英语听力：自然百科 穿越银河系的旅行 Through Milky Way—5

 We are taking a ride through the Milky¹ Way. First, we are traveling to a place where stars are born. Even at the speed of light, 196,000 miles a second, the journey lasts for 1,500 years. We've arrived at the vast glowing cloud of gas and dust, the great Orion Nebula². With the Earth in this new neighborhood, the skies become a brilliantly illuminated³ cosmic canvas. But this cloud is more than just a work of art. It holds the key to how our sun and every star in the galaxy⁴ came to be. The first clues come from looking at the Milky Way from our perspective. It seems there is more here than just stars. With the naked eye, we can pick out large dark patches. Astronomers⁵ like James Bullock provide a clear picture. 

 

“Perhaps, the most beautiful part of this image is that we have this contrast of dark and light regions running through the plain of the disc. What that really is? It’s dust. They are clouds of dust that are casting a shadow from the back of the stars and the stars are trying to shine their light through. They are dust clouds there that blocking a light, much like a cloud on Earth would block the sun.”

 

These vast clouds of cosmic gas and dust stretch thousands of light-years across the Milky Way. Hubble has spotted⁶ them in most spiral galaxies⁷. Dark, ghostly bands, woven throughout their spiral arms and spreading across their entire discs.

 

1 milky   

adj.牛奶的，多奶的；乳白色的

参考例句：

• Alexander always has milky coffee at lunchtime.亚历山大总是在午餐时喝掺奶的咖啡。
• I like a hot milky drink at bedtime.我喜欢睡前喝杯热奶饮料。

2 nebula   

n.星云，喷雾剂

参考例句：

• A powerful telescope can resolve a nebula into stars.一架高性能的望远镜能从星云中分辨出星球来。
• A nebula is really a discrete mass of innumerous stars.一团星云实际上是无数星体不连续的集合体。

3 illuminated   

adj.被照明的；受启迪的

参考例句：

• Floodlights illuminated the stadium. 泛光灯照亮了体育场。
• the illuminated city at night 夜幕中万家灯火的城市

4 galaxy   

n.星系；银河系；一群(杰出或著名的人物)

参考例句：

• The earth is one of the planets in the Galaxy.地球是银河系中的星球之一。
• The company has a galaxy of talent.该公司拥有一批优秀的人才。

5 astronomers   

n.天文学者，天文学家( astronomer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Astronomers can accurately foretell the date,time,and length of future eclipses. 天文学家能精确地预告未来日食月食的日期、时刻和时长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Astronomers used to ask why only Saturn has rings. 天文学家们过去一直感到奇怪，为什么只有土星有光环。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。

7 galaxies   

星系( galaxy的名词复数 )； 银河系； 一群（杰出或著名的人物）

参考例句：

• Quasars are the highly energetic cores of distant galaxies. 类星体是遥远星系的极为活跃的核心体。
• We still don't know how many galaxies there are in the universe. 我们还不知道宇宙中有多少个星系。