英语听力：2013-10-20 地平线：黑洞吞噬—14

 Instead, it seems to be a gas cloud moving at huge speeds right in the direction of the black hole. But what really rang along bells was the way it had changed shape. 

 

We see that this gas cloud as it moves closer and closer to the black hole, is getting spaghettified like you see it in school books according to the title shear¹ as we see at the title disruption by the black hole. 

 

It's moving quite fast and it's not moving in a straight line but it's a curved line. And that's a very, very bad sign. Because it tells you, well, there are something acting² on it. It tells you, well, gravity is pulling on that object. It's pretty much directly head on, moving towards the centre of gravity, the black hole. 

 

The team's observations suggest the object is a gas cloud, around three times the mass of the Earth. It seems they have discovered what is the great Holly³ Grail for black hole scientists. 

 

It almost goes straight in. Who aims that well we don't know. It's remarkable⁴. It's almost straight in. Not quite, but pretty much and that means it will go deep, deep into the centre potential and therefore be sort of a, if you like, test, a test party for us to probe the environment of the black hole. 

 

The gas cloud is advancing its speed of over 2,000 kilometres per second. The team are cautiously optimistic the gas cloud will continue to be shredded⁵ by the extreme gravity surrounding the black hole. With every possibility, some of it will eventually be swallowed.

1 shear   

n.修剪，剪下的东西，羊的一岁；vt.剪掉，割，剥夺；vi.修剪，切割，剥夺，穿越

参考例句：

• Every spring they shear off the sheep's wool and sell it.每年春天他们都要剪下羊毛去卖。
• In the Hebrides they shear their sheep later than anywhere else.在赫伯里兹，剪羊毛的时间比其他任何地方都要晚。

2 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

3 holly   

n.[植]冬青属灌木

参考例句：

• I recently acquired some wood from a holly tree.最近我从一棵冬青树上弄了些木料。
• People often decorate their houses with holly at Christmas.人们总是在圣诞节时用冬青来装饰房屋。

4 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

5 shredded   

shred的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• Serve the fish on a bed of shredded lettuce. 先铺一层碎生菜叶，再把鱼放上，就可以上桌了。
• I think Mapo beancurd and shredded meat in chilli sauce are quite special. 我觉得麻婆豆腐和鱼香肉丝味道不错。 来自《简明英汉词典》