, hundreds of students from around the world gathered in New York City last month for the Microsoft Imagine Cup finals. They came to present their ideas for using technology to solve world problems.
Microsoft education director Suzi Levine says the nine-year-old program began mainly as a competition to create technology.
SUZI LEVINE: "When we realized that students really actually want to have a purpose for what they’re creating, we introduced the idea of inspiring them with the UN Millennium¹² Development Goals and suggesting that they use those for their muse¹³."
BOB DOUGHTY: New sources for ideas this year included intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations.
SUZI LEVINE: "This past year we also rolled out something called the Imagine Cup Solve This library, where IGOs, NGOs and nonprofits can submit some of the technical challenges that they would like students to consider for their solutions."
FAITH LAPIDUS: Microsoft says over three hundred fifty thousand high school and college students registered for the recent competition. Judges chose more than four hundred of them to attend the finals.
Ms. Levine says several teams were inspired by current events, including floods last year in Thailand.
SUZI LEVINE: “One from Thailand [was] called NewKrean, where they created a Windows Phone 7 application that allows you to broadcast your location to your social network of friends so that you can be more easily rescued."
FAITH LAPIDUS: Students competed in nine categories. For example, in software design the top prize of twenty-five thousand dollars went to Team Hermes from Ireland. The students developed a device for cars to collect information on road conditions, driving behavior and traffic incidents.
A team from Taiwan's National Tsing Hua University won first place in the embedded¹⁴ development category. They developed a network of wireless¹⁵ devices to help plot the safest escape routes during a fire.
Next year, the awards ceremony will take place in Australia.
(MUSIC)
BOB DOUGHTY: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jim Tedder¹⁶, Jerilyn Watson and June Simms, who was also our producer. I’m Bob Doughty.
FAITH LAPIDUS: And I’m Faith Lapidus. You can find transcripts¹⁷, MP3s and podcasts of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

1 doughty   

adj.勇猛的，坚强的

参考例句：

• Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
• The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。

2 dinosaur   

n.恐龙

参考例句：

• Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击？
• He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。

3 dinosaurs   

n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 )；守旧落伍的人，过时落后的东西

参考例句：

• The brontosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. 雷龙是所有恐龙中最大的一种。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. 恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

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 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

6 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

7 creek   

n.小溪，小河，小湾

参考例句：

• He sprang through the creek.他跳过小河。
• People sunbathe in the nude on the rocks above the creek.人们在露出小溪的岩石上裸体晒日光浴。

8 geologists   

地质学家，地质学者( geologist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Geologists uncovered the hidden riches. 地质学家发现了地下的宝藏。
• Geologists study the structure of the rocks. 地质学家研究岩石结构。

9 extinction   

n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种

参考例句：

• The plant is now in danger of extinction.这种植物现在有绝种的危险。
• The island's way of life is doomed to extinction.这个岛上的生活方式注定要消失。

10 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

11 accurately   

adv.准确地，精确地

参考例句：

• It is hard to hit the ball accurately.准确地击中球很难。
• Now scientists can forecast the weather accurately.现在科学家们能准确地预报天气。

12 millennium   

n.一千年，千禧年；太平盛世

参考例句：

• The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
• We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。

13 muse   

n.缪斯（希腊神话中的女神），创作灵感

参考例句：

• His muse had deserted him,and he could no longer write.他已无灵感，不能再写作了。
• Many of the papers muse on the fate of the President.很多报纸都在揣测总统的命运。

14 embedded   

a.扎牢的

参考例句：

• an operation to remove glass that was embedded in his leg 取出扎入他腿部玻璃的手术
• He has embedded his name in the minds of millions of people. 他的名字铭刻在数百万人民心中。

15 wireless   

adj.无线的；n.无线电

参考例句：

• There are a lot of wireless links in a radio.收音机里有许多无线电线路。
• Wireless messages tell us that the ship was sinking.无线电报告知我们那艘船正在下沉。

16 tedder   

n.（干草）翻晒者，翻晒机

参考例句：

• Jim Tedder has more. 吉姆？特德将给我们做更多的介绍。 来自互联网
• Jim Tedder tells us more. 吉姆？泰德给我们带来更详细的报道。 来自互联网

17 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句