【英语时差8,16】再见芝加哥

Don: Yael, I'm going to take some vacation time so I can visit Chicago before it sinks and disappears. I mean, I'd like to see the Sears Tower and eat some deep-dish pizza before it goes.

Yael: Relax, Don. Although Chicago is sinking, we're only talking one millimeter a year--D: But that's four inches in a century!

Y: But only until the land in North America brings itself back into equilibrium¹.

D: What do you mean?

Y: Well, when glaciers² covered Canada and the northern Great Lakes tens of thousands of years ago, their weight pushed down on the Earth's surface and caused it to sag³. And this pressure forced the Earth's mantle⁴, the layer of hot, plastic rock that's located beneath the Earth's crust, to give way and ooze⁵ out and sideways.

D: Oh! It's like the Earth is a giant waterbed. When you lie down on it, the surface of the mattress⁶ under you sinks, forcing the water into other parts of the mattress.

Y: You have a water bed?

D: But of course.

Y: Anyway. In the twelve thousand years since the glaciers receded⁷, the Earth's crust has been slowly returning to its original shape. So the land in Canada and the northern Great Lakes is slowly rising, while the rest of North America is slowly sinking, like a seesaw⁸, enabling the mantle to flow back north. And as the Lake Michigan floor north of Green Bay rises, all that water sloshes south towards Chicago.

D: Kind of like tilting⁹ a bathtub.

Y: Yep.

D: Hmm! So even if I don't have to rush out for pizza, it does sound like an issue from a Great Lakes management perspective.

Y: It sure is. 

1 equilibrium   

n.平衡，均衡，相称，均势，平静

参考例句：

• Change in the world around us disturbs our inner equilibrium.我们周围世界的变化扰乱了我们内心的平静。
• This is best expressed in the form of an equilibrium constant.这最好用平衡常数的形式来表示。

2 glaciers   

冰河，冰川( glacier的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Glaciers gouged out valleys from the hills. 冰川把丘陵地带冲出一条条山谷。
• It has ice and snow glaciers, rainforests and beautiful mountains. 既有冰川，又有雨林和秀丽的山峰。 来自英语晨读30分（高一）

3 sag   

v.下垂，下跌，消沉；n.下垂，下跌，凹陷，[航海]随风漂流

参考例句：

• The shelf was beginning to sag beneath the weight of the books upon it.书架在书的重压下渐渐下弯。
• We need to do something about the sag.我们须把下沉的地方修整一下。

4 mantle   

n.斗篷，覆罩之物，罩子；v.罩住，覆盖，脸红

参考例句：

• The earth had donned her mantle of brightest green.大地披上了苍翠欲滴的绿色斗篷。
• The mountain was covered with a mantle of snow.山上覆盖着一层雪。

5 ooze   

n.软泥，渗出物；vi.渗出，泄漏；vt.慢慢渗出，流露

参考例句：

• Soon layer of oceanic ooze began to accumulate above the old hard layer.不久后海洋软泥层开始在老的硬地层上堆积。
• Drip or ooze systems are common for pot watering.滴灌和渗灌系统一般也用于盆栽灌水。

6 mattress   

n.床垫，床褥

参考例句：

• The straw mattress needs to be aired.草垫子该晾一晾了。
• The new mattress I bought sags in the middle.我买的新床垫中间陷了下去。

7 receded   

v.逐渐远离( recede的过去式和过去分词 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题

参考例句：

• The floodwaters have now receded. 洪水现已消退。
• The sound of the truck receded into the distance. 卡车的声音渐渐在远处消失了。

8 seesaw   

n.跷跷板

参考例句：

• Prices have gone up and down like a seesaw this year.今年的价格像跷跷板一样时涨时跌。
• The children are playing at seesaw.孩子们在玩跷跷板。

9 tilting   

倾斜，倾卸

参考例句：

• For some reason he thinks everyone is out to get him, but he's really just tilting at windmills. 不知为什么他觉得每个人都想害他，但其实他不过是在庸人自扰。
• So let us stop bickering within our ranks.Stop tilting at windmills. 所以，让我们结束内部间的争吵吧！再也不要去做同风车作战的蠢事了。