美国有线新闻 CNN 2014-04-15

 Relative quiet with the chance of hurricanes. That report leads of CNN Student News. Fridays are awesome¹.

 

Here is the deal. Forecasters from Colorado State University are looking at conditions for the 2014 Atlantic Hurricane Season. It officially runs from June 1st through November 30th, though hurricanes can form at any time. This year, meteorologists expect things to be relatively² calm with 9 possible tropical storms and 3 likely hurricanes. On average, there are 12 tropical storms and 7 hurricanes.

 

One reason for a calm forecast is El Nino, it's a natural climate pattern and that means warmer water in parts of the Pacific that can have a calming effect on Atlantic weather. 

 

But forecasts are far from an exact science. In 2012, there were almost twice as many storms than experts expected. Last year, there were 2 hurricanes when 9 were expected. 

 

Satellites, planes, ships and sonobuoys like the one you see in this Youtube clip, drop from above dive into the ocean, listening for anything that could be a signal from a Malasyia Airline passenger plane. It vanished more than a month ago, no trace of the plane has been recovered, signals have been heard beneath the Indian Ocean waves by several listening devices on several different occasions, but to understand why it's so hard to pinpoint³ the plane's possible whereabouts, you have to go deep.

 

Plunging⁴ to nearly 15,000 feet below sea level is a journey into a mysterious abyss, a journey few humans can even comprehend. The Boeing 777 is about 200 feet wide 242 feet long and possibly so deep under the Indian ocean that you'd pass the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, and the tallest building in the world in Dubai on the way down, and still be only a fraction of the way to where the plane wreckage⁵ may be resting. Keep plunging and you've enter a place sunlight can't reach. Pinger locator is being told well below that, 4600 feet below the surface.

 

Marine⁶ biologist Paula Carlson says at these depths, marine life is unlike anything most people have ever seen. 

 

"... And then deeper you go, you find less and less. They have to be very cold tolerant, they have to have, they might not even have eyes, they might be blind because they don't need to there is no life down there."

 

Keep going toward the ocean floor, and at 12,500 feet below sea level is where you find the wreckage of the Titanic⁷, which took some 70 years to discover and where it still rests today. And if it were turned upside down at 14,400 feet is where you hit the iconic peak of Washington State Mount Rainier. Only after all that would you reach the spot where search teams believe the pings from the flight data recorder are coming from 14800 feet into the abyss.

 

If that doesn't capture the magnitude of this search, then imagine what one oceanographer described for us. She says picture yourself standing⁸ on top of one of the highest peaks in the Rocky Moutains looking all the way down and trying to find a suitcase in the dark.

 

The pressure at nearly 15,000 feet is crushing and very few manned submarine can even withstand it.

 

There are only a half dozen of that can go to basically half the ocean depth with a number of countries having that capability⁹. If it gets to the point of... of collapse¹⁰, it basically implodes¹¹. It just crashes.

 

Finding the plane is daunting¹² bringing it back from the deep, even more difficult. At &(* CNN.

 

You might have had Sriracha before, it's a hot sauce. On the Scoville scale, which measures spiciness¹³, it's about half as hot as tabasco. But a califonia city council is turning up the heat on the factory that makes it declaring the factory a public nuisance. This is all because how it smells, people in the community of Irwindale, California, say a Sriracha plant that's close to town, gives off spicy¹⁴ fume¹⁵, so spicy that residents say it's giving them asthma¹⁶, heartburn, teary eyes,and nosebleed. Since it opened, the plant has brought new jobs to Irwindale. The company says it has state of art air filters to prevent pollution. But because of the complaints, the city is giving the plant 90 days to clean up its act or representatives are threating they may change it themselves.

1 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

2 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

3 pinpoint   

vt.准确地确定；用针标出…的精确位置

参考例句：

• It is difficult to pinpoint when water problems of the modern age began.很难准确地指出，现代用水的问题是什么时候出现的。
• I could pinpoint his precise location on a map.我能在地图上指明他的准确位置。

4 plunging   

adj.跳进的，突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降

参考例句：

• War broke out again, plunging the people into misery and suffering. 战祸复发，生灵涂炭。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• He is plunging into an abyss of despair. 他陷入了绝望的深渊。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 wreckage   

n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏

参考例句：

• They hauled him clear of the wreckage.他们把他从形骸中拖出来。
• New states were born out of the wreckage of old colonial empires.新生国家从老殖民帝国的废墟中诞生。

6 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

7 titanic   

adj.巨人的，庞大的，强大的

参考例句：

• We have been making titanic effort to achieve our purpose.我们一直在作极大的努力，以达到我们的目的。
• The island was created by titanic powers and they are still at work today.台湾岛是由一个至今仍然在运作的巨大力量塑造出来的。

8 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

9 capability   

n.能力；才能；(pl)可发展的能力或特性等

参考例句：

• She has the capability to become a very fine actress.她有潜力成为杰出演员。
• Organizing a whole department is beyond his capability.组织整个部门是他能力以外的事。

10 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

11 implodes   

v.（使）向心聚爆( implode的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

12 daunting   

adj.使人畏缩的

参考例句：

• They were faced with the daunting task of restoring the house.他们面临着修复房子的艰巨任务。
• Starting a new job can be a daunting prospect.开始一项新工作有时会让人望而却步。

13 spiciness   

n.香馥，富于香料；香味

参考例句：

• For that extra spiciness, add powdered nutmeg to taste. 至于要得到那种额外的香味，酌量加入肉豆蔻粉。 来自互联网
• Aside from a graph a thermometer will be used to show spiciness. 除了文字标记以外，还将用温度表图像形象地表达辣度。 来自互联网

14 spicy   

adj.加香料的；辛辣的，有风味的

参考例句：

• The soup tasted mildly spicy.汤尝起来略有点辣。
• Very spicy food doesn't suit her stomach.太辣的东西她吃了胃不舒服。

15 fume   

n.(usu pl.)(浓烈或难闻的)烟，气，汽

参考例句：

• The pressure of fume in chimney increases slowly from top to bottom.烟道内压力自上而下逐渐增加，底层住户的排烟最为不利。
• Your harsh words put her in a fume.你那些难听的话使她生气了。

16 asthma   

n.气喘病，哮喘病

参考例句：

• I think he's having an asthma attack.我想他现在是哮喘病发作了。
• Its presence in allergic asthma is well known.它在过敏性气喘中的存在是大家很熟悉的。